The Law Code of Hammurabi

David Frum: Does this biblical passage show a higher estimation for an adult woman than a fetus? This rationale has been used to justify abortion, most famously by the Southern Baptist president, Bill Clinton. He says there are clear parallels in the ancient Near East of this type of literature and even more significantly, the same kind of legal scenario. Frum: Legal literature is about crime and punishment. It's not designed to make theological statements about whether a fetus was considered a person or not.