What do Jews think about abortion?

Question

Just serious answers please.

Answer 1

I've known tons of Jews and i never met a Jew in my life who wasn't ga-ga for abortion,in other words wildly enthusiastic. NARAL was founded totally by Jews. To this day,every article i read trumpeting the glories of abortion has a Jewish by-line. God,are these people hypocrites or what? As far as some rabbi bleating about how "not everybody follows the Jewish law" I never heard of a rabbi uttering a word of protest,writing a single column - what to speak of joining a demonstration. These people can't open their mouths without lying.

Answer 2

Great question, but when you ask these questions you must phrase them, "What does JUDAISM think," because many Jews do not follow the Jewish faith and may believe various things.

In the Jewish faith abortion is a terrible crime. THere is a difference of opinion. The Rambam, an early authorative Rabbi has the lenient opinion. He rules that it is, "Something akin to murder." The michaber of SHulchan Aruch, in even haezrah, implies that it is in fact murder, and he allows abortion only if the child will directly cause the mother to die if it is not aborted. He allows this because he rules it a case of self defense in that case.

Rav Halberstam z"l, the chief legal decidor for the B'datz Eidah Chareidis rabbinical court in Jerusalem has said, "Abortion is murder plain and simple."

A Jewish woman who has an abortion is puter. That means that if the Jewish Sanhedrin were still in power, it would have no power to punish her. This is because the rules of witnesses makes it so there can be no witnesses for an abortion. Two people cannot see the instrument make contact with the baby with their own eyes.

As with all puter offenses, the Heavenly court will still hold the perpetrator to account for what they have done, and Heaven sees everything and knows everything.

I have to correct the people who keep saying that mental anguish can get you a heter for an abortion. This is usually not the case, because the baby is then not a Deadly Persuer as the Shulchan Aruch demands. One cannot use Pikuakh nefesh (commiting a sin to save a life) as an excuse to commit an act, if there is a permissable way to save the life. If I were asked by someone who were G_d forbid in this situation, I would have to tell them to sedate or restrain the mother to keap her from harming herself until the baby was born, and then to seek out profdessional help for her trauma. We are not given permission to harm one person to help anothers mental health.

It should also be mentioned that there are lenient opinions (or stringent, I suppose, if you happen to be the baby) regarding the first month or so, because in matters of tumah, we regard a misscariage in this time as simply the passing of water; and some authorities apply this to the status of the life as well, that it has not become alive and is just water.

Answer 3

Individuals- whatever there conscience tells them Judaism is different, it has very definite oponions on abortion.

To start with- from the Jewish point of view life begins at conception (there are differing opinions, but consensus in the Talmud is conception). BUT, the baby at that pointis kind of in a half-human state- in ptherwords, it is alive, but does not yet have the full rights and status of a person.

This leads to the following ramifications when it comes to abortion:
1) Abortion for convenience sake e.g, You don't have the money for another child, it would disrupt school/your carreer/your social life etc is completely forbidden- the baby is alive and you have no right to kill it.
2) Abortion due to medical reasons of the mother- Since the mother has the full status of a person, if the pregnancy or child birth would threaten her life or even damage her health beyond that of a normal childbirth, abortion is allowed.
3) Abortion due to medical reasons of the baby- Definitely a controversial area and different rabbis will give different answers. The most important criteria is generally how they feel it will affect the parents and the rest of the family. If they feel it will cause undue stress and psychological damage to them, they will sometimes allow the abortion, if they feel the family and the individuals involved are strong enough to handle the situation they won't allow the abortion. This is often more debateable in cases of severe retardation or mental disability where the child is otherwise healthy. One factor that is generally NOT considered is "quality of life". Halakha makes no distinction between a the quality of life of someone with all faculties and physical attributes and a quadriplegic stuck in bed. Both are seen as equal and as fully deserving of life.
4) Abortion due to mental reasons: As with physical medical harm, mental harm inflicted by bearing the child is also considered justified grounds for abortion. This is a hard one to adjudicate and is generally nit used except for in one case: a woman who is raped. It is seen as being justifiable for a rape victim to abort a child conceived through rape

In all cases, a competent halakhic authority needs to be consulted - in other words, your local rabbi or Beis Din (Rabbinical Court). Such a major decision is not one you should make for yourself.

A caveat to the above- it is the Orthodox answer- Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism are generally more lenient and there views may well vary from what I have stated above.

Answer 4

No one can speak for all Jews. You've probably heard about two Jews = three opinions!

Basically though I think most Jews believe that life starts when God breathes the first breath into the newborn. Until that time, the fetus is no different from any other organ. If any organ is attacking the mother, it must be removed!

I doubt you would find Jewish doctors who would perform frivolous abortions though. They would only do it to save the life of the mother.
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Answer 5

When you read the Bible and all the Laws in the Old Testament (the Torah in Judaism), it says that when anyone touches a dead body they are unclean for 7 days, when a woman has a period they are unclean for 7 days. The reason that they are both the same length of time is because in the Jewish mind the two would be the same thing because life would start long before conception. An individual may have a different opinion but for years that is what I was always told by Jewish people.

Answer 6

Here are the outer limits of the Jewish positions on abortion which most jews can judge themselves by: 1) In Judaism the fetus isn't a legal person until it's born, so abortion can't be murder.
2) Life begins with the first breath.
3) The fetus, although perhaps not a legal person, is a potential one with a limited number of legal rights (such as the ability to inherit property in certain cases), so abortion is like murder, even if it isn't exactly the same thing.

If you're for abortion you may cite a passage in Exodus (Ex. 21:22) in which two men fight and one of them accidentally hits a pregnant woman in the belly, causing her to miscarry. If she is not harmed in any other way, the Bible says, then the man who struck her has to pay her husband damages. From this one can deduce that feticide isn't murder, because the penalty for murder is death. Rather, removing a fetus is said to be like amputating a limb--which a woman is still not allowed to do for mere economic or cosmetic reasons, since that would be self-mutilation, which is forbidden.

If you are agaisn abortion then you will cite Genesis 9:6. This verse is more of a stretch, but by Talmudic standards, it works. It reads: "He who sheds the blood of man through man [that is, through a human court of law], shall his blood be shed." In Biblical Hebrew, "through" can also be "in," so one Roman-era rabbi who was probably disgusted by his country's occupiers' practice of experimenting on fetuses re-interpreted the phrase as saying, "He who sheds the blood of man in man [that is, kills a fetus], shall his blood be shed." That made abortion a capital crime, but for reasons too complicated to get into here, one whose penalty can only be imposed by God, not man.

The one thing everybody agrees about, whether abortion resembles murder or not, is that in the case of a threat to the mother's life, Jewish law requires you to save her rather than the fetus.

Answer 7

Short answer: usually pro-life.
Long answer: reproductive issues are VERY controversial and VERY complex. It is permissible to abort the baby if the pregnancy threatens the mother's physical health. Some will permit it if it threatens the mother's emotional health. A few will permit it for pregnancies resulting from rape, or severely disabled fetuses, but this is extremely controversial. Basically, the general idea is life is precious, and any pregnancy is God's will.

Answer 8

Judaism (as opposed to individual Jews) deplores abortion except in very specific cases. Such as when the mother's life is in danger.

There are individual Jews who are unaware of their religious principles (or just don't care), and they may have other ideas.


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Answer 9

We're usually pro-life.

Sometimes in special circumstances though, abortion is allowed, such as rape cases, if the fetus would mean harm to the mother (physically or mentally) etc.

Answer 10

My friend is jewish. And when I got an abortion he didn't tell me anything bad. He respected my decision and thought I made a good choice for myself and my fiance.