Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. Nothing to do with abortion. And Nancy violates them all by any interpretation of them with her socialist policies. Except if she redefines the words themselves. Which, as Orwell showed us, socialists do.
People are not “easily” mislead by plain language. “Sleazily”, maybe. But again, you have to look at the whole Bible, not just verses out of context. For example, the “cities of refuge” gave accidental killers of adult human beings a way to escape an “eye for an eye” punishment.
I think the Bible is pretty clear about the value of human life. If you, or Nancy Pelosi, think different, you'll have to explain it God, one day, same as me. Good luck with that.
Still, my argument here isn't with abortion, but with who has the authority to interpret Scripture. I believe it lies with the individual believer led by the Holy Ghost. To the extent that he is so led, he will not be in error. To the extent not, he most likely will be, although maybe he'll get something right by accident now and then. Or maybe not.
But to abdicate your God-given reason to accept the judgments of another fallible human being without closely examining them is, IMO, an error. Just because he's your pastor, preacher, or Pope, doesn't make him any less error prone than you are. He may know more, but IS HE BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT? More than one Pope in history, I would have to say “NO”.
You do understand that it is not ‘A’ Pope that gives Catholics guidance with scripture interpertation, but rather thousands of years of scholars, that give us that guidance.
As for my own opinion, yes at one time I did believe that this passage gave right to women to kill babies in the womb. I was young and stupid and luckily at that time never had to make that decision.
It’s easy to bring up God-given reason, but what of the evil one trying to influence your thinking. The Devil comes as an Angel of Light more often than not. How does one know? How does one who is searching know if the Holy Spirit is there or an Angel of Light disguised Devil?
The “by the fruits” thought sounds good but when those “fruits” are different for a Methodist than for a Baptist, one can not be sure.