The choice in 'choose life'

...it should serve not as law but as guidelines...

...For him it is a personal as well as a professional issue, extending beyond his rabbinical position...

...Therefore, it is natural that in the area of Halacha and abortion, interpretation and compliance differ as well...

...Jews support the availability of abortion in far greater numbers than members of any other religion...

...We think they shouldn't...

...Once the child enters into the air," however, "then the child's and mother's life take on equal value...

...But, as Dr...

...Sylvia Neil, director of the Chicago office of the American Jewish Congress, puts it more directly...

...This concern has become increasingly heightened since the Supreme Court handed hack Employment Services v. Smith during the 1989-90 term which allowed the state of Oregon to make ceremonial use of peyote illegal even though it was an important and historically established part of American Indian religious worship...

...Modern Judaism, as can thus be expected from its expansive tradition, can find justification for abortion other than the life or physical health of the mother...

...Hauptman, "then I too am opposed to it...

...Orthodox Jews can regularly be found with Catholics and Christians picketing abortion clinics in their communities...

...This can only be said about individual Jews...

...So therefore it's the right thing to do and Judaism believes in doing the right thing, and therefore, Judaism believes in unrestricted access to abortion...

...It is thus possible to see how the charge in Deuteronomy 30:19 to "choose life" can be believed to be served by both modern and traditional American Judaism from their respective viewpoints on the abortion issue...

...Translating this into political support, the majority of American Jewry comes down in favor of some form of abortion availability even if only for life and health purposes because of the mandates of Halacha...

...Such a situation might arise if the mother had diabetes and the pregnancy would seriously and adversely affect her health to the point that she was unable to function normally, or if she had cancer in remission which the pregnancy might reactivate...

...Because the potential for diverse views based upon religious orientation is so great, he says, "we regard it as a question of freedom and in large measure a religious freedom...

...Reform Judaism emphasizes that Jews are bound to follow the ethical mitzvot but are free to determine the extent of ritual observance...

...There is, however, strong precedent within the Orthodox tradition which would allow abortion to preserve the physical health of the mother...

...Hauptman points out, "a rabbi ought to encourage a woman to engage in a serious moral calculus...

...The traditional versus modern (i.e., historical vs...

...The loss of the quality and value and even potential of the mother's life can justify to many the sacrifice of a potential life, especially in cases like teen-age pregnancy...

...Abortion as a method of dealing with an unwanted or inconvenient pregnancy is not condoned by any Jewish movement, but modern rabbis often justify the sacrifice of the child as a means of dealing with a realistic threat to the well-being of the mother...

...If these cases are serious enough that the rabbis have been willing to permit them, perhaps that is choosing life also and perhaps that is also making it possible for women and families to get on with their lives...

...Some of the leading public figures in the abortion rights movement are Jews...

...To jeopardize her life for that of the fetus would be committing a sin because unlike the child in utero, who may not survive the pregnancy or the trauma of the birth process, the mother's life is already established...

...Thus, there is general reluctance on the part of many modern rabbis to advise a congregant to abort a child on the basis of a potential birth defect...

...Sandberg points out, "you could argue that if abortion laws should change and become more restrictive or even outlawed, that might pave the way for further efforts by people who argue forcefully that religious teachings ought to have the force of law...

...In contrast, this does not necessarily apply to the child's well-being...

...Overall, it can be said of American Jewry in relation to abortion that while our general secular concern is religious freedom, there is a very clear belief in all the movements of the Jewish religion that fetal development is the beginnings of life and that decisions regarding its possible termination should be treated with the seriousness appropriate to such matters...

...Historically, Judaism is a religion with its own set of laws and standards which, for observant Jews, is as binding as the civil law...

...The United States is the first country in modern times that has allowed Jews to observe freely their religion and participate in every aspect of society without restriction based on faith...

...Therefore, people today have a choice as to which of the commandments to follow and to what extent, as well as how to interpret the Halacha...

...These appearances, however, are deceiving...

...I feel that it's important that the message go out to the hearers of Jerry Falwell or Cardinal O'Connor that there are Jews who keep the traditions...

...This concern is not because Jews want to suppress or neutralize Christianity, but because they want the full protection of the Constitution to value their own varied religious beliefs with equal freedom as all of the other members of the American pluralistic society...

