Parshas Noach: Abortion

In honor of the upcoming presidential election this week I would like to discuss a hot topic that has been debated at great detail by the candidates (I haven't watched or heard any of the debates but I assume it's a hot topic because it always is): a⋅bor⋅tion   / Pronunciation [uh-bawr-shuh n] –noun 1.Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy What is the Torah's view on abortion? But before we get to that, what is the typical Jewish college student's view on abortion?COLLEGE-AGE JEWS FOUND SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PRO-ABORTION THAN NON-JEWSWASHINGTON, August 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) - In a major survey with stark implications for conservative Jewish leaders, researchers have found that Jewish college students are generally much more pro-abortion than their non-Jewish counterparts. Data from freshmen at 424 U.S. colleges in 1999 was analyzed by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The study by Linda J. Sax of UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute compared responses from 8,000 Jewish students and 232,000 non-Jewish students finding that 89.3% of Jewish students agreed that "abortion should be legal" compared to 52.3% of non-Jews. When I first read this I was shocked and appalled by how far some of our brothers and sisters have fallen. However, after some thinking I realized that this is perfectly logical. The Gemara in Sanhedrin (47a) tells us that a non-jew who kills a fetus is punished by death. However, a jew that kills a fetus, while a very deplorable and heinous crime, is not sentenced to death. Rav Moshe Feinstein rules that aborting a fetus is considered murder, however, capital punishment is not meted out against the aborted. Rav Matissyahu Blum, in his Sefer Torah La'daas, discusses this issue and rules that the sin for killing the fetus goes to the doctor, while the pregnant mother violates Lifnei Ever. He further quotes that in order to be sentenced to death the fetus must be forty days old. What if the mother is in danger? If the mother is Jewish then we save her over her child, for aborting the fetus is not as serious a crime as killing the mother. However, if we just said that aborting a non-jewish fetus is punished by death (as is the case if you kill a non-jew), who takes priority? The Minchas Chinuch asks this question and seems to conclude that in such a case it is prohibited for a non-jewish doctor to abort the fetus. However the Sefer Koach Shor rules that we view the fetus as a Rodef, a pursuer wanton on killing its mother. Thus while normally killing a non-jewish fetus is punishable by death, if the fetus is a Rodef, a different set of rules apply and we say that anyone, even a non-jew, is allowed to kill it.Thus to conclude, as a general rule, abortion in Judaism is permitted only if there is a direct threat to the life of the mother by carrying the fetus to term or through the act of childbirth. And while aborting a fetus is a very horrible crime, it is not a capital crime. So while it is very sad that some yidden are so far away from yiddishkeit, it comforting to know they are still learning Gemara.