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In light of this, a Jewish physician will also be forbidden to perform
an abortion for a non-Jewish woman, for he is causing her to stumble
in the sin of “He who spills the blood of man in man shall his blood
be spilled,” which is forbidden to non-Jews as well. Neither will the
Jewish physician be allowed to refer her to a non-Jewish physician, for
he will thereby causing him to stumble in the sin of shedding blood.

However, the matter needs further consideration, for there are
non-Jewish physicians who are prepared to perform abortions and
even if the Jewish physician won’t help the woman abort, other phy-
sicians will do so. This situation therefore apparently doesn’t meet
the requirement for transgressing the sin of “Do not put an obstacle
before a blind man” (Vayikra 19:14) [i.e. lifnei iver], that the would-be
transgressor and the facilitator be standing “on two sides of the river,”
i.e. the former has no access to the sin without the latter’s assistance.

It seems though, that according to the opinion of the Mishneh
Lemelech (Hilchos Malveh Veloveh 4:2) the Jewish physician will be
forbidden to help her, for the Mishneh Lemelech writes that one Jew
may not borrow money on interest from another Jew, because this
causes the lender to sin and he thereby violates lifnei iver. Although
the lender can find other Jews to whom to lend on interest, this is
not a mitigating factor because those other Jews will also be enabling
him to sin and will also transgress lifnei iver. Since the lender has
no possible way of sinning without someone else enabling him to do
so [by accepting an interest bearing loan from him], whoever ends
up borrowing his money on interest is creating the “stumbling block”
and it is no defense to argue that someone else could have borrowed
the money. Our case will be the same. Any physician who aborts the
woman’s fetus will be sinning, even if he is a non-Jew. Since there is no
way to that the sin can be done without someone else facilitating it, a
Jewish physician is forbidden to help her.1

1. See out extensive discussion of the Mishneh Lemelech’s view earlier, in siman
286.
Now, we wrote in siman 286 that a hospital director is permitted to authorize
an abortion since even if he doesn’t do so, a non Jew will come and do so instead

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