● "The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent."
● "Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses." ─ Letter 188, VIII.
~St. Basil the Great of Caesarea (c.329-379): Letter 188, para. II and VIII. To Anfilochius, Bishop of Iconia.
"The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance."
─St. Basil the Great (330-375 AD): Letters, 188.
“For us murder is once for all forbidden; so even the child in the womb, while yet the mother’s blood is still being drawn on to form the human being, it is not lawful for us to destroy. To forbid birth is only a quicker murder. It makes no difference whether one takes away the life once born or destroy it as it comes to birth. He is a man, who is to be a man; the fruit is always present I the seed.”
~Tertullian (Quintus Florens Tertullian, c. 160 – c. 225 AD): Apology, 9, 8.
