For millions, acknowledging the humanity of the pre-born child brings a profound remorse over abortion. This acknowledgment sparks a deep desire to know if and how God can forgive. The most sincere question then arises: What happened to my baby? While answers vary from heaven to hell, including Catholic theology’s concept of limbo, this article seeks to explore what the Bible implies about this question.

Biblical Perspectives on the Unborn

Nowhere does the Bible directly and explicitly address this question. Therefore, evaluations must be made based on what the Bible says about all people and what can be inferred about the unborn child.

• God’s Creation in the Womb: God uniquely creates each individual in the womb, akin to a one-off, handmade creation. David, upon realizing how wonderfully he was made, praised God. This act of worship should be the first pro-life action. In Psalms, David says, “You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made”.
• Intrinsic and Eternal Value: The wonder of creation points to the special dignity and eternal destiny God places in every human being made in His image. This signifies our intrinsic and equal value as human beings, as well as our exceptional and eternal value. Every individual has an everlasting quality, destined to be either with God or separated from Him. This returns us to the fundamental question: What is the eternal destiny of the little ones lost through abortion, miscarriage, or infancy?
• Sin and Separation from God: The Bible says that sin separates us from God, a result of our lack of trust in Him. We go our own way, and the wages of sin is death. God’s justice necessitates a savior. Christ’s death on the cross is the ultimate miracle, providing God’s saving grace and the full punishment for all sins, from the smallest to the most shameful.
• Good News of the Gospel: Through faith in Christ, we experience God’s forgiveness, a cleansed conscience, and assurance of belonging to Him. Ultimately, we enter God’s presence and enjoy Him forever. But how does this apply to the unborn child, developmentally unable to trust in Christ? While the means of Christ’s saving death for these children remains a mystery, there are biblical assurances that they are in the fellowship of the Father.

Biblical Assurances of Children with the Lord

Infants and young children are portrayed intimately and paternally in the Bible. God denounces the moral horror of child killing.

• God’s Offense at Child Sacrifice: In Ezekiel, God says, “You slaughtered my children and you delivered them up as an offering by fire”. The Old Testament denounces child sacrifice, and God is greatly offended by the practice. God values human life above all else, protecting it through His moral law, and is incensed by diminishing its value through child sacrifice. This applies to abortion, where something of great value to God is sacrificed for something of lesser value, such as reputation or income.
• Innocence of Children: God calls children innocent. This doesn’t mean they are without a sinful nature, but they lack moral consciousness and the capacity to choose right or wrong. They are neither defying nor obeying. Deuteronomy speaks of children in the womb who have no knowledge of good and evil, recognizing that moral awareness and agency develop with moral consciousness.
• Childlike Faith: In Matthew 18, Jesus uses children as the example of saving faith, referring to it as childlike faith. He says, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”. It would be strange for Jesus to use children as an example of saving faith if they were not ultimately saved.
• Job’s Lament: Job, in his suffering, wished he had died in infancy or as a stillborn child. He says, “Why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?”. Had he died as an unborn child, Job believed he would be in a place where the weary find rest. There is nothing restful about eternal damnation. This points to being with God. Job’s belief suggests that dying in the womb or as a stillborn child would result in a heavenly blessing.
• David’s Hope: When David’s son was sick, he mourned, fasted, prayed, and pleaded with God to spare him. When the child died, David ceased his lamentation, prompting criticism. David responded by acknowledging God’s will and expressing his faith that he would be reunited with his child after death saying, “I will go to him, but he will never return to me”.

Judgment and Sin

Scripture teaches that God’s judgment is administered based on conscious sins committed by mature individuals with moral agency. In 2 Corinthians, it is written, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”. God judges actions expressing sinful defiance, not merely the presence of a sinful nature. Jesus lists evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies as the things upon which we are judged. If the unborn do not sin consciously, lacking the ability to do good or evil, or to trust or defy God, there is nothing for God to judge at that point.

However, if children do not commit conscious sins, why do they still die? Theologically, we all acted in Adam, and when Adam sinned, we all sinned. Paul explains in Romans 5:12, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all men sinned”. Thus, all, including the littlest children, die because we live under the death penalty. However, final judgment is a separate matter, and scripture indicates that these children are with the Father. How this happens in Christ is not fully known, but they are among the elect of God, rescued by Christ and with the Father.

Reunion and Redemption

When reunited with our children, they will not remain as they were at the time of their death. A child who dies as an embryo or at eight months in the womb will not be stuck in that state in heaven. Like us, they will receive a new, redeemed body. Just as the blind will not remain blind and the elderly will not remain infirm, all will receive new bodies. In reunion, we will be in bodies with a full, clear, and pleasant knowledge of our Savior. We will live in God’s presence and enjoy His peace forever.

Hope and Action

This is the biblical hope. Those with personal experience of abortion should not run, deny, or justify it, but rather weep over it and come to regret and remorse. The blood of Christ, though shed innocently like that of abortion, is greater and can cleanse every sin. Let go of shame and guilt, moving toward release and praising God. Entrust lost children to God’s goodness, knowing that the gospel’s promise includes reunion with them. After weeping, joy should come, followed by action, battling for the lives of others, starting locally and spreading globally. Abortion grief should give way to pro-life joy.

This article is adapted from the episode transcript.