Choose Life -- Yours! An Exploration of Jewish Sources Relevant to Reproductive Justice

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg:

Many Jewish values can and should factor in to our understanding of the importance of abortion access for all. Dignity, avoiding pain, valuing relationships, and other factors--including also, perhaps, our Jewish mandate to pursue the creation of a more just society--should be present as we consider both individual cases (and remember that not everyone has the same privileges, or the same choices) and larger systems.

From The Torah of Reproductive Justice (Annotated Source Sheet) NCJW. https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/234926.28?

Rabbi Avi Shafran JTA May 30th 2019

Abortion, in Jewish law, is not a right. In the vast majority of cases it’s actually a wrong. But even in cases where it is permitted or required, as when a Jewish mother’s life is endangered, even indirectly (or, although the matter is hardly free of controversy, according to some respected rabbinic opinions when the pregnancy seriously jeopardizes the mother’s health), the decision to terminate a pregnancy is not a question of a woman’s right to choose but of her responsibility to choose correctly, her obligation to do what halacha counsels in her particular case, whatever that may be.

https://www.jta.org/2019/05/30/opinion/in-judaism-abortion-is-not-a-right-and-pregnancy-is-a-responsibility

Tzitz Eliezer V, Ramat Rahel--Collection of Responsa on Medical Issues #4

It would stand to reason that the obligations which mandate extension of therapeutic aid would apply to restoration of mental, no less than of physical, health.

Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Vol II, Part II, Chapter XIV Mental Incompetence and Its Implications in Jewish Law 43, by J. David Bleich, 1977-2005

From Abortion: Major Wrong or Basic Right? by Rabbi Robert Gordis

Approved by the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, 1983

The alleged right of abortion on demand is generally supported by the argument that a woman has rights over her own body. This is a contention which Judaism, and indeed all high religion, must reject on both theological and ethical grounds as being essentially a pagan doctrine. It is basic Jewish teaching that no human being is master of his own body, because he did not create himself; male and female alike have been fashioned by God in His image...

Obviously, there can be no totally satisfactory solution to the abortion problem, which is itself a symptom of a tragedy. The choice of the lesser of two evils must be the goal in guiding society to a rational decision. So long as we must depend upon a legal system rather than upon the human conscience to enforce an ethical code, it is clear that the best solution lies in preserving a basically liberal attitude toward abortion with conservative safeguards. That is to say, proper facilities for an abortion should be generally available to all classes of the population, while precautionary procedures must be established in special cases.

Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, “Abortion: A Halakhic Perspective,” Tradition 25:4 (1991)

Here it is clear that saving a life is not the only sanction for permitting an abortion. This is evident from the Talmudic passage that permits a nursing mother to cohabitate using a mokh (a barrier of cotton or wool) to prevent pregnancy… Since this prohibition is waived to facilitate normal family relations (which is why the emission in this context is not “wasteful”), it would follow that other ethical and humane factors may also be taken into account. It would seem to me that issues such as kevod ha-beriyot (dignity of persons), shalom bayit (domestic peace) and tza’ar (pain), which all carry significant halakhic weight in other contexts, should be considered in making these decisions.

Conclusion of “Partial Birth Abortion” and the Question of When Human Life Begins by Rabbi Susan Grossman

Approved by the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, 2003

Abortion is a serious matter not to be entered into lightly, out of respect for the potential life vested in the fetus. Nevertheless, Jewish law considers the fetus part of the mother’s body, and not an independent being until birth. Therefore, while the fetus is to be cherished as potential life, the mother’s life and well being takes precedence over that of the fetus until birth. Birth is defined as when the fetal head or majority of its body exits the mother’s body into the open air. Since in the intact d and x procedure [dilation and extraction, the procedure referenced in the title], termination takes place when the head and majority of the body remains within the mother, an intact d and x procedure would be among the abortion procedures permissible under Jewish law whenever maternal cause exists which otherwise justifies a late term abortion under Jewish law (i.e., to prevent danger to her physical health or in the face of severe fetal abnormalities causing maternal emotional distress) and when the woman’s physician determines that the intact d and x is the preferred procedure to protect her health and well being. It is therefore permissible under Jewish law for an intact d and x procedure to be performed whenever the patient’s doctor deems it the preferable procedure in the best interests of the woman’s health and well being.