Although the New Testament makes no specific reference to abortion, the association of the use of drugs (pharmakeia) with abortion in pagan and later Christian writings suggests that there may be an implicit reference to abortion in such texts as Galatians 5:20 and Revelation 9:21, 18:23, 21:8 and 22:15, where words of the same group are used. This suggestion is by no means far-fetched. The word pharmakeia (and its cognates) can be neutral, generic term for the use of drugs, but more often it has the negative connotation of drugs and potions supplied by a sorcerer or magician. It is also used to refer to poisons and mind-disturbing drugs. In Soranos's Gynecology, it refers specfically to the use of one type of evil drug, the abortifacient. The word pharmakeia itself, then, can mean the use of drugs, evil or magical drugs themselves, or a specific evil drug such as a poison or an abortifacient.

The contexts of the New Testament references to pharmakeia demand an understanding of the word in a negative sense. Vice lists and apocalyptic passages like those of Galatians and Revelation became standard literary settings in the early church for the denunciation of moral evils. Moreover, noncanonical condemnation of abortion before A.D. 125 is found in connection with the same related sins of fornication and murder which appear in the texts of Galatians and Revelation where pharmakeia is used. Thus, while a conclusive affirmation of explicit New Testament condemnation of abortion is impossible, the word pharmakeia and the contexts in which it is found suggest that Galatians and Revelation implicitly reject at least one major means of abortion in their rejection of magic, drugs and poisons.