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If a fetus is considered a child, then sure, it comes out the same. Motivation is irrelevant in that regard. I am asking whether those passages about child sacrifice are meant to extend to an unborn child. There appears to be terminology in Hebrew that refers to an unborn child, but I am not aware of whether or not it appears in the Bible. I could not find anywhere that it had.
You've answered in the first sentence. An unborn child is still a child, as far as any Christian is concerned. The God of the OT makes it eminently clear He is deeply concerned for the powerless, the marginalized, the children, the poor, the orphan, and the widow. It would be exceedingly out of character for Him to not care for the unborn - there is no weaker, voiceless, innocent, unprotected class in society.
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And where does Jephthah's child sacrifice of his daughter at God's command following the defeat of the Ammonites play in? On the surface, this certainly seems relevant. No? I mean, as long as the child sacrifice isn't for Moloch. . . OG God seems cool with it.
This is something the Lord neither asked for nor approved. Over and over He says regarding human sacrifice, or child sacrifice, that this is something "I did not command, nor did it come into my mind."
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I guess my point is this: If those are the 'best' passages to apply to an unborn child, they are not as clear as they could be. Yahweh condemns beastiality far more clearly and often than child sacrifice.
Human beings are not to be sacrificed, and children in particular. There is absolutely no reading of the OT which could come to any other conclusion. For the vast majority of abortions the children are being killed for what can boils down to convenience, avoidance of hardship. There is no reading of the OT that makes this acceptable or even a gray area.
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