The Jewish view on abortion is rational and middle of the road. It takes into account a person's quest for spiritual greatness, and also the realities of everyday life; these two aspects of a person's life often come into conflict with one another. Many people aspire to be great spiritually, however, what they face everyday can come into conflict with this aspiration. Many of the decisions that people are forced to make in everyday life can diminish their spirituality, whether conscious or unconscious. In the case of abortion, many women decide to abort an unborn fetus without the proper spiritual guidance and secular counseling, and this choice can destroy their aspirations of spiritual greatness.
             The Aish rabbi says that a woman has free choice over her body, but that there are limits to this choice. A woman may have free choice over her own body, however, a woman does not have the right to commit murder, which many people deem abortion to be. Jewish law says that a baby becomes a full-fledged human being when the head of the baby emerges from the mother's womb, however, before this the fetus is considered a partial life. The Aish rabbi says that a person is not permitted to destroy a partial life, and this is exemplified in the Talmud: when a building collapsed on Shabbat, the rescue crew did not know if there were any people trapped in the rubble, if there were people trapped, or if they were dead or alive. The rescue crew dug out the rubble of the collapsed building on the chance that there may be people, either dead or alive, trapped underneath. They took this chance because there may have been human life under the rubble, and every part of human life has infinite value. The Jews consider all human life valuable, even if it is doubtful or partial. This also applied to the case of abortion. Since a fetus that is still in the mother's womb is considered a partial life, it has infinite value...