In a recent piece entitled “Why are Orthodox Organizations Embracing Christian Values?” Rabbi Jill Jacobs attacked Orthodox Jews for opposing the Obama Administration’s now-rescinded health insurance mandate, which required employers to provide or be complicit in providing some abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations. She incorrectly suggested that this position conflicts with Jewish law, suggesting that these Orthodox Jews came to this conclusion after being seduced into political alliance with conservative Christians.
But Jacobs is wrong about the Jewish views on abortion. Going at least as far back as Maimonides (Laws of Murder 1:9) and up until the middle of the 20th century, the rabbinic consensus has not been — despite Rabbi Jacobs’ claim — that life begins at birth. While the matter is complicated, most Orthodox legal precedents forbid abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger and requires violating the Sabbath to save a fetus. Rabbi Moses Feinstein explicitly characterized abortion as murder. (Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat II:69) And Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik wrote that life begins at conception. (The Emergence of Ethical Man, pp. 27-29) Jacobs, however, seems to believe that Orthodox Jews suddenly started opposing abortion because conservative Christians do.