Objection · No. 15 · Scriptural
A pro-life incrementalist argument, and one we are often asked to answer. Below: the steel-manned version of the claim, the abolitionist response, discussion questions, and the sources behind both.
Scriptural Defensive · responds to an objection
Scripture does contain regulatory concessions to hardness of heart (Deut. 24:1-4 on divorce; various case laws), suggesting God works with people where they are. If God legislated by accommodation, perhaps a gradualist approach to abortion law is not obviously unbiblical.
Steel-manned in our own words from the strongest public versions of this claim.
Jesus explains the divorce concession precisely as a concession to hardness of heart that was never God's design ('from the beginning it was not so,' Matt. 19:8) — and divorce is not the taking of innocent life. Abolitionists argue you cannot generalize from a permitted lesser hardship to legalizing murder: there is no biblical concession authorizing the shedding of innocent blood, which Scripture uniformly treats as bringing blood-guilt on the land (Gen. 9:6; Num. 35:33). A permission regarding marriage cannot license a statute that authorizes killing image-bearers; the categories are not parallel.
The case here rests on the cited scriptures; see Related below.