The Jewish stake in the abortion debate
This election will determine whether we can follow our most important values and religious obligations to heal the sick and save lives.
Two years ago, I wrote in these pages about my friend who learned something went wrong late in her much-wanted pregnancy. If her fetus continued to develop, it would either kill her or leave her unable to have future children. Her father, a respected Orthodox rabbi and scholar, advised her to have an abortion. Though a loving father, his decision was based on Jewish law.
Judaism is a pro-life faith, but not in the way anti-abortion forces mean. In Judaism, the mother’s life and health always come first because human life begins at birth (Rashi on Sanhedrin 72b; Sanhedrin 84b). A fetus, though cherished as potential life, is considered a part of its mother’s body. That is why Judaism permits abortion to protect a mother’s health and requires one to save her life, even in the latest stages of pregnancy and the birthing process (Mishnah Oholot 7:6). Many rabbinic experts also permit abortion to protect a mother’s mental health. Others to protect existing children from hunger. Some require higher benchmarks of maternal need as pregnancy progresses. All trust individuals to make decisions about their bodies.
My friend underwent her medically necessary late-term abortion and lived to give birth to several healthy children. If this had happened today, her story could have ended differently, depending on where she lived.
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Twenty states now ban abortion or impose restrictions stricter than Roe v Wade. Studies show exceptions for a mother’s life and health do little to ensure care. Women are refused emergency care, sometimes with fatal results. Louisiana recently reclassified as controlled substances the two most common medication abortion pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, also used to stop post-partum hemorrhaging. Alabama’s Supreme Court recently ruled that frozen embryos are children, effectively making IVF illegal. Though overruled by state legislation, the decision creates a legal precedent to prohibit fertilized egg use, essential for IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies permitted under Jewish law that help so many become parents. Such rulings also support efforts to limit contraceptive access and prosecute women who miscarry for murder. Judaism permits most forms of contraception and treats miscarriage as a loss to be mourned, not a crime to be charged.
In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal but severely restricted after 23 weeks and six days. Even within the deadline, women must navigate various medically unnecessary restrictions that limit and delay access to care, like mandated counseling and restrictions on which facilities can legally perform abortions. Pittsburgh only has two licensed abortion facilities.
Jewish law obliges us to obey local law even when it conflicts with Jewish law. This election will determine whether we can follow our most important values and religious obligations to heal the sick and save lives, particularly the lives of women needing timely reproductive healthcare, and whether some among us can fulfill the commandment to have children through IVF. By safeguarding our religious freedoms, we also help protect others, fulfilling core Jewish values such as pursuing justice and loving our neighbors.
As with my friend, complications can occur late in pregnancy. Women’s lives and health depend on timely care rather than being turned away by emergency room staff fearful of legal repercussions. Regardless of where we may stand on the spectrum of Jewish opinion about when abortion is permitted, laws guaranteeing women’s access to abortion, IVF, and reproductive healthcare save women’s lives and protect our religious freedom to make healthcare decisions consistent with the dictates of our faith. PJC
Rabbi Susan Grossman has authored landmark Jewish law decisions on abortion, mikvah, fertility and women’s reproductive health for the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, on which she served for 30 years. She is an Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary editor and has a doctorate in ancient Judaism from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
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