Fistfights and abortion

This is a brief treatment I did a couple of years ago of an often-misunderstood passage in Exodus 23.

"It's a common scene: 2 young men involved in a brawl. On the street, or in a bar, or in a home. Then there's a complication: a pregnant woman is hit. Maybe she's trying to defend her husband. Maybe she's just in there for the fight. But for whatever reason, she gets involved. And her injuries are so severe that she goes into premature labor, and gives birth early.

If this sounds like a scene out of this morning's newspaper, rest assured it's not: it's taken from the book of Exodus. The people of Israel were just as prone to violence as our society is, and God gave them laws dealing with that type of violence. Unfortunately, a bad interpretation of one of those laws sometimes throws pro-life Christians for a loop.

This is the passage:

22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Our opponents will sometimes argue that this passage shows that an unborn child was not treated as a full human being. "See?" they will say, "The passage says that if men are fighting, and a pregnant woman is hurt, and then has a miscarriage, the worst punishment given was a fine." But this is not what the passage is saying.

First, we have to remember that Old Testament laws such as this one are not binding on Christians or on our societies. But by studying such passages we gain insight into how our society should deal with various issues. And I plan to show that rather than saying that an unborn child is somehow less than human, this passage shows the opposite: that the child is fully human, and that any injury or death to the child was to be dealt with like the injury or death of any other person. (The overriding concern, of course, is that God -- or his representatives in the civil government -- is the only one allowed to take human life: Exodus 20:13, Matthew 5:21, and Romans 13:9).

"Fruit" in this passage means "child," and the Bible uses this to mean a living child. (See Gen. 30:2, Deut. 7:13, Psalm 127:3, Isaiah 13:18, Hosea 9:16, and Luke 1:42).

The meaning of this passage is simple. The 2 men are brawling, the woman is injured, her child is born, "and yet no mischief follows": in other words, there is no injury to the child. The child may be a few weeks early, but still alive. However, since a pregnant woman is carrying an innocent and helpless child, she and the child have special protections, and the man who injures her is to be punished as determined by the woman's husband and the judges.

Our opponents conveniently leave out the rest of this passage. I'll quote the entire context:

22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Verses 23-25 make it very plain: "if mischief follow," that is, if the child dies or is injured, there is to be appropriate punishment. And "life for life" means that the man doing the injuries was to be punished with the death penalty if he brought about the death of the child. (See Gen. 9:6).

Exodus 21 does not teach that the unborn child is expendable, somehow less than a human being. On the contrary, it teaches very plainly that the unborn are indeed "fully human," and that their lives are owed not only legal, but all ethical and moral protections."