...Just what rights the fetus has and what reasons justify an abortion are the points of conflict on this issue between the traditional and modern Jewish communities...

...During the first forty days of gestation, the fetus is considered to be in a liquid or unformed state and thus is expendable if Commonweal 28 February 1992: 15 necessary because it is not yet alive...

...The secular Jewish communal organizations see the issue here as not just one of choice but of protection of constitutional rights...

...American Jews parallel our Christian neighbors...

...Only in this century has the Supreme Court declared most of these laws unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment's prohibition against establishment of a state religion and the freedom of religious exercise for minority religions such as Judaism...

...Other rabbis would advise an abortion under these circumstances if the mother has expressed deep and damaging anxiety over this pregnancy because her well-being, not the fetus's, is in jeopardy...

...For instance, Conservative rabbis are very supportive of the use of modern medical technology, such as amniocentesis, in helping resolve these issues...

...G-d determines some things beyond human control, and an abortion to spare the child a difficult life is seen as overstepping our control over life and death and intervening into some things that G-d has done for his own incomprehensible reasons...

...We respect the views of the different sides of the controversy and do not say that we are adhering to the Jewish position, but rather regard the prochoice side of the argument as the essential freedom of religion that our organization stands for...

...Therefore," says Dr...

...It is important at this juncture to point out the differences in interpretations of the Halacha between the major branches of American Judaism...

...Paradoxically, it is both, but Christians cannot grasp this without some basic knowledge of American Judaism from both the religious and secular perspectives...

...The emphasis on choice is qualified, however, by the belief that the freedom of choice is meaningless without making religiously based choices in a serious and informed way...

...The nonclerical Jewish community is often more vocal on its prochoice position than the religious leadership and for distinctly nonreligious reasons...

...contemporary) split in Judaism appears to reflect the division within the Christian community...

...Not every Jew shares Rabbi Washofsky's analysis...

...Decisions as to whether an abortion would be necessary under these or similar circumstances would be made by an observant Orthodox woman who consulted not only her physician but also her rabbi...

...Sandberg emphasizes, "our concern is that none of the religious teachings warrant inclusion by statute or constitutional amendment as part of American life in this democracy...

...THE CHOICE IN 'CHOOSE LIFE' SCOTT AARON AMERICAN JUDAISM & ABORTION One of the most perplexing questions to Christians interested in the abortion debate is how can Judaism, a religion that celebrates the ethic of "choose life" found in Deuteronomy 30:19, support and condone elective abortion rights in America...

...He also believes that modern and secular Judaism's prochoice stance sends false and dangerous messages to the Christian community...

...I see the role of...the rabbi in a case of this sort not as a decisor but as an alter ego," writes Judith Hauptman, associate professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, "whose job it is to push the mother to think her decision through with painstaking care, to lay the burden of proof on her shoulders, to help her either justify to herself that abortion is the moral choice in her particular case, or if not, to carry the pregnancy to term" (United Synagogue Review, Spring, 1990...

...As Mr...

...For Rabbi Levin, these traditions mean the allowance of abortion only for severe, therapeutic crises...

...The Jewish community would be concerned that the legalization of one religious viewpoint (i.e., life beginning at conception) would limit or deny decision making according to religious teachings that may differ with the legalized view...

...Halacha is the body of rabbinical laws (similar to American common law) which are interpretations of how to observe the 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah (five books of Moses traditionally believed to be directly from G-d) in every aspect of daily life...

...This ethic permeates Jewish law, including the strict prohibitions against murder and reckless activity, the condemnation of euthanasia as murder, and the allowance of exceptions to the sabbath and dietary laws in order to preserve life...

...The fetus thus occupies a position of developing, not substantiated, life...

...However, as Dr...

...Contrary to general Christian teachings of morality, it has been the traditional belief in Judaism that life does not fully begin until the child is actually born...

...However, for much of its history, this country has been influenced by the Christian demographic majority who have incorporated mandatory church attendance, moral purity laws, mandatory prayer in schools, Sunday "blue" laws, public funding of religion, and other Christianity-influenced beliefs into secular law...

