Abortion and 3 Nephi 1:13

The Book of Mormon has an interesting moment where the prophet Nephi speaks to the Lord, who identifies himself as the one who will be born into the world.

Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets. Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given.

— 3 Nephi 1:13

From this passage we can deduce the following:

1. Jesus's infant body was about to be born.
2. Nephi was able to hear (what seemed to him to be) the voice of Jesus.

This passage doesn't do much to help us understand when or how the spirit body and the physical body unify. Instead, it begs a lot of questions for Latter-day Saints:

• Does a spirit join with it's body at conception, at some developmental stage after conception, or at birth?
• At what point is the spirit entirely unified with the body?
• What does it mean exactly to say that the "spirit enters the body"?
• If a spirit enters the body at conception, and then dies in the womb, by abortion, by disease, or other circumstance, why are proxy sealings not practiced in their behalf?
• If the spirit unifies with the fully developed fetus at or near birth, how does that explain a baby who is delivered 20 months early? Or a baby born as late as 40 weeks? Or a baby delivered through a C-section?
• How would one know that a person's spirit has entered their infant body?
• How does the person's spirit interface the fetus?
• Is this an example of divine investiture (i.e., the Holy Ghost speaking to Nephi on behalf of Jesus as if he were Jesus)?

I am willing to submit that we simply have no idea when the spirit and the body unite at child birth. Any affirmative position on the timing of the spirit's advent into its assigned body can be nothing more than an unfalsifiable position. This ambiguity in an of itself demands a lot of caution on our part as to what conclusions we draw. At a bare minimum 3rd Nephi 1 may give a reason to reject the highly-conservative position on abortion that views abortion as a moral evil in every circumstance. I believe it is more defendible to side with the counsel of the prophets and apostles of the latter-days.

In due time, I think we could expect more revelation to be given on the subject. We are seeing some trends occur in the Church. The Church doesn't take an official position on when the spirit and the body unify inside a mother's womb, but it has made it clear that abortions may be performed only in very extenuating circumstances after much prayer and counsel with priesthood leaders.

In conclusion, 3 Nephi 1 has very little to do with justifying abortion and more to do with questioning what we think we know about the spirit and the body's interactions.