I went down the rabbit hole (Rabbi hole?) after Rabbi Rutenberg posted
If someone tries to use "be fruitful and multiply" as a Biblical prooftext against abortion, tell them that in Judaism, women are not obligated to fulfill this commandment, because you cannot obligate someone to a mitzvah that could KILL THEM.
Which is EXACTLY about abortion.
The part where men are the ones responsible for the fulfillment of the "be fruitful and multiply" commandment has been a consensus among the Talmudic sages, with a few dissenters. (Talmud reads very much like the old Manwë forum, except some of the posts are centuries apart)
Their reasoning is not exactly progressive in modern terms, but one example specifically concerns a woman using contraception after being traumatized by a difficult birth.
The Gemara relates that Rabbi Ḥiyya’s sons, Yehuda and Ḥizkiyya, were twins, but one of them was fully developed after nine months of pregnancy and one was fully developed at the beginning of the seventh month, and they were born two months apart. Yehudit, the wife of Rabbi Ḥiyya, had acute birthing pain from these unusual deliveries. She changed her clothes to prevent Rabbi Ḥiyya from recognizing her and came before Rabbi Ḥiyya to ask him a halakhic question. She said: Is a woman commanded to be fruitful and multiply? He said to her: No. She went and drank an infertility potion.
Since it was the man's job to multiply, a marriage that has not produced children after 10 years had to be ended. The wife retained the right to her property and could remarry so she could have an opportunity to have children in case the first husband was the cause of their infertility.
This is my favorite bit.
If he said that the cause for their failure to have children is from her, i.e., it is she who is infertile, and she said it is from him, Rabbi Ami said: With regard to such matters between him and her, she is believed. The Gemara inquires: What is the reason for this ruling? She is certain whether his semen shoots like an arrow, whereas he is not certain whether his semen shoots like an arrow
His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, 'You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink."
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
She'd have enjoyed Rabbi Ruttenberg's blog
