4- Is it permissible to kill the fetus if he would be a child born of fornication?

3- When a pregnancy occurs as a result of a sinful relationship, which is preferable? To kill the fetus while he does not feel pain or to allow him to be born, never knowing his mother or father and therefore possibly suffering some sort of psychological disorder as a result?

It is obvious from the epistles of St. Paul that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was his source of hope and conviction.  Despite being forewarned of his imminent death, he resolutely testified before Governor Felix saying: “I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.  I have hope in God…that there will be a resurrection of the dead…” (Acts 24:14-16).  Later in the same oration, he asks his accusers whether, “they found any wrongdoing in me while I stood before the council, unless it is for this one statement which I cried out, standing among them, ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged by you this day’” (Acts 24:20-21).  Following St. Paul’s testimony, Festus consulted King Agrippa and described the conflict between St. Paul and his accusers in one sentence saying: “…they had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.” (Acts 25:19). St. Paul’s conviction was not based solely on the recognition of a historical event, but rather on his personal encounter with the resurrected Christ and his experience with the power of Resurrection to grant him new life.

1- When a young woman has a sinful relationship with a non-Christian man, and pregnancy occurs, shouldn't abortion be the solution?

Regarding the cases of abortion that take place when a family does not want to have a new baby, and an unwanted pregnancy occurs, H.H. the late Pope Shenouda III was questioned more than once by the congregation in Alexandria during his biweekly meeting at St. Mark Cathedral.

6- When a woman becomes pregnant, but the family does not want a new baby.

5- When an unmarried Christian girl engages in sexual relations with a non-Christian and becomes pregnant as a result:

4- When a woman becomes pregnant as a result of an affair with a man that is not her husband, such as when her husband is traveling:

2- When the mother is exposed to radiation in early pregnancy or has mistakenly taken dangerous medications:

Special cases of abnormal pregnancies, which are naturally very few, are discussed here: 

+ St. Basil the great: He is one of the Fathers of the Church in the fourth century, he says in his second law: “The woman who aborts herself must be punished as a murderer.  Justice must protect the child who is to be born as well as the woman that plotted against herself. In most instances the woman dies during these acts of abortion. Hurting the child is another murder. It is a duty to take their confessions without delay before death and accept them in the Church after a reasonable period of about ten years and offering remedies according to their repentance.” This means that the woman who kills her baby during pregnancy by using medicinal drugs is a murderer. The period of punishment was reduced to ten years instead for life, after which period the woman is accepted in the Church and offered Holy Communion. The priest may also reduce the punishment if he is sure of her repentance.

The Church from the beginning of Christianity considered abortion as intentional killing and outlawed it. The punishment was to cut off the woman from sharing in Church life and participation in the Holy Communion.