Good morning, carly...
The verse you are alluding to is far too absolute and is just another way people who use the Bible as a guide to abortion debate try to mislead. Many people believe that this verse is saying "Thou shalt not
murder." To murder is to kill unlawfully, maliciously, and premeditatively. If the commandments forbid only murder, then it can be argued that other forms of killing are allowed, or even encouraged. God can ordain capital punishment, or command a holocaust of "heathens" without breaking his own laws...(wonder if that's how Bush thinks.)
The Bible is full of contradictions pertaining to "killing."
Exodus 20:30 and Leviticus 24:12 (another reference to killing) does not "align" with Exodus 32:27; 1 Samuel 6:19; 1 Samuel 15:2,3,7,8; Numbers 15:36; Hosea 13:16...it goes on and on. (For a complete explanation of how there is so much contradiction about common subjects in the Bible, please see books written by Dan Barker or go to this site:
www.ffrf.org Another interesting, revealing book is the biography of Robert Ingersoll, entitled
American Infidel: Robert G. Ingersoll by Orvin Larson).
The Hebrew word for "kill" in Exodus 20:13 is
ratsach. Depending on which version of the Bible you use, there are about ten Hebrew words which are translated "kill." And many of them contradict each other. For example,
nakah,
harang, and
muth are used in the Hebrew versions also, and, when used in certain versus, describe godly massacres.
IF we are using the Bible as the guide under which we are creating our opinions about abortion and other moral issues, then we are allowing ourselves to be misled and we are also demeaning our own basic intelligence and depth of conscience, which I believe is present in all of us to a certain extent.
Therefore, using the Bible with all of its contradictions as a basis to take away a woman's right to make her own decision about having a child or not cannot be justified to my satisfaction.
Also, knowing that the Bible has been translated many, many times by people who were under the complete control of one or another ruling
male monarch makes me stop and consider the sources for all those supposed rules and regulations within the Bible which pertain to women.
Again, the Bible is anti-woman.
I fully respect anyone who is devoted to their religion, whatever their theological doctrines teach and revere, as long as they don't try to thrust their beliefs onto me and tell me this is how you must act and this is what you must do because MY religion says so.
Separation of church and state must be maintained in this country if we are to remain truly free.
Catherine