yolland said:
The second point is a translation issue (is that from the NIV?),
I believe it is.
There is one passage in the Bible that seems to touch specifically on the issue of abortion. In Exodus 21:22-25 we read:
'If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.' (NIV).
The interesting point here is that it is only if the woman dies from her injuries that murder is deemed to have taken place. The premature birth (abortion) of the baby is not condemned by the maxim 'Do not murder' given a few moments earlier.
But one could argue that the phrase, 'she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury' means the baby survived.
"By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have any responsibility for the child he has brought into the world......So abortion leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want."
Mother Teresa, National Prayer Breakfast (February 3, 1994)