Abortion for Non-Jews

Question

I’m 99% sure I was told by an Orthodox rabbi that abortion is the one transgression which is stricter on goyim than on Jews, that it was murder for goyim but even an unpermitted abortion was not murder for Jews. But I can’t figure out what would be different for them. If it’s murder for them, how could it not be murder for us? OR, if it’s not murder for us, what could possibly make it murder for them? Are goyish embryos different, more developed, more something than Jewish ones?

And who is liable for punishment for an unpermitted abortion, the doctor, the mother, both?

For the record, this is an academic question. I don’t know anyone who is pregnant and there is no chance I will make someone pregnant. But it would help to understand this if I want to know where I stand in the USA national abortion discussion.

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    What you were told is correct. I once heard an explanation that the Torah views the abortion of a non-Jew more stringently than for Jews because the non-Jewish nations tend to treat human life relatively “cheaply,” see the first Mishna the second chapter of Tractate Avoda Zara. In order to clarify that such an outlook is absolutely untenable, the Torah makes abortion a capital crime for non-Jews.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team