This Week’s Torah Portion: Mishpatim – מִשְׁפָּטִים (Exodus 21:1−24:18)

“If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury to her, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows”. Exodus 21:22

Our rabbis and Jewish tradition understood this verse (the only place in the Torah that mentions losing a fetus) that a fetus is not considered a human being until birth. That a woman’s life and wellbeing is always more important than the fetus. And that includes also the emotional, social, and economic wellbeing of the woman carrying the fetus. She always comes first!