The position set forth above is 100% in error. See, for example, the following document, only one excerpt from which is set forth below, a copy of which document is located at http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/abortion.aspx
"The Amicus Curiae Submitted to the Supreme Court
No. 88-605
In The
Supreme Court of the United States
October Term, 1988
WILLIAM L. WEBSTER; STATE OF MISSOURI, Appellants,
v.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES; PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER KANSAS CITY;
HOWARD I. SCHWARTZ, M.D.; ROBERT L. BLAKE, M.D.; CARL C.
PEARMAN, M.D.; CARROLL METZGER, R.N.C.;
MARY L. PEMBERTON, B.S.W., Appellees.
On Appeal From The United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit
BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
". . . .
"1. Early Christian Writings, and the Fathers of the Church, All Condemned Abortion as Murder
Among the most highly regarded of ancient Christian writings is the Didache, which dates from the late first century. [8] Its teaching is unambiguous: "Do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant." Id. at II, 2. This is echoed in another didactic writing universally esteemed in the ancient Church, the Epistle of Barnabas, from the early second century: "Never do away with an unborn child or destroy it after its birth." Id. at XIX, 5.
The writings of the Fathers of the Church and other authorities further attest to the unanimity with which abortion was condemned. Among the earliest was the philosopher and apologist Athenagoras of Athens, who wrote to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (c.177) to defend Christians against false charges of murder: "What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God?" [9] St. Basil the Great (c.330-379) was unequivocable: "A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder." [10] St. John Chrysostom (c.345-407) who in his famous homilies railed against men who secured the abortions of their illegitimate offspring, called their actions "even worse than murder." Of such men who impelled women to have abortions, he said, "You do not let a prostitute remain a prostitute, but make her a murderer as well." [11]
Finally, Canon 91 of the Quinisext Ecumenical Council (691 A.D.), decreed that people "who furnish drugs for the purpose of procuring abortion, and those who take fetus-killing poisons, they are made subject to the penalty prescribed for murderers." The same canonical position along with the opinions of individual Church Fathers, were compiled in the Photian Collection, which was adopted as the official ecclesiastical law book of the Orthodox Church in 883 A.D."
The position set forth above is 100% in error. See, for example, the following document, only one excerpt from which is set forth below, a copy of which document is located at http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/abortion.aspx
"The Amicus Curiae Submitted to the Supreme Court
No. 88-605
In The
Supreme Court of the United States
October Term, 1988
WILLIAM L. WEBSTER; STATE OF MISSOURI, Appellants,
v.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES; PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER KANSAS CITY;
HOWARD I. SCHWARTZ, M.D.; ROBERT L. BLAKE, M.D.; CARL C.
PEARMAN, M.D.; CARROLL METZGER, R.N.C.;
MARY L. PEMBERTON, B.S.W., Appellees.
On Appeal From The United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit
BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH
". . . .
"1. Early Christian Writings, and the Fathers of the Church, All Condemned Abortion as Murder
Among the most highly regarded of ancient Christian writings is the Didache, which dates from the late first century. [8] Its teaching is unambiguous: "Do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant." Id. at II, 2. This is echoed in another didactic writing universally esteemed in the ancient Church, the Epistle of Barnabas, from the early second century: "Never do away with an unborn child or destroy it after its birth." Id. at XIX, 5.
The writings of the Fathers of the Church and other authorities further attest to the unanimity with which abortion was condemned. Among the earliest was the philosopher and apologist Athenagoras of Athens, who wrote to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (c.177) to defend Christians against false charges of murder: "What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God?" [9] St. Basil the Great (c.330-379) was unequivocable: "A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder." [10] St. John Chrysostom (c.345-407) who in his famous homilies railed against men who secured the abortions of their illegitimate offspring, called their actions "even worse than murder." Of such men who impelled women to have abortions, he said, "You do not let a prostitute remain a prostitute, but make her a murderer as well." [11]
Finally, Canon 91 of the Quinisext Ecumenical Council (691 A.D.), decreed that people "who furnish drugs for the purpose of procuring abortion, and those who take fetus-killing poisons, they are made subject to the penalty prescribed for murderers." The same canonical position along with the opinions of individual Church Fathers, were compiled in the Photian Collection, which was adopted as the official ecclesiastical law book of the Orthodox Church in 883 A.D."