Abortion is not murder. It is not simply because it is legal. Murder is the unlawful taking of life. Moreover the Bible never addresses the question of abortion even though it was rife in ancient times because foetuses were considered a part of the mother.
Sadly, abortions are common in secular Israel today, but I don't believe that was true of Israel back in Biblical OT/NT times
Where can I find the data that you used concerning the practice of abortion in ancient Israel? (
1. that it was commonplace to perform them in ancient Israel and
2. that Israel considered the fetus to be a part of the mother's body rather than a separate life within the mother)
Thanks!
BTW, even though my country (and I assume yours as well), has made it legal for a mother to kill her unborn child if she wants to, the intentional killing of an innocent in the Bible is still considered murder by God.
--David
p.s. - it seems to me that this is a situation that could be applied to abortion, or at least to the value that is assigned to an unborn human life, because a miscarriage that resulted in the death of the unborn child carried the death penalty for the perpetrator.
Exodus 21
22 If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.
23 But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,
24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
.