Whose life comes first?
Therefore, in my humble opinion, the Supreme Court has erred and allowed the Christian rights’ political power to corrupt its proper judgment when it declared that abortion may be outlawed.
Whose life comes first, the “mother” or her unborn embryo? It depends who you ask. If you ask a rabbi who answers on the basis of Jewish law (Halacha), the mother’s life comes before the life of the unborn. But five members of the U.S. Supreme Court have now definitively ruled that the life of the unborn embryo, in accordance with the Christian right, has greater protection than the life of the “mother” carrying that embryo — although states may rule on it for themselves.
Judaism long ago analyzed and ruled on this and all questions related to reproduction as follows:
A woman whose life is in critical danger due to hard travail and other issues related to carrying her fetus, her life shall come first because she is an established living person. Her status as a living person comes about because of a Hazakah — a legal decree that she is a recognized living person. This is not the case with the unborn fetus still in process of achieving the same status. When the presence of the fetus is killing or will inevitably kill the “mother,” it is regarded as a Rodeph — an entity in pursuit of killing the mother, and Torah law requires that the mother’s life be saved even if it requires aborting the fetus. Under Torah law, life does not begin at conception and only is regarded as a living person after being born and after taking its first breath of air
Therefore, in my humble opinion, the Supreme Court has erred and allowed the Christian rights’ political power to corrupt its proper judgment when it declared that abortion may be outlawed. Whereas, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no one religion should be enshrined in law or dictate public policy on any issue — including abortion. But this is precisely what has happened.
World religions interpret abortion differently, that is why the Supreme Court should not base their decision on any religion at all, and must always allow free citizens to make their own decisions in these matters.