The Pros And Cons Of Abortion

Abortion is a contentious topic around the world, especially in religious circles. In all parts of Judaism, abortion is permitted as the fetus is not seen as equal to a living human being. Abortion is actually required if the fetus threatens the life of its mother, but is also permitted in other circumstances pertaining to the well-being of the mother. Of course, there are limitations on the reasons a woman may provide for getting an abortion as well. However, specific limitations and permissions vary greatly throughout different denominations of Judaism. Overall, Judaism is accepting of abortion under a variety of circumstantial reasons for such a procedure, but never forbids it entirely. Despite differences in denominations on what qualifies

Additionally, in the Babylonian Talmud, Jewish scholar Rashi wrote that the fetus is not considered a person “as long as it has not

This aligns with the previous idea that, until a fetus is born, its dependency on another life denotes its lesser status. In the context of abortion, t the Mishnah has a similar position, “if a woman is in hard travail, the embryo is dismembered within her and brought out limb by limb. For her life takes precedence over its life. But once its head has emerged, it may not be touched, since we do not set aside one person’s life for another” (Goodman). This supports the argument that a woman’s life is more important than the potential life of the fetus she carries and that, because her life is of more important status, an abortion can be performed to protect her life. There is also sufficient evidence in the Bible to support the idea that abortion is not equivalent with homicide. For example, the wording of the law against homicide “warrants [the] exclusion of abortion from the category of homicide… ‘He that smiteth a man so that he dieth’ (Exodus 21:12: ‘a man,’ not a fetus” according to the sages of the Talmudic era (Goodman). Additionally, the biblical passage of Exodus 21:22-25 explains that if a man hurts a woman who is pregnant and she has a miscarriage, he must only pay her compensation, whereas if she were to