Buddhism on abortion

I'm going to leave this one to those much more learned,
because I don't know the answer. I could guess or make
something up, but that'd just be my opinion, not Buddhadharma.

I will say however that even Christians make stuff up and allege
their position to be "Biblical." Case in point: nowhere does the Bible
intimate that conception is the beginning of human life. In fact, the
Biblical standard of "life" is breathing! Since no foetus is breathing,
the right to lifers are not correct. Now I'm deinately not making a statement
or position on abortion per se, I'm simply pointing out that there's a disconnect
between political positions and scripture. I'd be interested in somebody
presenting a valid Buddhist view based on Authentic scriptural citation--
be that Abhidahrma, Sutra, or Tantra.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was asked a similar question on his recent tour around Australia.
I can't quote him directly until my copy of the DVD arrives, but basically, if my memory serves me correctly, he said that abortion is killing and killing is one of the ten negative actions which should be avoided. But he also said that each case needs to be judged individually, and sometimes it might be ok to cut off one finger to save the other nine, so to speak.

I personally don't try to look for dogmatic rules in Buddhism.
I'd try to use the teachings to help me understand the consequences of my actions and apply that understanding to try to make a wise decision in each individual case.

Hmm .. all the answers thus far are valid...

My contention is that it is taking a life, even if that life has yet to be given a face, as has been mentioned that life begins at conception.
We can see this is the case on the basis of experience also, as if the mother {host} dies, the foetus also will more often than not die as well. Conception begins the moment the red "drop" of the mother and the white "drop" of the father meet. Or sperm and ovum {if one prefers}, of course there are many other causal relationships going on. Thus I think it should be best to avoid it, who knows one could conceive a tulku, although this is beyond our normal coneptualisation of conception, {though not technically as much so as immaculate conception!} That said, I will turn to what I have heard of the buddhist approach to abortion.

That it needs to be a case by case analysis. ie- Is the birth going to cause imminent danger to the mother, {is the death of a mother caused by the foetus, one would think not intentionally} or, is there a situation of suffering to the child; this of course would need to be a much maligned situation, beyond the normalcy of samsaric suffering that we all a party to. One would necessarily need to have some realisation into the mental continua of the child. This is what Lama Yeshe say's...

Question: What about contraception?

Lama: I’m not going to talk about the Buddhist point of view; I’m going to talk about this monk’s point of view. I have to be careful. However, my observation of the Western world is that contraception is a very good thing because many young people are not ready to have children and when they do, instead of growing, they go crazy. I have students like this. They are young, super-intelligent and well educated, but as soon as they have babies they become unbelievably miserable. I’ve seen intelligent, worldly-wise girls suddenly become terrible, with no capability, no happiness, and no love for their man; they hate everything. It’s incredible. If those girls hadn’t had babies, over time, they could have become incredibly spiritually developed.

Parenthood brings with it many societal obligations; having a baby is a big responsibility. So, for those who cannot control their desire for sexual pleasure, contraception is essential. Also, if you can prevent an unwanted pregnancy from occurring, you eliminate the possibility of having to consider killing the fetus by abortion. Buddhism explains that for a sentient being to come from the intermediate state into a human rebirth the mother’s womb should be healthy and unobstructed. In other words, the conditions should be perfect. If you interrupt the conditions through contraception, it’s OK. It’s certainly better than madness. This is my own observation; I hope it doesn’t upset anybody.

Question: Well, Lama, what about abortion?

Lama: For Buddhists, abortion is difficult. It’s a question of morality, or ethics. But still, it’s a relative question. Let’s say that you don’t have an abortion and that the next twenty years of your life are miserable. And even more misery comes from that. Yet you think nothing of killing fish and small animals. Relatively, which is worse? Good and bad are relative; good karma and bad karma are relative. I’m not making any statement here; it’s just something for you to think about.

At a course on death and rebirth, London, 1981