There is no one 'religious view' on abortion: A scholar of religion, gender and sexuality explains

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Japanese Buddhism in particular can be seen as offering a "middle way" between pro-choice and pro-life positions.
56% : The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice notes: "Buddhism, like the other religions of the world, faces the fact that abortion may sometimes be the best decision and a truly moral choice.
49% : Looking at what people do, though, rather than what a tradition's sacred texts say, abortion is common in Hindu-majority India, especially of female fetuses.
49% : While many Buddhists see life as beginning at conception, abortion is common and addressed through rituals involving Jizo, one of the enlightened figures Buddhists call bodhisattvas, who is believed to take care of aborted and miscarried fetuses.
48% : Fifty-six percent of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, whether or not they believe they would ever seek one.
48% : When it comes to official stances on abortion, religions' positions are tied to different approaches to some key theological concepts.
48% : Muslims scholars and clerics, too, have a range of positions on abortion.
47% : As a scholar of gender and religion, I research how religious traditions shape people's understandings of contraception and abortion.
47% : Compassionate choices Buddhists also have varied views on abortion.
46% : The Catholic Church's official line on abortion, and even on any artificial birth control, is well known: Don't do it.
46% : Some bioethicists see Hinduism as essentially pro-life, permitting abortion only to save the life of the mother.
46% : In the United States, there are immigrant Hindu communities, Asian American Hindu communities, and people who have converted to Hinduism who bring this diversity to their approaches to abortion.
46% : That does not mean there is nothing troubling about abortion, but it means that Buddhists may understand that reproductive decisions are part of the moral complexity of life."
45% : Some believe abortion is never permitted, and many allow it until ensoulment, which is often placed at 120 days' gestation, just shy of 18 weeks.
45% : Overall, however 68% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
43% : There are myriad Protestant opinions on abortion.
42% : We tend to think of the religious response to abortion as one of opposition, but the reality is much more complicated.
40% : Catholic theologians place ensoulment at the moment of conception, which is why the official position of the Catholic Church is that abortion is never permitted.
40% : In the end, the Buddhist approach to abortion emphasizes that abortion is a complex moral decision that should be made with an eye toward compassion.
39% : Jewish clergy generally agree that abortion is not only permitted, but mandated, to save the life of the mother, because potential life must be sacrificed to save existing life - even during labor, as long as the head has not emerged from the birth canal.
38% : Where Jewish law on abortion gets complicated is when the mother's life is not at risk.
37% : In general, many Muslim leaders permit abortion to save the life of the mother, since classical Islamic law sees legal personhood as beginning at birth - though while many Muslims may seek out their religious leaders for guidance about or assistance with abortion, many do not.
37% : Formal religious teachings on abortion are complex and divided - and official positions aside, data shows that over and over, the majority of Americans, religious or not, support abortion.
36% : For example, contemporary Jewish leaders debate whether abortion is permitted if the mother's mental health will be damaged, if genetic testing shows evidence of a nonfatal disability or if there are other compelling concerns, such as that the family's resources would be strained too much to care for their existing children.
24% : Fifty-seven percent of U.S. Catholics say abortion is morally wrong, but 68% still support Roe v. Wade, while only 14% believe that abortion should never be legal.

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