Pax TV was interesting for 5 minutes; abortion and Exodus

Faith Under Fire with Lee Strobel Episode #104

I was flipping channels and the name of a guest on this show caught my eye. Her name is Peggy Loonan -- No kidding. She is president of Life and Liberty for Women, a pro-abortion group. Anyway here is her position. Note especially this part:

4. In Exodus 21:22-25 God leaves no ambiguity that for him a born woman's life is paramount to [sic] that of an unborn fetus's [sic] life through all nine months of pregnancy.

Her reading of the passage and her quite uninformed interpretation of it makes a strong case for censorship. Honestly, people like her and Ward Churchill really test my libertarian instincts. Now, some have argued that Churchill and other useful idiots are not fully protected under the First Amendment just as one is not protected when falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater. This may actually apply to the anti-American crowd, but, sadly there is no way to prevent Peggy the Loon from spreading stupidity and willful ignorance.

Here is the much more rigorous argument made against her reading. [also here]

OK, I know many of you do not actually follow the links so I will make a summary.

The Hebrew of this passage does not support the pro-choice reading even though some translations might. 1) There are Hebrew verbs which would read the way the Loon wants, i.e. miscarriage, but here the verb is the normal verb for birthing a living thing. 2) The word used for the embryo/baby is the common word used for all children despite the availability of a word like embryo.

So a proper reading yields a passage that suggests the exact opposite of the Loony reading. Exodus is not talking about unborn fetuses it is talking about premature birthing of children. So this part of the Bible at least indicates that abortion would be wrong, indeed punishable by death, for any embryo which could be removed and survive.

I don't care about this from some religious sensibility. This offends my intellectual sensibility. She may not know how to do research or textual analysis, but since 1995 the NASB has translated it right (again here). Surely she can read English.