Trying to create a unified anti-abortion bloc of Christians in the late 1970's was worse than herding cats. Christian denominations were all over the place. Yet, by the 21st Century, that effort had largely succeeded. How was it done?
Well, there is only one verse in the Bible that explicitly addresses the legal status of the fetus, and that verse was changed. Specifically, the English translation was changed in order to suit the new need:
In 1977, the New American Standard translation of Exodus 21:22-25 read as follows
And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is not further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.By 1995, an updated version of the translation had changed the meaning.
If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.The original treats the death of a fetus differently than the death of a person. By changing “so that she has a miscarriage” to “so that she gives birth prematurely” this little barrier to anti-abortion unity was removed. The change, however, is at odds with centuries of church tradition, Jewish interpretations of the same passage, and the clear intent of earlier near Eastern legal codes in which the passage appears to have had its roots
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