This is not my original opinion, but the opinion of pretty much EVERY Orthodox Jewish authority out there. Don’t you think they’ve read the Chumash (or the Pentateuch, if you prefer that word? I was citing an Orthodox rabbi. Trust me, he’s intimately familiar with it.
I don’t know of any rabbi of ANY Jewish denomination who disagrees with the proposition that not only is abortion always acceptable to save the life of the mother, but it is in fact REQUIRED that this be allowed.
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Groupthink can fail. I asked for a Tanakh based reason for this thinking, since the Tanakh is filled with, “thus saith t he Lord” and the Talmud is packed with the opinions of mid-eval Rabbis.
In post 24 you said: Exodus 21:22 states the following:
“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.” In biblical times, killing an unborn child (basically an involuntary abortion) required that you pay damages. If you killed the mother, however, you were guilty of MURDER. This is why Judaism favors the life of the mother over the life of the unborn child when their competing interests meet. The mother’s right to LIFE must always take priority over the life of the unborn child.
This is talking about men fighting, and *accidentally* hurting a woman with child, and the child dying. This is better known as “involuntary manslaughter”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manslaughter. Exodus 21:22 could not be a justification for allowing abortion, since it is clearly discussing “involuntary manslaughter”, and not murder, which is abortion.
They changed the verse when they *modernized*, dear brother. Completely.