For Pro Choice

Hindu scriptures and tradition have from the earliest of times condemned the practice of abortion, except when the life of the mother is in danger. Hinduism teaches that the fetus is a living, conscious person needing and deserving protection. Hindu scriptures refer to abortion as garha-batta (womb killing) and bhroona hathya (killing the undeveloped soul). A hymn in the Rig Veda (7.36.9, RvP, 2469) begs for protection of fetuses. The Kaushitaki Upanishad (3.1 UpR, 774) draws a parallel between abortion and the killing of one’s parents. The Atharva Veda (6.113.2 HE, 43) remarks that the fetus slayer, or brunaghni, is among the greatest of sinners (6.113.2).

In modern times, India’s greatest apostle of nonviolence, Mohandas Gandhi, has written: “It seems to me clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime” (Mohandas Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers, Autobiographical Reflections, New York: Continuum, 1980, 150.) The international Hindu periodical Hinduism Today acknowledges: “Across the board, Hindu religious leaders perceive abortion at any stage of fetal development as killing (some say murder)... and as an act that has serious karmic repercussions.” For example, Swami Kamalatmananda of the Ramakrishna Monastery in Madras, India, has said: “No human being has the right to destroy the fetus. If having a baby is economically and socially problematic, one can very well take precautions to avoid such unwanted birth rather than killing the baby. Precaution is better than destruction” (Hinduism Today, March 1986).

Commenting on the Hitopadesa, an ancient Sanskrit text, Satyanarayana dasa observes: “At present, people generally unite only for sensual pleasure, and children are often considered a regrettable accident... Abortion being accepted as standard practice, people conveniently forget that life begins at conception, by using such euphemisms as ‘tissue’ when referring to the fetus. Although subconsciously they know that they are killing the baby in the womb, they prefer to say they are ‘terminating the pregnancy,’ or ‘removing the tissue’ so they may feel free of the guilt for murder, thus deluding themselves psychologically... they cannot escape the punishment for murder given by the laws of karma, and in their next lives they will have to suffer the misery of repeatedly being aborted.” (Satyanarayana dasa, Hitopadesa, Faridabad, India: Jiva Institute, 1997). Hinduism teaches that abortion, like any other act of violence, thwarts a soul in its progress toward God. Why does the Hindu community seem silent on the abortion issue? Dr K S Krishnan of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Kerala, India, offered this explanation for the apparent silence: “Personally, I feel that a sannyassi (monk) should have no chance of discussing the private life of a lady. That can only happen when a lady approaches him to become a disciple.”

Hindu writer Vasu Murti observes that “One need not be a Hindu or even share the Hindu belief in reincarnation to conclude that the practice of ahimsa towards all is the only way to stop the cycle of killing that surrounds abortion.” As Dr Venkateswaran comments: “No particular religion, including Hinduism, teaches the only, exclusive way to God and salvation. All authentic, genuine paths and traditions lead to the One God and are facets of love and light.” The non-Hindu Marjorie Spiegel, author of The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, writes: “All oppression and violence is intimately and ultimately linked, and to think that we can end prejudice and violence to one group without ending prejudice and violence to another is utter folly.”

A contemporary Hindu spiritual master, Srila Hridayananda dasa Goswami, comments on this shortcoming of the anti-abortion movement: “Insisting that human life begins at conception, the anti-abortion movement seeks to shock us into the awareness that abortion means killing—killing a human being rather than an animal, a bird, an insect, or a fish. Thus although the movement calls itself ‘prolife,’ it is really pro-human-life. Its fudging with the terms life and human life reveals a disturbing assumption: that nonhuman life is somehow not actually life at all, or, if it is, then it is somehow not as ‘sacred’ as human life and therefore not worth protecting... If the prolife movement can become part of a broader struggle to recognise the sacredness of all life... then undoubtedly it will gain great success.” (Hridayananda dasa Goswami, Is Something Wrong in the Right to-Life Movement?, Back to Godhead 17: 2-3, Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1982).

It is important to note here that the karmic repercussions of abortion, grave though they may be, are not “punishments” in the sense of being the personal vengeance of a wrathful, judgmental God. They are simply the consequences of violating a natural law—whether that law is violated out of ignorance, fear, or whatever other possible motive. These spiritual leaders are not intending to act as agents of such a God, but to help people become more mindful and compassionate in their behavior, and to promote the evolution of all the souls that may be harmed through an abortion — the child’s, the mother’s, the father’s, the abortion providers.

“For those Hindus who are not aware of the (soul-evolutionary) truths, it is our responsibility to advise them not to undertake abortion,” says V R Kandasubramaniam, an elderly scholar from the Sister Nivedita Academy in Madras. Female feticide is a powerful example of how abortion—like any other violence to sentient beings—proves that an injury to one is indeed an injury to all. Hinduism compellingly explains why this is so, but one need not be Hindu to also conclude that abortion generates bad karma which harms the whole web of life.