No it doesn’t.

Here is the chapter in question:

Numbers 5

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹² Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The man whose wife shall have gone astray, and contemning her husband,

¹³ Shall have slept with another man, and her husband cannot discover it, but the adultery is secret, and cannot be proved by witnesses, because she was not found in the adultery:

¹⁴ If the spirit of jealousy stir up the husband against his wife, who either is defiled, or is charged with false suspicion,

¹⁵ He shall bring her to the priest, and shall offer an oblation for her, the tenth part of a measure of barley meal: he shall not pour oil thereon, nor put frankincense upon it: because it is a sacrifice of jealousy, and an oblation searching out adultery.

¹⁶ The priest therefore shall offer it, and set it before the Lord.

¹⁷ And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the tabernacle into it.

¹⁸ And when the woman shall stand before the Lord, he shall uncover her head, and shall, put on her hands the sacrifice of remembrance, and the oblation of jealousy: and he himself shall hold the most bitter waters, whereon he hath heaped curses with execration.

¹⁹ And he shall adjure her, and shall say: If another man hath not slept with thee, and if thou be not defiled by forsaking thy husband’s bed, these most bitter waters, on which I have heaped curses, shall not hurt thee.

²⁰ But if thou hast gone aside from thy husband, and art defiled, and hast lain with another man:

²¹ These curses shall light upon thee: The Lord make thee a curse, and an example for all among his people: may he make thy thigh to rot, and may thy belly swell and burst asunder.

²² Let the cursed waters enter into thy belly, and may thy womb swell and thy thigh rot. And the woman shall answer, Amen, amen.

²³ And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and shall wash them out with the most bitter waters, upon which he hath heaped the curses,

²⁴ And he shall give them her to drink. And when she hath drunk them up,

²⁵ The priest shall take from her hand the sacrifice of jealousy, and shall elevate it before the Lord, and shall put it upon the altar: yet so as first,

²⁶ To take a handful of the sacrifice of that which is offered, and burn it upon the altar: and so give the most bitter waters to the woman to drink.

²⁷ And when she hath drunk them, if she be defiled, and having despised her husband be guilty of adultery, the malediction shall go through her, and her belly swelling, her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse, and an example to all the people.

²⁸ But if she be not defiled, she shall not be hurt, and shall bear children.

²⁹ This is the law of jealousy. If a woman hath gone aside from her husband, and be defiled,

³⁰ And the husband stirred up by the spirit of jealousy bring her before the Lord, and the priest do to her according to all things that are here written:

³¹ The husband shall be blameless, and she shall bear her iniquity.

What the Passage Means

A husband suspects his wife of adultery but has no proof (no witnesses). He brings her to the priest. She drinks “bitter water” mixed with dust from the tabernacle floor and ink from a written curse.

• If innocent: Nothing happens, and she can conceive children (v. 28).
• If guilty: Her “belly/thigh” swells and “falls away” (or “wastes away”/”rots”), and she becomes a curse among the people.

The text never mentions:

• Pregnancy.
• A fetus.
• Miscarriage.
• Abortion.

Why the Abortion Interpretation Fails

• Hebrew wording: The key phrases (“thigh waste away/fall,” “belly swell”) are ambiguous. Most translations and scholars do not render this as “miscarry” (the NIV is an outlier here). It more likely describes physical symptoms like infertility, a prolapsed uterus, edema, or divine judgment making her barren — not terminating an existing pregnancy. =
• No pregnancy assumed: The ritual applies whether or not she is pregnant. It tests fidelity, not pregnancy.
• It’s divine judgment, not a human procedure. The water itself is harmless (dust + water + words). Any effect is miraculous punishment from God, not a recipe for abortion. Priests weren’t performing
• Context in Scripture: The Bible consistently protects unborn life elsewhere (e.g., Exodus 21:22-25 treats causing a miscarriage as a serious crime; Psalm 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:41-44). The early Church and Jewish tradition condemned abortion.

Even if one interprets it as God causing a miscarriage in a specific case of adultery (a minority view), this would be:

1. God’s direct supernatural action as Judge (not a license for humans).
2. Punishment for adultery, not a general right to abort.
3. Irrelevant to elective abortion today.

This is like saying God killing someone in judgment (e.g., Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5) means humans can commit murder. It doesn’t follow.