Hsing Yun is a Chinese Buddhist master who is in his late 90s. He is very progressive in his thinking and teaching. Writing about women and abortion, he does understand that "the Buddhist position on abortion is that the unborn child is also a sentient life and therefore, having an abortion is a form of killing."
However, he also understands the complexities which evade simple moral teachings. As an example he notes "if a woman is pregnant with a fetus that will surely be severely handicapped, can a third party tell her that she must not have an abortion? After she bears the child, she will spend decades raising it, and will any of those people be around to help or even care about her then?"
Master Yun also cites the case of a woman who pregnant from the result of rape. Can any third party demand she give birth under such circumstances? "Some questions cannot be easily answered from the standpoint of laws or morality alone" he says realizing there can be many complex factors present in nearly every case.
His conclusion is that having an abortion should be the woman's choice: "It is best to allow the person who is most affected by the abortion to have the right to decide what she wants to do, which means the pregnant woman should have the right to make the decision for herself.
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