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Both pro-life and pro-choice viewpoints on the moral status of abortion have important insights to offer, but these insights can be difficult for opponents to discern and appreciate. This thesis seeks to uncover and explain some of the underlying moral convictions that inform debates on abortion. Such an inquiry, undertaken within the context of religious ethics, is important for several reasons. First, it educates the public about religious and moral beliefs that are often hidden behind popular slogans. Second, it reveals some common moral convictions, and it may point to the possibility of greater moral agreement. Third, it also reveals stark differences. These differences may continue to divide people, but they ought at least to be better understood. Fourth, this inquiry has the potential to deepen mutual understanding, respect, and civility among people who have strong feelings about abortion, but are also people of good will, for it challenges fellow citizens to encounter each other as intelligent, concerned individuals who are doing what they can to construct a social order that reflects their deepest religious and moral values.