...The abortion disagreement, he believes, reflects the broader fundamental differences between modern and traditional Jews...

...Conservative and Reform rabbis differ from their Orthodox counterparts as well in that their advice and counsel is not binding upon their congregants who must choose for themselves what course their lives will take...

...By way of contrast, Rabbi Dorf writes that "Conservative rabbis...maintain that when the physician says that an amniocentesis is advisable, the woman should have one" ("Abortion: Where We Stand," United Synagogue Review, Spring, 1990...

...Reform Judaism rejects the traditional belief of the revelation of the commandments directly from G-d to Man, and instead believes that divinely inspired men wrote the Torah and that men of equal stature throughout the ages developed the Halacha...

...Emotional and mental stress may be seen as permissible grounds for an abortion if the mother 16: 28 February 1992 Commonweal is seriously affected by them...

...Modern Judaism, most notably the Conservative and Reform movements, expands upon the definition of what is permissible abortion...

...We do things the way our grandparents did a thousand years ago," he says, "or to put it in more contemporary terms, we never lost it...

...To save a life you do anything, even if it includes the destruction of an unborn fetus...

...If you are looking at this issue in terms of civil liberties or rights for women, a society that is open and is progressive in terms of religious rights most likely is also going to be progressive towards Jews and Jewish rights...

...This analysis may not always prove true though on related issues such as parental involvement in the abortion decision for minors or public funding for nontherapeutic abortions...

...The Anti-Defamation League has a timehonored policy of defending First Amendment issues regardless of which religious belief is being threatened...

...Together they would decide if the justification for the abortion was within the moral standards of Jewish law, after weighing the needs and risks to the mother with the moral obligation to create and preserve life...

...Fred Rosner, a physician and an expert on Jewish biomedical ethics, points out that to traditional Jewish thinking "it's just a mere technicality that says that life begins at birth in Judaism and not at conception the way Catholics have it...

...There is not one Jewish position on the abortion question," says Michael Sandberg, Midwest civil rights director of the AntiDefamation League of B'Nai Brith...

...This is why traditional Judaism, while recognizing and preserving the moral values involved, does not regard abortion as murder...

...The Jews who never lost it have a very prolife view which frankly predates the Christian prolife view...

...Since Conservative Judaism believes that Jewish law must be studied and applied historically," writes Rabbi Elliot Dorf, dean of the Conservative movement's University of Judaism in Los Angeles, "it does not say, as some Orthodox rabbis have, that women should never engage in these techniques since that will only encourage them to abort the fetus if they find out it is defective...

...Rosner points out, "without this saving of a life, you can't touch the fetus just for convenience sake or financial reasons...

...A brief look at the past illuminates the source of these concerns...

...Thus, from a Jewish civil rights perspective, it is understandable that Commonweal 28 February 1992: 17 many Jews see the chipping away at Roe as the cracking in our constitutional foundation...

...The strongly Catholic and Christian composition of the prolife community, and attempts to legislate what appears to be their religious position, sound alarm bells among secular Jewish leaders...

...Rosner, "when it's one life against another, you save its mother's life since human life is of infinite value...

...The leap from state control of religious observances involving peyote to state banning of a religiously motivated reproductive health decision is not a long one in the eyes of many civil libertarians...

...While a pregnant woman contemplating an abortion for these reasons needs to consider the effect of a greatly impaired child on the needs and responsibilities of her entire family, she needs to weigh that against her own sense of value for the life of that fetus...

...Rabbi Mark Washofsky, professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Cincinnati campus and a recognized expert on Reform Judaism and abortion, points out that "Moses's exhortation to 'choose life' is a general thrust of Jewish life and observance which, if it means anything, means that we ought to be very careful about life-and-death decisions...

...Rabbis can influence them only through persuasion and education...

...The key point here is that once a determination is made that an abortion is necessary, the woman is mandated by religious law to preserve her own life and health...

...Although there is certainly room for discussion and compromise in the moral and legislative debates on abortion, Christians and Jews will never make any mutual progress on this issue until they understand and acknowledge the differences in religious belief systems and the confines of the American Constitution...

...None ought to be adopted as law and any ought to be available as people decide to follow their own religious beliefs on such a difficult issue as this...

