Rabbinic Literature
The Torah says little about the status or treatment of the embryo or fetus. Indeed, only one crucial Biblical law establishes a rule about the killing of an embryo or fetus. Specifically, Exodus 21:22-25 states:
When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman so that her children depart (yatsa), but no other damage (ason) ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman's husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
Under Jewish Biblical exegesis, abortion is not deemed murder. Instead, unintentional abortion is a form of damages subject to monetary compensation. Conversely, the killing of the mother—the other damage (ason)—is murder.
Read more about this topic: Judaism And Abortion
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“Despite your best efforts, you could not invent a better police force for literature than criticism and the author’s own conscience.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)