More from Jane Roberts' Seth on abortion:
https://speakingofseth.com/index.php?topic=1549.0
Also relating to the issue, from the book Seth Speaks:
"The atoms that compose the fetus have their own kind of consciousness. The volatile
awareness-consciousnesses that exist independently of matter, form matter according
to their ability and degree. The fetus, therefore, has its own consciousness, the simple
component consciousness made up of the atoms that compose it. This exists before any
reincarnating personality enters it. The consciousness of matter is present in any
matter - a fetus, a rock, a blade of grass, a nail.
The reincarnating personality enters the new fetus according to its own inclinations,
desires, and characteristics, with some built-in safeguards. However there is no rule,
then, saying that the reincarnating personality must take over the new form prepared
for it either at the point of conception, in the very earliest months of the fetus's growth,
or even at the point of birth.
The process is gradual, individual and determined by experience in other lives. It is
particularly dependent upon emotional characteristics - not necessarily of the last
incarnated self, but the emotional tensions present as a result of a group of past
existences.
Various methods of entry are adopted. If there is a strong relationship between the
parents and the child-to-be, then the personality may enter at the point of conception if
he is extremely anxious to rejoin them. Even here, however, large portions of self-awareness
continue to operate in the between-life dimension.
In the beginning, the womb state under these conditions is a dreamlike one, with the
personality still focused mainly in the between-life existence. Gradually the situation
reverses, until it becomes more difficult to retain clear concentration in the between-life
situation.
In these circumstances, when the personality attaches itself at conception, there is
almost without exception strong past-life connections between parents and child, or
there is an unceasing and almost obsessional desire to return to the earthly situation -
either for a specific purpose, or because the reincarnating personality is presently obsessed
with earthly existence. This is not necessarily detrimental. The personality can
simply realize that it takes to physical experience well, is presently earth-oriented, and
finds earthly atmosphere a rich dimension for the growth of its own abilities.
Some personalities are drawn to enter at conception as a result of seemingly less
worthy motives - greed, for example, or an obsessional desire that is partially composed
of unresolved problems. Other personalities who never completely take to earthly
existence may hold off full entry for some time, and even then always remain at a
certain distance from the body. At the other end of the scale, before death the same
applies, where some individuals remove their focus from physical life, leaving the body
consciousness alone. Others stay with the body until the last moment. In the early days
of infancy, there is not a steady focus of the personality in the body in any case.
In all cases the decisions have been made ahead of time, as I told you. The
reincarnating personality is aware, therefore, when the conception for which it has been
waiting takes place. And while it may or may not choose to enter at that point, it is
drawn irresistibly to that time and point in space and flesh.
On occasion, long before conception takes place, the personality who will end up as
the future child will visit that environment of both parents-to-be, drawn again. This is
quite natural.
Between lives an individual may see flashes of the future existence, not necessarily of
particular events, but experience the essence of the new relationship and in expectation
remind himself of the challenge he has set. In these terms, the ghosts of the future are
as real in your homes as the ghosts of the past.
You do not have completely empty shells of matter about to be filled, in that the new
personality hovers in and about, particularly after conception and with greater
frequency and intensity thereafter. The shock of birth has several consequences,
however, that usually draw the personality full blast, so to speak, into physical reality.
Before this, the conditions are fairly uniform. The body consciousness is nurtured
almost automatically, reacting strongly but under highly controlled conditions.
At birth, all of this is suddenly over, and [new] stimuli [are] introduced with a
rapidity that the body consciousness has never to that point experienced.
It greatly needs a stabilizing factor. Previously the body consciousness has been
enriched and supported by deep biological and telepathic identification with the mother.
The communication of the living cells is far more profound than you imagine. The
identification is almost complete before birth as far as body consciousness alone is
concerned.
Until the new personality enters, the fetus regards itself as a part of the organism of
the mother. This support is suddenly denied at birth. If the new personality has not
entered earlier to any full extent, it usually does so at birth, in order to stabilize the new
organism. It comforts the new organism, in other words. The new personality, therefore,
will experience birth to varying degrees according to when it has entered this
dimension.
When it enters at the point of birth, it is fairly independent, not yet identified with
the form it has entered, and acting in a supportive role. If the personality entered at
conception or sometime before birth, then it has to some extent identified with the body
consciousness, with the fetus. It has already begun to direct perception - though
perception has begun whether or not it is so directed - and it will experience the shock
of birth in immediate, direct terms.
There will be no distance between the personality and the experience of birth, then.
The newly entered personality, as a consciousness, flickers, in that there is a while
before stabilization takes place. When the child, particularly the young child, is
sleeping, for example, the personality often simply vacates the body. Gradually the
identification with the between-life situation dwindles until nearly full focus resides in
the physical body.
There are obviously those who identify with the body far more cormpletely than
others. Generally speaking, there is an optimum point of focus in physical reality, a
period of intensification that has nothing to do with duration. It can last for a week or
thirty years, and from then onward it begins to dwindle, and imperceptibly begins to
shift to other layers of reality.
Now. A crisis, particularly in very early or very late life, may so shatter the
personality's identification with the body that he vacates it temporarily. He may do one
of many things. He may leave so completely that the body goes into coma, if the body
consciousness has also suffered shock. If the shock is psychological and the body
consciousness is still operating more or less normally, then he may revert to an earlier
reincarnational personality."