Thread by @shevereshtus

On Judaism's position on abortion, and injecting Judaism in the American abortion debate; a thread.

I wasn't going to involve myself at first. People get too emotional and are unwilling to discussing things politely, but after seeing so much misinformation & misinformed posts over the last two days, so I had to say this:

Judaism is neither "pro-life" nor 'pro-choice".

Caveat: I'm not interested in a political debate, nor about the morality of abortion. I'm not here to discuss Roe v. Wade, the Constitution, whether it's healthcare or any other modern political issues. All I am doing is showing what's the traditional Jewish position on the issue

People repeat many claims such as Judaism declaring a fetus isn't considered a human being until after birth (false), doesn't have a soul until birth (false), that abortion by choice is permitted (false), that all abortions are forbidden (false), I will go through all of these:

A fetus as a human being:

At the very beginning of Torah (Gen 9:6), it says “Whoever sheds the blood of a person (ha-adam), by a person (ba-adam) shall his blood be shed, for G-d made people in His image”. The Talmud says on this: "Who is a person inside of a person? A fetus'.

The Gemara in Yoma 85b says that we break Shabbat in order to save a human life, and this is how it's explained in Halacha: we also break Shabbat to save the life of a fetus (even under 40 days).

A fetus receives it's soul at birth:

The Talmud points out clearly that life begins at conception, and that the fetus receives it's nefesh at conception. This is what we see in Sotah 2a as well as Sanhedrin 91b.

It's true that in Menachot 99b it states that the nefesh is only fully formed after 40 days but there are a few things to keep in mind:

1) There are multiple levels of the soul, namely Nefesh Ruach Neshama Chaya Yechida, 2) There are multiple levels *within* the soul (such as Nefesh d'Nefesh, Ruach d'Nefesh, etc...) 3) The Zohar/Arizal and Talmud all agree it is present from conception, like a balloon on a string

2) As far as Menachot there are two ways to understand it, either that it's the first stages of completion of the nefesh that are achieved at that moment, or, according to others like the Maharsha, it's that it's a different soul, the nefesh HaElokit, that comes in after 40 days.

On the other hand, it's also true that a fetus is not treated with the full rights or obligation of a human being:

A fetus, for example, does not inherit, or become ritually impure.

A fetus only attains its full status as a human being once the head or most of the body emerged (even if he returns inside afterwards).

That does not mean that it is permitted to abort it, because it is not fully legally treated as a human being yet. It's true that until it happens it is permitted to kill it in order to save the mother's life, but once the head emerges, even if it goes back inside, it's forbidden

The death penalty for abortion?

Non-Jews have only 7 mitsvot to keep, and attain their place in Heaven after they died. One of those commandments is that they are forbidden to kill a fetus, otherwise they are condemned to death and lose their place in Heaven, per Sanhedrin 57b:

Three things are important to mention here: It's true that a Jew is not put to death for killing a fetus for a few reasons I will get into later on, but a non-Jew also wouldn't be put to death for doing an abortion that is permitted for a Jew under Jewish law.

The Gemara is clear a little later that the same things that are forbidden for non-Jews (in that case, killing a fetus), is also forbidden to a Jew, as the Torah doesn't prevent non-Jews to do anything that it also doesn't prevent Jews from doing.

So even though a Jew would not be put to death for doing an abortion for any other reason than those permitted by Jewish law doesn't mean it's ok to do it.

Worth mentioning: the death penalty was also given extremely rarely (every 7 years or every 70 years depending on opinions)

Even that was considered to be blood-thirsty. The death penalty in Torah is more about being a deterrent by pointing out how bad the sin is than actually being applied.

But wait, didn't I read that the fetus is considered just like water?

An often misquoted Talmudic statement used to justify abortion (at least within 40 days) is Yevamot 69b. First let's understand the context of the discussion:

At the end of 69a, we open on the Mishna that discusses someone who either rapes or seduces a woman without marrying her, and whether she is allowed or not to partake terumah (food specially set aside for the Priests).

A woman is only allowed to eat said produce if 1) she is the unmarried daughter of a Kohen without a child, 2) married to a kohen. It discusses the case where a Kohen would ch"vs seduce or rape a woman & she becomes pregnant from the union but they are not married, what happens?

If she becomes pregnant, she can eat, but only if she gives birth, not if she miscarried. It's is a very grave sin for a person to eat Terumah, so we are very careful about who eats it and not. Commenting on this, the Talmud brings up another case, where it makes that statement:

So, in the situation where the daughter of a Kohen was married to an Israelite who died and she didn't have children the question is, is she allowed to eat Terumah again? So Rav Chisda says that she is allowed to eat terumah for the first 40 days, because prior to this

the fetus is not considered to have been formed enough to prevent her from being Terumah, but from the 40th day onward she is absolutely prevented because the fetus is now considered noticeable enough that she cannot eat Terumah again.

In no way does that mean we can abort a fetus, or that the fetus doesn't have a status of a human being, it's simply a question of whether that women is allowed to eat Terumah. The Gemara (Yoma) & Poskim are clear that for a fetus less than 40 days old we break Shabbat to save it

When does Halacha permit abortion?

It depends on who you ask. That's where there is a machloket. You have opinions that are more lenient (like Chacham Ovadia Yosef, while the majority of opinions are far more strict, up to and including Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who declared that

aborting a fetus is like murder and should only be done when it's almost certain it will cause the mother's death.

At no point does Judaism permit to make this decision by yourself. It has to be done in accordance with an expert in Jewish Law, and alongside a G-d fearing doctor.

It's important to note that even those who follow the lenient approach agree that once the fetus is viable it's almost impossible to permit it. And even the most strict agree that if the mother is in almost certain danger of death prior to the baby emerging, abortion is mandatory

The more lenient positions might allow abortion in a situation where the baby will be born with Tay-Sachs since the child will die within a few years, when it comes to Down's Syndrome it is much more restricted and hard to find opinions that agree for abortion in this case.

Usually the rule is that if the child is not gonna be viable and die after birth/within a few years it might be permitted.

A few might allow to abort a mamzer, and other marginal situations like that, but usually when it comes to:

An unplanned pregnancy, an unwanted pregnancies, financial difficulties, the baby daddy ran out, changed your mind, etc is all forbidden. The only time it would be permitted is if we fear that the mother might be suicidal and kill herself as a result of the pregnancy.

There are other situations and marginal cases that are discussed in Halacha, but ultimately the general rule is that abortion is only permitted when

1) the mother's life is at severe risk
2) the child will not be viable after birth/will suffer tremendously due to deformities

Judaism's position on abortion is balanced, nuanced, & varies from posek to posek, while we all agree on the basics. There's no point to bring it into the American abortion debate because both sides can say 'Judaism says Abortion should be legal/illegal' & will be wrong about it.