In North Bay, religious affiliation doesn’t always come with anti-abortion stance

The choice is up to the individual based on their context, as well as their conscience. All Theri advises is that someone who gets an abortion moving forward “should try to actively do things that are protecting life.”

Hurma and pikuach nefesh

The question of religious perspectives on abortion is more direct in the Abrahamic religions of Islam and Judaism — though the answers to that question, like in Hinduism, are similarly abundant.

To Sameh Hussein, director and coordinator of the Islamic Society of Santa Rosa, abortion is a “very, very serious subject, because it has to do with the lives of two people — the mother and the baby.”

In the mainstream Islamic interpretation, Hussein said, a person can terminate a pregnancy before 40 days for “any legitimate reason,” which includes if the pregnancy or birth will cause major hardship. After 40 days, and before 120 days, a pregnancy can be terminated if it risks causing major health concerns to the carrier or the fetus.

At 120 days, Hussein said, “God sends an angel to blow the soul into that baby. So he becomes a human being, or human-being like at that point, and his or her life would have to be protected in every way.” This means that after that time, the pregnancy can only be terminated if it represents a significant danger to the pregnant person’s health.

“I can tell you that the vast majority of Muslims in general, men and women, if a pregnancy happens, they look at it in a very sacred way, they look at it as a human being and it must be protected.” But, Hussein added, “There is big scholarly debate about this. And you have different school of thoughts, too.”

In some Islamic schools, abortion is banned altogether, as is contraception; others take an even more liberal approach to the issue than Hussein described.

East Bay resident Aliza Kazmi, co-executive director of HEART Women and Girls, a Muslim-focused reproductive justice organization, agreed that there is little consensus on issues like abortion in Islamic tradition. However, she added, Muslims in the U.S. largely support some form of access. A 2022 poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found the majority of American Muslims — 56% — believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

In HEART’s education and outreach efforts, the group relies on Islamic scholarship from women and others outside the mainstream, Kazmi said, like Zahra Ayubi, a religion professor at Dartmouth College who calls Islam “on the side of mercy” when it comes to abortion.

“As an anti-harm and public health organization, we also want to bring, in addition to the scholarship itself … people’s lived experiences,” Kazmi said. She referred to the Islamic concept of hurma, or the sacred inviolability of the human body. “We have to do our best, using our free will and our judgment of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s best for our health. I have a responsibility over my body, and my body is sacred.”

Current and past scholars of Judaism agree that if the pregnancy threatens the carrier’s life, it is not just allowed, but required, to terminate it.

“All streams of Judaism see abortion as an obligation to be provided to women when their life is at risk,” said Rabbi George Gittleman of Congregation Shomrei Torah, a Santa Rosa Reform synagogue. “All of us — from the most liberal to the most conservative.”

The same 2022 poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found 75% of Jewish Americans stated that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, the highest proportion of all faith groups surveyed.

The core Halachic mandate of “pikuach nefesh,” or preserving a human life over almost all else, means “it’s an obligation, it’s a mitzvah, it’s a commandment to save the life of the mother,” Gittleman said.

This is because, according to many interpretations, a fetus is not considered a human being. This notion is sourced in several places throughout the Torah and Talmud, including the Book of Exodus, which makes a distinction between the punishment for murder and the punishment for causing a miscarriage.

“When a human life is lost, the penalty is capital punishment,” Gittleman said. “But when a fetus is lost, it’s a monetary compensation.”

At times, the Talmud compares an embryo to water; at others, a fetus is considered a part of the woman’s body. But the Talmud “says unequivocally when the life of the mother is at risk, you can extract a fetus from the womb of the mother limb by limb,” Gittleman added.

In Judaism and all faiths, a more Orthodox contingent may take a harder line approach in limiting the permissibility of abortion.

“The discourse becomes more complicated as Jewish tradition evolves, but it never leaves that traditional basis,” Gittleman said. “In some communities, a threat to the mother’s life would include mental health. In others, it does not. For me and for most of … the non-Orthodox movement, in the end, one’s right to autonomy trumps inherited tradition. The text may limit protecting the life of the mother, but we don’t. We graft on the right of personal autonomy to the Jewish tree.”

'Our religious rights are being infringed’

Though the range of opinions on abortion is wide within and among local faith groups, local leaders all agreed that restrictions on reproductive rights nationwide undermine religious diversity in this country.

Their concerns echoed an amicus brief filed last year in Supreme Court by more than 45 faith-based organizations spanning the religious spectrum, who argued that abortion bans infringe on their freedoms and “the diversity of views within and across religious traditions.” The black-and-white rules, both the brief and locals stated, leave no room for the context and debate that is central to many communities’ religious practice.

“Rather than keep that decision at the level of the individual, what essentially they’re doing is giving authority to the state in the guise of states’ rights to restrict that choice,” said Kaw. “Whether you believe it is right or wrong is irrelevant because what’s happening now is taking the choice away from the individual.”

Though abortion is considered a kind of killing in Buddhism, members of the monastic community are uncomfortable with the anti-abortion movement. Despite its “pro-life” moniker, Theri said, “It appears they’re rooted in creating political divisions and disharmony and disregarding the welfare and the happiness of the parents.”

“We feel we are truly pro-life, but not in that punitive and adversarial style,” Theri said. “The thought that somebody who is involved in an abortion or facilitating and abortion will be put in jail, that would not be our approach at all.”

Anti-abortion advocates and legislators upheld the beliefs of small parts of few religious communities, leaders agreed, at the expense of others.

“If you’re asking if our faith is being represented, no, it’s not,” said Sitaraman. “In my humble opinion, the decision is influenced largely by Evangelical beliefs and does not necessarily represent those of other faiths.”

Four out of five white Evangelicals believe that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, the ISPU poll found, more likely than all other groups surveyed.

“When you understand that abortion is obligated to Jewish society, you see that our religious rights are being infringed from a religious legal perspective,” Gittleman said.

Hussein agreed, saying, “From a religious point of view, I would feel that my religious rights were violated if my wife couldn’t get an abortion and her life was at risk.”

This is why it particularly offensive that political anti-abortion fervor has commonly been dubbed “Christian Sharia” in a crude reference to Islamic law, Kazmi said.

“What’s really problematic about that is it’s Islamophobia, and it detracts from the accountability of who is making these decisions … who are using a very narrow definition of Christianity to pass their political agenda,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Emily Wilder at 707-521-5337 or emily.wilder@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @vv1lder.