ABSTRACT
Contraception is permitted in traditional Judaism in certain appropriate circumstances. Non-Orthodox Judaism allows birth control for a wide range of reasons. Regarding abortion, traditional Judaism provides rabbinic support for termination a pregnancy in various situations.
The irrationality of resorting to scripture for determining what is allowed and what is prohibited is shown by Cave’s thought experiment of the Missing Page. There is also criticism of the Jewish belief that Nature has a purpose; what is the evidence for that? That belief may be muddled with the belief that individual people have purposes, which is indeed true.
The abortion discussion gives rise to the role of a woman’s ‘right to choose’ and ‘rights over her body’, yet, whatever understanding of that, it needs to be recognized that morality extends far beyond respecting rights into concern for virtues or dispositions to behave, for example, with compassion.
