Abortion

The abortion debate can be viewed from two sides, the woman's or the embryo's. During the last election season I worked at a Jewish Community Center in an Orthodox neighborhood and asked my boss what the Jewish faith had to say on the abortion debate. I was told the Orthodox people believe that the child's life begins totally at the moment the woman knows she is pregnant. Therefore, it is murder to abort the child. However, if the child is a danger to the woman then the child is committing murder by killing the woman who is a wife, mother, daughter and a member of the community and the child should then be aborted to save the woman's life. My boss said that she supported the pro-choice legislations to ensure the safety of the women who needed the abortion. I found this view to be both morally and legally grounded. A far cry from all the frenzied shouting in the abortion "debates".

The question asks if a person can, "consistently believe that (a) a woman has no right to an abortion, (b) a human embryo or fetus has an inviolable right to life, and (c) a woman may have an abortion if it is necessary to save her own life" (453). The first statement is absolute and invalidates the third. If you say that a woman has no right to an abortion then you take away her right to life-she has no option in case of a medically necessary abortion. The second statement also invalidated the third statement. No person in America has an inviolable right to life. If you commit a capital crime such as murder then the state has the legal right to take your life as punishment. If the second statement is true then you can not kill the embryo under any circumstances-invalidating the third statement. The third statement is the only statement that is not framed in absolutes.