Human-centered language may be needed in order to raise awareness in the issue of abortion

We do not need rules for everything.

Christians may misunderstand Jewish legalism, which is merely human-centered language.

This came to a head in our history regarding the relationship between Jewish and ancient Greek thought. The world benefited from many things Greek including discourse, mathematics, astrology, etc.

But the Greeks scoffed at the Rabbis of the Talmud for declaring that the circumference divided by the diameter of a circle is 3. A round number, merely 3, is something we can comprehend.

The Greeks say the circumference divided by the diameter of a circle is pi, that is, 3.1415....a number that reaches until infinity, to perfection.

How silly of those Rabbis, thought the Greeks, they should have known what pi is! Well the Rabbis did know, they simply phrased things in human-centered terms, whereas the Greeks defined down to the sub atomic scale, which is beyond human comprehension.

It may be more useful to think that the mathematics of a circle is 3 rather than a number we cannot comprehend.

If you emphasize the wrongness of a subset of actions, you can succeed in sensitizing people to the wrongness of actions that are connected to that subset.

Regarding reproduction, Jewish law weighs in on two fronts: contraception is only allowed in  some circumstances, some forms are considered to be immoral, and at forty days after conception, the unborn is a full human being. That is five weeks and five days.  Sex outside of marriage is forbidden.

Before 40 days, the unborn is considered to be "like water." 

On the surface this challenges those who hold that life begins at conception, but think for a minute: human beings cannot comprehend either the size of the universe or that of an atom. Tell people that it is a baby at conception, thus abortion must be forbidden even from conception - people cannot comprehend that, so they will dismiss the pro life argument entirely.

But, if you express concepts in human-centered terms, meaning, "see this picture of an embryo at six weeks? You can comprehend that this is a human baby, albeit tiny. To remove it from the womb can only be done in severe, life-threatening cases." That is comprehensible.

If, likewise, you live in a community in which women have their first baby on average a year after they marry, as happens in orthodox Jewish communities, due to restrictions on birth control usage, you see that babies are a normal part of life. 

Put the two together, and you have a language and culture concerning reproduction in which people become sensitized to the sanctity of life on an ongoing basis, then, abortion becomes unthinkable even immediately upon conception.

Ultra-orthodox young women attend seminaries after high school, usually a teacher's college paired with another major, and they often marry say one year into college, and start bearing children.  These colleges are used to accommodating the young mother. 

This is an example of a pro-life society: babies are part of life, so colleges must accommodate.

Sometimes you need to use language that is human-centered in order to raise awareness and sensitize people, getting them to a higher ground.

So, if laws allow abortion only up to the detection of the heartbeat, which is, interestingly enough, at about 6 weeks, (about 40 days - maybe those Rabbis were not so silly, eh?) this WILL lead to saving all babies, because you have sensitized, using human-centered language.

Btw - "like water" connotes flexibility and high-speed change. There is a tradition that this is the best time to pray for the health of the child. This never meant that the unborn, before 40 days, is not living. How could that be, when both sperm and egg are living and must be respected, leading to restrictions on birth control.

The orthodox make no move to render illegal forms of birth control that they hold are immoral. This may be due to their reticence to get involved in the wider world, or just the idea that once people are sensitized, laws on the books are not so necessary. 

Another example of no-need-for-a-rule is the social pressure to complete high school before meeting a matchmaker to set up a meeting for the possibility of marriage. There is no law against marrying at say 16 in our community, but it is so discouraged, via social pressure, that it is quite rare. 

You do not need rules for everything. You do need enough social sensitization that abortion, even if legal until 6 weeks, would be unthinkable.