In the previous submission of this topic, we addressed the false notion that death by illegal abortions will skyrocket now that Roe V. Wade is overturned. If you have not read that, please start there.
This is the second most prominent myth argued to me by many of my religious peers:
“Jewish law permits abortion.” Or “Jesus never said anything about abortion.”
I will start with the latter quote because it is the easiest of the two to address. Jesus was an observant Jew. He followed Torah (which will be addressed shortly). In the words we have recorded of Jesus, he did not speak to everything written in Torah. Jesus never specifically speaks about lying or stealing, but does that mean lying and stealing is permitted now? Does that mean that I can break into your house and steal all your stuff? No, it doesn't mean that.
Furthermore, what Jesus does say about children can be found in matthew 18:5-7, which says:
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me; and whoever ensnares one of these little ones who trust me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the open sea! Woe to the world because of snares! For there must be snares, but woe to the person who sets the snare!”
To those who may argue that a fetus is not an actual child, consider two things;
95% of biologists say that life begins at conception. Yes, biologists. Meaning scientists. Meaning not based on bible, but science. So even though you may hear Christians say the same thing, the thing is a truth backed by science.
Do you even believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Do you believe that one day, He will return and rule over the whole earth. If so… yikes. Let’s talk, because I guarantee you He does not sanction abortion. If not, using him as a prop to justify your worldview is a losing battle; especially when you do so to jeer at people who actually follow HIm. My suggestion to those who do not believe is to take their own advice and leave religion out of the discussion.
Now for the other claim, that Jewish law, or halacha permits abortion. This claim is made with the qualifier “if the fetus threatens the life of the mother.” This ruling is also based on a fallacy. The fallacy is that sometimes there are scenarios where the baby has to be aborted for the mother to live. That could not be any further from the truth.
There has never been a single scenario where the baby had to be aborted for the mother to live. In other words, there has never been an instance where in order to save the mother’s life, the physician had to stick forceps inside of the mother’s womb, chop the baby’s limbs off, crush its skull, take the pieces out, and place them on a table to confirm all body parts are present and accounted for, which is how doctors perform abortions. That has never, nor will it ever be necessary.
What does happen in real life, is that there are situations where, if the baby continues to grow inside the mother, both the mother and the baby could die. In those cases, the doctor performs an operation to remove the baby from the womb.
But here is the important part.
The doctor goes into the operation with the intention of saving both lives.
Depending on how early the mother is in her pregnancy, the doctor and mother are aware that the baby will likely not survive. However, the doctor will still try and save the baby’s life while saving the mother. In a small number cases, the baby has survived, and as our technology advances, we are able to sustain younger and younger developing babies outside of the womb. Most babies unfortunately do not make it. But that is not an abortion. The biggest reason that makes that not an abortion is intent. When a baby has to be taken out of the womb at a very early stage, it’s called previable separation, wherein the doctor has to remove the baby from the womb before the baby is considered viable. In doing this, the doctor does everything they can to preserve the baby’s life as well as the mother. If the baby dies in the process, that is not active termination of the pregnancy; neither is separating a baby from the mother in an ectopic pregnancy, and neither is a miscarriage. These are not abortions because no one is choosing to kill the baby. These are not abortions because the baby dying is considered a failure, not a success. These are not abortions, and the mothers who have suffered these things do not take lightly to the pro-choice side misappropriating the term to oneup the pro-life side.
One thing I miss add to that is that medically these things may have the term “abortion” in them; like miscarriages, for instances. Miscarriages are medically referred to as a “spontaneous abortion.” Those who like to manipulate words will use fear tactics to make people believe that somehow, those will be illegal as well. That’s false. Every state that has made abortion illegal has specified in their respective bills what is meant by abortion, and that is actively terminating the pregnancy by ending the life in the womb. Nothing else applies. I would advise anyone saying otherwise to read such bills.
The truth is, an abortion is never necessary. Ever. So the need for such law in any religion is obsolete.
Stay tuned for part III…