On his "Ask NT Wright Anything" podcast, the Anglican theologian recently answered a question about whether abortion is always wrong.
He went with the emotional take, referencing a friend of his who was exposed to German measles when she was pregnant; she was told that if her baby was deformed by the virus, then she should abort.
Wright said he reluctantly agreed with that.
"At the time, it was absolutely clear, for the mental health – never mind anything else – of the mother and the potential father as well that this was the way to go," he stated.
At the same time, Wright described efforts to allow abortion up to the moment of birth as "repulsive" and condemned the idea of sex-selective abortions at the moment of birth as "a criminal act" and "murder."
Still, he reiterated that in some circumstances, it is okay to sacrifice the life of an innocent child for the mental health of the mother.
"In cases of rape or in cases of incest, there may be a very, very strong argument for saying, 'This ought never to have happened,' and 'with sorrow, the best thing to do is, as soon as possible, to terminate this pregnancy,'" Wright argued.
Stressing that there may be certain exceptions, "in principle, this is not something which we should welcome," he summarized. "It is not something which we should collude with."
But Dr. Alex McFarland says the Bible is clear.

"Life belongs to God," he notes. "Unless it's self-defense or national defense, no human being has the right to take the life of another human being, even the life of the unborn."
He says Christian pastors and leaders sometimes have to speak the hard truth.
"As clergy, we are duty-bound to give God's Word, even when objective truth will be kind of tough for the recipient to swallow," McFarland states.