[BenKenobi]

Yes, that is because they didn’t know that conception was the point at which a child becomes a child.

They hadn’t even seen what conception was at that point. No one had demonstrated it. It’s not like you could take a petri dish out and do an in-vitro fertlization to demonstrate conclusively that conception was the decisive point.

The clear point is that after 40 days, abortion was banned. So clearly the Church did reject abortion during the period when they believed that the child was a child.

[smvoice]

Really? Even though the Church knew exactly what Luke 1:26-35 meant? That Mary should conceive in her womb and bring for a son. And that she asked How could this be, seeing she had not known a man? Obviously, THIS is at the point conception takes place and the child is considered a child. At least that’s what Mary and the Holy Spirit believed...and you’re telling me the Church did not know that?

[metmom]

Psalm 139:14-16 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.