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Old 06-02-2009, 08:45 PM   #26 (permalink)
levite
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With all due respect to Xazy, I would say abortion is actually an issue on which there is not a clear consensus in the Jewish world. Most Orthodox folks I know are at least nominally opposed to abortion, since the Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law tend to be restrictive concerning when and for what reasons a woman is permitted to have an abortion; many if not most non-Orthodox folks I know are more pro-choice, given that non-Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law tend to offer wider latitude in permitting abortion.

Personally, I believe that a fetus is not "alive" until it is at the point of being viable outside the womb. From the standpoint of secular society, I believe abortion should be legal, confidential, and nobody's business but the woman and whoever she chooses to confide in. The only reasoning I have ever heard to outlaw abortion is rooted in religious thought, and therefore IMO has no place in secular government.

On the other hand, while I believe in a secular government that stays as free as possible of entanglements in people's private lives, I believe it is the place of religion to offer moral enrichment and exhortation. And though I think abortion should be legal, confidential, and easily available, I don't think it is always a good thing in the moral sense, and should not be undertaken lightly or misused. I would hope that people's religions would advise them to be strict in the exercise of their right, and offer them solid advice toward prevention and use of alternatives.
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Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)
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