Judaism’s Support of Women to Choose an Abortion
In the decades following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, ruling that a pregnant woman has a fundamental constitutional right to choose an abortion, Catholic groups were generally at the forefront of the fight to overturn Roe. Their efforts paid off this past June when the Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, holding that there is no constitutional right for a woman to choose an abortion and that states may therefore regulate abortion. Since the Dobbs decision, some states have outlawed abortion in all or nearly all circumstances including for multiple 10-year old girls who became pregnant following rape in Ohio and women in Texas who suffered severe medical consequences—even needing to undergo a hysterectomy—after carrying a nonviable pregnancy and being refused an abortion.
Given the Judeo-Christian tradition, it might be reasonable to expect that Judaism—especially its most conservative elements—would take as restrictive a position on abortion as Catholicism. But it does not. Even leaders in Orthodox Judaism, the most traditional segment of Judaism, support women choosing abortion in at least a limited number of circumstances. Pertinently, the Orthodox Union released a statement following the Dobbs decision, stating that it “cannot support absolute bans on abortion—at any time point in a pregnancy—that would not allow access to abortion in lifesaving situations.” The group continued that it would want states’ abortion laws to permit abortion in “situations in which medical (including mental health) professionals affirm that carrying the pregnancy to term poses real risk to the life of the mother.” The leadership of the Orthodox Union explained that even though Judaism places “paramount value on choosing life,” that principle requires utmost concern for the mother’s life over the life of an unborn fetus when her life is at risk due to pregnancy.
This Orthodox Jewish standard on a woman’s ability to choose an abortion is perhaps even more expansive than it might initially seem. At first glance, it might seem somewhat narrow, in that it does not enshrine a broad right for women to choose an abortion except when their life is at stake. Yet it gives women a great deal of leeway to choose an abortion consistent with Orthodox Jewish principles in at least three ways. For one thing, rather than have rabbinical authorities decide which medical conditions qualify as putting a pregnant woman’s life at risk, it leaves that judgment in the hands of medical professionals who can make a flexible (and perhaps expansive) determination in support of their patients whenever a “pregnancy critically endangers the physical health or mental health of the mother.” Second, the Orthodox Union’s standard explicitly incorporates a pregnant woman’s mental health as being just as critical to whether she can choose an abortion as her physical health, enabling halakhic abortion when her mental wellbeing from being pregnant, bearing a child, or becoming a parent is at stake. Third, the Orthodox Union emphasizes that its standard might not merely authorize abortion when a woman’s life is at risk but it might in fact require an abortion in those circumstances.
The Orthodox Union’s stance on abortion in Judaism reflects Judaism’s general support of women to choose an abortion. Other groups take a broader view of a woman’s right to choose an abortion. For example, the Women of Reform Judaism support the more robust right afforded by Roe to choose an abortion. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance similarly states that it “supports every woman’s legal right to make decisions about, and have control over, her own body, without the involvement of the government or any other entity.” By contrast, some Orthodox Jewish groups (such as Agudath Israel of America and the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation) supported Roe’s overruling on the ground that abortion should be banned except in extraordinary circumstances. However, as the Orthodox Union’s statement indicates, they are the exception rather than the norm, even within Orthodox Judaism.
Judaism’s support of women to choose abortion in many circumstances that protect women’s wellbeing matters. First and foremost, it affirms their dignity. Women are not merely a vessel to carry children regardless of the consequences pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting may bring. Rather, their physical and mental health can predominate. In those circumstances, allowing abortion can enable women to control their bodies and live their lives. Jewish principles on abortion also celebrate life more broadly by recognizing the value in both a woman’s life and a fetus’s potential life, though not in an inflexible way.
Indeed, Jewish principles on abortion might eventually head to the U.S. Supreme Court itself, where the Court would be asked to choose between its abortion jurisprudence in Dobbs allowing states to regulate abortion as they see fit and its increasingly expansive rulings on religious liberty. Post-Dobbs, Jewish groups in Florida, Ohio, and Kentucky have filed suit challenging their respective states’ restrictive abortion laws. They have claimed that these laws, which disallow abortion in nearly all circumstances, impinge on Jewish women’s religious liberty, given that Jewish law requires or authorizes pregnant women to choose an abortion when their life is at stake. Not only does Judaism support women in choosing an abortion in many circumstances, but it might also provoke the Supreme Court to narrow its ruling in Dobbs.
