MKs decry Chief Rabbinate's attempts to discourage a woman's right to choose

[Bubba_Switzler]

Is abortion becoming an issue of debate in Israel?

“There is nothing more important than encouraging births - according to the commentaries - and it is our role to raise the awareness on the subject of abortions,” Rabbi Yehudah Deri, a member of the Chief Rabbinical Council, said during the committee hearing. “Women must be aware - many women don’t know that the significance of abortion is murder. The information that we distributed was a rabbinic ruling that abortion is murder, the halacha sees a fetus as a living person.”

“Someone is trying to make this a political issue,” complained MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) in response. “The Chief Rabbinate is in no manner meant to hold hearings on topics of pregnancies, and the decision belongs to each woman. We cannot turn a woman’s body into a political matter. That attempt is inappropriate and unacceptable.”

jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147878219&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

The Rabbis correctly identified abortion as murder. This is not a political issue, but a moral one.

I can imagine political forces trying to encourage families to have more children, in Israel, in Europe, and other places that are suffering a collapse of population. Discouraging abortions can be part of that political strategy. But the moral teaching that abortion is murder, is not dependent on any political considerations. That’s simply a moral issue.

 

[pigtown]

Abortion should be a moral issue but even here in the US it has become more of a political issue. We have laws against killing people but so many people see nothing wrong with murdering the pre-born children. Even Catholic politicians leave their religious teachings behind when they step into the political ring. Those who kill the preborn should be held to the same justice system as anyone else who murders a human being at any age.