Abortion in Ancient and Modern Times. Aristotle on the Subject. 10 31 2024

“With regard to the choice between abandoning an infant or rearing it, let there be a law that no cripple child be reared.  But since the ordinance of custom forbids the exposure of infants on account of their numbers, there must be a limit to the production of children.  If contrary to these arrangements copulation does take place, and a child is conceived, abortion should be procured before the embryo has acquired life and sensation; the presence of life and sensation will be the mark of division between right and wrong here.”

Aristotle the Politics p.448

Book 7 ,  part 16

Penguin classics

This is of interest as this is from 350 years before Christ was born.  This shows that abortion was an issue in ancient times, as it is today.  With Catholics voting in favor of stopping legal abortion, guided by Christianity,  I believe the relevant question is,  what Jesus Christ thought about abortion?

It is not in the bible.  It was an issue before the bible was written, 350 years before Christ.  It seems unlikely Jesus had no opinion on an issue that the Greeks were involved in, well before he was born.

As far as the statement goes, they did not have morning after pills then.  You would have to realize you were pregnant, then  go to a doctor and get  an abortion.  They did not have misoprostol; abortion would have required surgery.  

So we can definitely say,  at least in Greece in  Aristotle’s time,  abortion was legal. At least up to a point, that is.  He says abortion should be legal until there is “life and sensation”.

Square that off with the Republican bourgeoisie, and their Catholic following.    They often want all abortion illegal, with no exceptions.  In many cases as of late, with abortion becoming illegal in parts of America again, 6 weeks is the limit of time a woman has to decide to have an abortion.

If Aristotle thought crippled children should not be reared, what do you suppose he would have said about “life and sensation” , in regard to a child?

Whatever.  The point here is, why is abortion not in the bible?  Where is Jesus coming out against it? It was obviously an issue then, abortion existed well before Christ lived in Israel.

How Christians turned against abortion remains a mystery.  Clearly the Pope and his Catholic clergy are all against all abortion, even before 6 weeks.  Greece looks more liberal in 350 BC than the bourgeois today.  I guess democracy in Athens, compared to American suffrage, another thing the bible does not discuss, was in common with the way referendums on abortion seem to be going.  Putting it on the ballot generally results in it being legal.

I will not split hairs with Aristotle about when the life of a child begins.  A person’s birth and death date become considerably difficult to ascertain.  Was he born the day of conception?  Or later, when his brain was more developed?  

In any case society, at least in Greece in Aristotle’s time, looks rather much like American society today.  It is still an issue whether or not a woman should be allowed to have an abortion.  And it is still an issue when a child is a person, after 6 weeks, 3 months, etc.

The bourgeoisie likes to consider themselves so advanced, and make fun of ancients.  The Christians are notorious for it.  The opposition to the Jews resembles this.  That is part of the bible.  

But when we look deeper, how much has society changed in 2374 years?  I guess it shows just how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go.  Rising on one’s high horse and proclaiming Jesus to have been against abortion, is fiction.  It is not in the bible to be against abortion, and it is nowhere written Jesus coming out against a practice that seems to have been practiced since the beginnings of recorded history.  At best perhaps the Catholics can claim a “moral awakening”, perhaps some time in the Dark Ages?

Nicholas Jay Boyes

Milwaukee Wisconsin

American Democratic Republic

10 31 2024