A more detailed description of abortion beliefs from

400 BCE to 1980 CE is covered in a separate essay

A brief history:

Many religions, including many denominations within Christianity, have adopted the general principle that abortion is a form of murder if it is performed at or after the time that a soul enters the body of an embryo or fetus. Down through the ages, beliefs varied about when this "animation" happened.

Various church authorities and popes placed the time at: