What biblical and church teachings might be used in a discussion about abortion?

In Corinthians 3:16-17 the Bible talks about the body being a temple of God and that God will destroy anybody who should destroy the temple of God. This verse shows that God is against killing, and abortion is the killing of an unborn child. Also in Genesis 1:26-27 it says ‘God created man in his image’ this tells us that we are made in Gods image and to destroy another human being is a big act against God. Murder is clearly condemned in the ten commandments, ‘you shall not murder’ (Exodus 20:13).

Different churches, have different views and teachings on abortion. However, they all base a lot of their teachings on the bible. The Roman Catholic church has the strongest objection to abortion and believes it is a very serious sin in all cases. The church believes that abortion is taking away a baby’s right to live and that all human beings have value, no matter what the circumstances of their conception. However they condemn the act of abortion and not the person. Catholic teaching also says that if the woman really can’t bring up the child herself she should get it adopted.

On the other hand, the Methodist church teaches that abortion is evil, but should be accepted in certain cases. For example they think it should be accepted if; the baby is going to be severely handicapped, if the pregnancy is the result of rape or if the baby will cause the mother mental or physical problems if it was born.

The Anglican church believe innocent life should not be taken, and they also say there are acceptions. They tell people to consider the issue of abortion very carefully. The Baptist church teaches that abortion is evil, but they too agree that it should be accepted in certain circumstances.