View source for Does the law in Exodus 21:22-25, where men cause an unborn child to be born prematurely, show that abortion is not murder?

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<div class="questionbody">Short answer: No. In fact it affirms an equal value for the life of the unborn child.
The Biblical law referenced in the question is the following:

{{:Scriptblock|Exod 21:22-25}}

This above scripture is often mistranslated in English, with the following Bible translations interpreting the Hebrew word וְיָצְא֣וּ as "miscarriage": NASB (1971-1994), RSV, NRSV, NEB. CEV, Douay-Rheims, NAB, Jerusalem Bible, Living Bible, Amplified Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Artscroll Chumash English. Notice that the following English translations use a form of the translation: "the child comes out prematurely," which is literal: HCSB, KJV, NKJV, NASB (1995-), NIV, ESV, NET, ISV, WEB, YLT. 

This (mis)translation has been used against Christians to claim that Biblical law doesn't treat an unborn child as a legally protected person. [Note: I would be interested to know how translations in other languages than English handle this verse.]
The argument is something like the following:

# The verse implies that the unborn child is killed (based upon the translation "miscarriage").
# But "no harm follows" (by inference, to the woman)
# There is (apparently) only an unspecified monetary "fine" as a penalty; not the ''talion'' "life for life" judgment <ref>Note, however, that Meredith Kline disagrees with this, and suggests a different way of understanding both verses. (Kline, "Lex talionis and the human fetus", JETS 20:3 [September 1977] p. 193)</ref>
# Therefore, the unborn child does not merit the same protection under Biblical law as a regularly-born person.

Unfortunately, the translation "miscarriage" imports the idea that the woman's premature offspring died. But this is an unwarranted interpretive leap, given the original text says only: "her children come out" (Hebrew: יְלָדֶ֔יהָ וְיָצְא֣וּ). These same Hebrew words are used to describe the birth of living children in other parts of the scripture: Gen. 25:25-26, Gen. 38:28-29. There are actually two other words for miscarriage which Moses could have used, if he wanted to be more specific, but he chose not to. For a technical discussion of this verse, see H. Wayne House, "Miscarriage or Premature Birth", Westminster Theological Journal 41.1 (1978) 108-123.<ref>http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/02-exodus/text/articles/house-exod21-wtj.htm</ref>
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