On Abortion

 I was asked by a teen congregant for Judaism's approach to abortion. I responded with this.

Judaism's position on abortion falls into neither of two main camps on this difficult issue - neither 'pro-life' nor 'pro-choice.' 

My primary teacher on this issue is a fellow classmate in the Rabbinical School where we were both ordained. She, Rabbi Dalia Kronish, carries the genetic code for dwarfism and hearing someone standing tall at four-foot-nothing explain why they think there is a problem with people doing genetic tests and choosing to abort 'non-perfect' children is one of the most powerful things I have ever heard. You might also be interested in the writing of Rabbi Danya Rutenberg on this issue, for example here https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/06/judaism-abortion-rights-religious-freedom/661264/

Some sources.

There is a passage in Exodus (21:22-23) which compares the debt owed by a person who hits someone who then dies with the debt owed by a person who hits someone and causes them to miscarry a foetus. The former is liable, 'life for a life,' the latter pays financial damages. 

That is to say, the Bible considers the foetus as something significant and of legal standing, but not as a full life.

The major impact of this view is discussed in the central Rabbinic text, Mishnah Ohalot 7:6. Here the rabbis consider what to do when a woman is having "difficulty giving birth" (carrying a child and certainly giving birth were, and even today remain, occasionally dangerous). The rabbis are clear that such a foetus should be "cut up and brought out limb by limb." That is to say, it is obligatory to abort a dangerous foetus, even when its limbs are recognisable. The Mishnah goes on to say, once the majority of the body has come out, you can't get involved since "one soul can't be pushed aside for another soul." That suggests that a foetus only becomes a 'soul' when it emerges from the womb.

Differing Jewish perspectives on abortion range from those who hold that abortion is only permissible when the 'difficulty' referred to in the Mishnah is clearly and immediately life-threatening (at which point it is actually compulsory, even during labour) and those who hold that 'difficulty' can include a much broader range of even psychological reasons - if a mother feels she would be unable to love a child as much as a child deserves to be loved. For those who hold the latter position - including myself - I do think it makes sense to consider a sliding scale where the most life-threatening cases should be aborted even very late-stage, but less clear-cut cases of danger should be permitted only at an earlier stage. 

Is that helpful?