Meaning of ABORTION

The laws of the Ancient East (Babylonian and Assyrian) punished when a pregnant woman was mistreated, distinguishing various shades of punishment, depending on the consequences suffered by the injured woman.

The Code of Hammurabi punishes abortion with an economic penalty, the importance of which varies depending on the woman's social category; Only when she is the daughter of a great lord and she dies in childbirth, the daughter of the perpetrator is sentenced to death.

In Assyrian laws it is only about the abortion of the daughter of one lord for the sake of another; He will pay a heavy fine, receive fifty lashes and work for the king for fifty days, or his wife will receive the same treatment, compensating for the loss of the fetus with her life; If the victim dies, the guilty party will receive death.

As seen so far, an abortion among the ancients was something that transcended the walls of the home and was considered a true social issue.

Among the people of God the law was even more blunt: "When two men quarrel and collide with a pregnant woman, so that she stops, without another accident resulting, the guilty party will have to hand over the fine that the woman's husband gave him." impose, paying it after arbitration.

But if it turns out to be an accident, he will have to give life for life, an eye for an eye... »(Ex. 21: 22-25); That is, the law of retaliation will apply.

"Without another accident resulting" means that neither the mother nor the child expelled prematurely are harmed, as Keil and Delitzsch show in their Commentary.

The Hebrew verb used, "yatsa", translated "abortare" in various English versions, means "to come out", and the literal translation of the passage is: "so that its fruit comes forth."

For this reason, the penalty in the event that "there was death", which was "life for life", applies whether there is death of the mother or of the "fruit".
The same word that serves to designate creatures that do not have a perfect shape at birth, is used to express what is unworthy or miserable.

Saint Paul compares himself to an abortifacient, by which he means that he considers himself the most unworthy among the apostles (1 Cor. 15: 8).