Andrea Barron's commentary "Abortion and the Jewish faith" (July 4) and Avi Shafran and Ariel Sadwin's response ("Jewish law restricts abortion," July 13) offer conflicting interpretations of Jewish tradition.
Ms. Barron makes two central points: First, that the fetus is not a human life under Jewish law; and second, that abortion is permissible under some circumstances by all Jewish authorities.
Mr. Shafran and Mr. Sadwin respond that the basis of the anti-abortion movement does not depend on a belief that the fetus is human life and that permissible grounds for abortion are severely restricted under Jewish law.
The exchange illustrates the diversity of opinion among Jews on this topic, a debate that has gone on for more than a thousand years. Mr. Shafran and Mr. Sadwin do not exactly say Ms. Barron is wrong -- she is not -- but they do say she misleads the public about traditional sentiment in these matters.
Yet they too elide the gulf that separates traditional Jewish views on abortion from the current anti-abortion movement in the United States. This they do so by failing to mention that a fertilized egg does not have even the status of a '"fetus" until the eighth week after conception, and by omitting the requirement that in choosing between the life of the fetus and the life of the mother, the mother's life takes priority.
It is impossible, for example, to align Jewish tradition with the Human Life Amendment, which would outlaw not only surgical abortion but also many forms of contraception. Anti-abortion groups also favor blanket bans on late-term abortions, even when that results in grave risk to the mother. Even the most restrictive traditional Jewish views are more nuanced.
Ms. Barron offers evidence that liberal views on abortion are grounded in the Torah; Mr. Safran and Mr. Sadwin are correct in saying that not all Jews take her lenient view and that many Jewish commentators take an increasingly restrictive position as pregnancy progresses.
But their attempt to close ranks with the Christian Right fail. No Jewish commentators give the fertilized egg immediate status as a human life, and no Jewish commentators give the fetus at any stage before birth a right to life equivalent to that of the mother.
Stephen Snyder, Lauraville