Hello yytz,
Thank you for taking the time to explain some of these complications to me — I wish I were versed Halacha to better understand the nuances and their applications to the pressing questions of our day.
I had a thought to bounce off you that has more to do with how the situations might play out than with the letter of the law…tell me what you think: suppose the secular law of the land were to change so that elective abortion for non-life and -health reasons became illegal. In this scenario, a pregnant woman whose health is jeopardized by the pregnancy comes to her rabbi and gets permission (is this called a “heter”?) to get an abortion. Is it likely that the rabbi might be able to direct this woman to a doctor whose views on life and health exceptions are in line with the rabbi’s views?
I am inclined to think that, within reason, it is within the doctor’s discretion to determine what conditions/scenarios jeopardize a mother’s health and life under the law as it currently stands. It seems to me that doctors are making these determinations at present, when pregnant women are past the viability cut-off for abortion that varies state by state — at that point, doctors can only perform abortions if the mothers’ lives or health are in jeopardy. (As sad a commentary as it is, I have some familiarity with the legalities of these situations because in the child welfare law that I practice, we have to be familiar with the law and protocols in this area as they apply to pregnant teenage girls.)
If the doctors are already operating within the bounds of this discretion, would there be difficulty in practice finding such a doctor whose views are aligned with a rabbi’s? Perhaps a frum doctor?