Setting aside the question of the applicability of God’s law today, we must note that from God’s perspective, unborn life is worthy of protection. This case law shows God’s protection of not only the pregnant woman, but of her unborn child.

God not only creates human life, but he protects it. In Exodus 21:22–24 we see his dramatic protection of pre-born life. The ESV translation of this passage reads:

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”

The ending of unborn life

Setting aside the question of the applicability of God’s law today, we must note that from God’s perspective, unborn life is worthy of protection. This case law shows God’s protection of not only the pregnant woman, but of her unborn child. In the scenario outlined, the causing of either harm or death to the unborn child is shown to be a criminal act. Significantly, this case law presents the accidental killing of the unborn. By parity of reasoning, then, this means that if it were intentional (as in modern abortion) it would be an even more egregious act.  Hence it clearly, though indirectly, affirms opposition to abortion.

Let us see how this is so.

In this case-law a pregnant woman is accidentally struck by a man who is in a fight with another man. Thus, the man involved is not intentionally attacking the woman herself. In the case presented, the striking of the woman results in her going into labor and delivering prematurely, for “her children come out.” We must note that the case law does not limit the effect of the potential “harm” only to the mother. For the Hebrew lacks a qualification restricting the harm “to the woman.” This means that the question of harm applies either to the pregnant woman or to her unborn child/children, because both parties are mentioned in the scenario.

After considering the financial and emotional costs of the complication involved in her enduring a premature delivery (Ex. 21:22b), this legislation goes on to add a further possibility. “But if there is harm” then the judicial penalty shall be “life for life, eye for eye,” etc. And once again, the Hebrew text does not limit this “to the woman”; consequently, it must apply to both.

Thus we see that even in the case of an accidental abortion, God deems the death of the unborn child as incurring the death penalty (at least in Old Testament Israel). Such is the value of pre-born, human life and the degree of protection God afforded it in his law

The beginning of unborn life

This should not surprise us, in that elsewhere Scripture shows that from the moment of conception the value of life in the womb is equated with the value of adult life.

For instance, in Job’s lament, he bemoans both the day he was born and the night he was conceived (Job 3:3). He declares that if he had died either on the day of his birth (v. 8) or the night of his conception (v. 9), then “I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, with kings and with counselors of the earth” (vv. 13–14a). That is, had he died even at conception, he had a soul that would have gone to the afterlife where deceased adult kings go.

This is further confirmed in David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51. David notes that he was a fully human being in a fallen state — even at conception: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psa. 51:5). A protoplasmic mass is not sinful; only a fully human being is.

Furthermore, we see in Scripture the high value placed on children in their conception (Gen. 30:1, 22; 1 Sam. 1:2, 9–11; Luke 1:7, 13–14) and in their birth (Ex. 23:25–26; Deut. 7:14). Children are deemed gifts from God (Gen. 33:5–6; 48:9; Ps. 127:3–5; 128:3; Is. 8:18).

Because of this, we cannot imagine that the loss of a conceived child in utero, as per the case-law scenario before us, would be passed over without comment. And it is not.

Dr.  Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr. is a retired Presbyterian minister and Director of GoodBirth Ministries, a Christian research and educational ministry, Greenville, S.C.