Life is a gift from God. (Genesis 9:6; Psalm 36:9) He considers all life to be precious, including the life of a child in the womb. So if someone intentionally kills an unborn child, that amounts to murder.
God’s Law to the Israelites stated: “If men should struggle with each other and they hurt a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but no fatality results, the offender must pay the damages imposed on him by the husband of the woman; and he must pay it through the judges. But if a fatality does occur, then you must give life for life.”—Exodus 21:22, 23.
Under divine inspiration, King David said to God: “Your eyes even saw me as an embryo.” (Psalm 139:16) God considered David to be a person even before he was born.
Additionally, God knew that he would have a special purpose for the prophet Jeremiah before Jeremiah’s birth. God said to him: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I sanctified you. I made you a prophet to the nations.”—Jeremiah 1:5.
The Bible writer Luke, a physician, used the same Greek word to describe an unborn baby as he did to describe a newborn baby.—Luke 1:41; 2:12, 16.