Against aspiring for abortion

A foreign based pro-abortion group over the past year has set-up shop in the nation and begun a lobby to make abortion a legal alternative. The aspiring activities of this group have to be deemed as successful to date as they have managed to put abortion in significant quarters of the national agenda. The traditional defender against these pro-abortionists in the Western Hemisphere over the decades has been the Roman Catholic Church. This remains so today and indeed so in Trinidad and Tobago on this latest assault. This is not to say that other religious traditions support abortion. Indeed the reverse is true, as all major faiths abhor abortion. Despite this aspiration of the pro-abortion group the Inter Religious Organisation has yet to make a bold public declaration on the position. Abortion can be defined as the deliberate termination of pregnancy. Selective sex determination and dowry in an India cultural context, the French abortion pill, stem cell research and cloning issues have made Hindu scholars, theologians, and activists over the years develop a well defined Hindu response to abortion.

The global Hindu magazine Hinduism Today (HT) beginning in the mid-1980s dedicated a number of articles on the subject of abortion since then. This Hindu thought on abortion and other such material issues often do not figure in debates on the issue. Hinduism for many only becomes relevant on issues such as yoga, karma, etc. “Modern Western approaches to India, and in particular to Hinduism, have focused on metaphysics at the expense of ethics. As a result Westerners have often tended to see Hinduism as concerned with the esoteric, the otherworldly, the mystical and thus as having a blind eye when it comes to the ethical issues of daily life,” (Hindu Ethics Purity, Abortion, Euthanasia, Coward, Lipner, Young State Univ of New York Press). Hindu Ethics successfully draws on the insights of eastern culture to help define the difficult issues facing religion and society. As these same dilemmas were viewed long ago in Hindu India. According to Hindu scriptures jiva hatya (killing of the soul) is a maha paap (a great sin). It has been said that killing of the child in the womb is a bigger sin than Brahm hatya (murder of a priest).

There are many interesting and beautiful references to the subject of procreation, progeny, pregnancy, motherhood, etc, in the Vedas and the later religious literature. The scriptural commandment is there, of course, clear and plain. The Taittreya Upanishad states specifically: Prajathanthum Ma Vyavathcheth-sehi — “Do not cut the thread of progeny!” (HT August 1986). Hinduism as such brings a profound reverence for life to the subject, and the Hindu tenets of karma and reincarnation. Viewing the soul as dwelling in one physical body after another through a timeless series of births, Hindus do not live in fear of death or Judgement Day. What Hindus do fear is the fruit of bad conduct. Karma is the inexorable principle of cause and effect - what you set in motion will return to you in equal force. Ever hoping for a better share of human happiness and spirituality in future lives, Hindus guard their conduct in full knowledge that they create their own destiny by actions and decisions made now. (HT September 1985). From the earliest times, Hindu tradition and scriptures condemn the practice, except when the mother’s life is in danger.

It is considered an act against rita and ahimsa. Hindu mysticism teaches that the feotus is a living, conscious person, needing and deserving protection (a Rig Vedic hymn 7.36.9, RvP, 2469 begs for protection of foetuses). The Kaushitaki Upanishad (3.1 UpR, 774) describes abortion as equivalent to killing one’s parents. The Atharva Veda (6.113.2 HE, 43) lists the foetus slayer, brunaghni, among the greatest of sinners (6.113.2). The Gautama Dharma Shastra (3.3.9 HD, 214) considers such participants to have lost caste. The Sushruta Samhita, a medical treatise (ca 100), stipulates what is to be done in case of serious problems during delivery (Chikit-sasthana Chapter, Mudhagarbha), describing first the various steps to be taken to attempt to save both mother and child. “If the foetus is alive, one should attempt to remove it from the womb of the mother alive...” (sutra 5). If it is dead, it may be removed.

In case the foetus is alive but cannot be safely delivered, surgical removal is forbidden for “one would harm both mother and offspring. In an irredeemable situation, it is best to cause the miscarriage of the foetus, for no means must be neglected which can prevent the loss of the mother” (sutras 10-11). Himalayan Academy and Hinduism Today founder Subramuniyaswami Sivaya articulates that “the central principles at work here, they are ahimsa — nonviolence — the energy of God everywhere, the action of the law of karma, the strict rules of dharma defined in our holy scriptures, and the belief in reincarnation. “These four make a Hindu a Hindu and make not committing abortion an obvious decision. “By accepting reincarnation, we acknowledge souls existing subtle form in astral or mental bodies waiting to incarnate through a womb. “When that womb is disturbed, this is recorded as a sense of eviction for them, and a serious consequence in their reincarnational patterns, not to mention the effects on the potential mother’s life, and all those connected to her,” (HT January 1993).