...Of the three main movements within Judaism, the Orthodox community generally opposes nontherapeutic abortion while the Conservative and Reform movements generally support elective abortion...

...Hence Judaism emphasizes that it is incumbent upon Man to take care of and protect his health, and to do everything possible to sustain life...

...So, is Judaism prolife or prochoice...

...Judaism and Christianity are not analogous on this issue and the legalization of one clearly religious belief, such as life beginning at conception, would conversely outlaw any other...

...He and many modern rabbis see life as definable in more than one way...

...According to Rabbi David Ellenson, dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus in Los Angeles, "basic Jewish rulings on abortion stem from the Mishna, Ocholot chapter 7, 6th Halacha, which basically asserts that on a certain level the mother's life takes precedence over the child's life as long as the child is a fetus in the womb...

...Yehuda Levin, an Orthodox rabbi and president of the Jewish Anti-Abortion League in Brooklyn, resents the shift away from the traditional Jewish respect for fetal life toward nonphysical maternal needs that modern Judaism has initiated...

...If the phrase 'abortion on demand' means that one may choose abortion without thoughtful consideration of all the relevant social and moral issues," says Dr...

...As noted earlier, the Orthodox follow Halacha literally and rabbis who are recognized by the Orthodox community are bound to handle all issues and questions in strictest conformity with it...

...Still, when the viewpoints range within our community from endorsing elective abortion accessibility because "it's the right thing to do" to opposing it because one believes in living daily life "the way our grandparents did a thousand years ago," no one can say that there is a single Jewish position on abortion or that Judaism itself is prolife or prochoice...

...Orthodox Jews follow the traditional Jewish belief that we do not "own" our bodies because they were created by G-d in G-d's image...

...Garnering Jewish support for restrictions on abortion that would severely weaken or overturn Roe would be difficult...

...As it is consistent with Jewish tradition, modern Judaism supports the belief that an abortion is permissible at any time when the mother's well-being is at stake...

...The same logic may also be applied to abortions sought on the grounds of rape and incest...

...Free choice is something I believe in because I'm an American, suburban, urbane, liberal type person and this is what I would believe in if I weren't Jewish...

...After the fortieth day and up until birth, the fetus possesses the status of a limb and is not regarded as a separate and equal life to that of the mother...

...The Court found banning illegal substances even from religious usage to be overridden by the legitimate secular purpose of controlling drug abuse...

...The largest Orthodox community organization in America, Agudath Israel, repeatedly sides with the prolife movement in amicus curiae briefs in cases dealing with abortion-related issues...

...For Jews, there is an underlying fear of losing these hardwon religious freedoms...

...Thus, the fetus is not a "nefesh" (a soul) until its birth...

...Almost all Jewish politicians have taken a prochoice stand as well...

...If we lose the right for a Jewish woman to determine when her religious beliefs mandate an abortion, then next will be prayer in schools, Sunday "blue" laws, public funding of religious institutions: a return to the time of Christian laws for a Christian America as Father Charles Coughlin and William Jennings Bryan among others used to advocate...

...q 18: 28 February 1992 Commonweal...

...As Mr...

...This is a hard distinction for many people to accept, Jews and non-Jews alike, but it establishes a necessary guideline for such life-and-death decisions...

...This is comparable to the division between the Catholic church and certain evangelical and fundamentalist Christian denominations which reject abortion under almost all circumstances, and those "progressive" branches of Christianity which generally accept abortion as a moral option at least under some circumstances...

...On the other hand," as Rabbi Ellenson points out, "while it may not be a soul and therefore fully a person, it is not a nonperson either...

...Conservative Judaism, although believing that all of the commandments are from G-d and that all Jews are thus bound by them, also believe that there is room for flexible interpretation and application...

...As Rabbi Washofsky clearly says, "I think the average Reform Jew doesn't really think of it in religious terms...

...The recognized beginnings and potential of life that the fetus possesses is thus held in very high moral esteem, and Orthodox tradition would usually sacrifice the fetus only to preserve the life of the mother...

...Privacy is a religious liberty as well as a civil liberty...

...Yet, Judaism reveres as a primary ethical principle the doctrine that no one has the right to put one life before another life...