Posted on 12/26/2007 6:28:25 AM PST by Alouette
For some people, ending a pregnancy is the only way to keep on living
Yael Mishali Published: 12.26.07, 00:39 / Israel Opinion
Abortion is a type of murder; I have no doubt about that. In this context we can debate over questions such as the duration of a pregnancy and when exactly do several cells turn into a person with a soul, but I have no interest in doing that. I accept the universal assumption that as of a certain moment, we are talking about a real person, and “aborting it” is a type of murder.
And still, as a woman and a mother, I must reject the religious hypocrisy and politically correct attitude of the religious social discourse, and declare that I am in favor of abortions. I support the right of a woman (or parents) to decide to end the pregnancy because she feels it is impossible for her to proceed with it.
When a woman says “I cannot raise this child” I believe her, and I do not wish to force her (or that child) to embark on a life of distress of one type or another.
I am not talking about other women, but rather, about myself. Despite the regret inherent in this realization, I know that I would not be able to decide to raise a child with a serious defect. I would not have been able to find out during my pregnancy that my child suffers from Down syndrome or a similar defect and continue the pregnancy as if nothing had happened.
As a mother, had my daughter faced pregnancy at a very young age, I would strongly recommend that she terminate it rather than punish herself and the child throughout her life because of the mistake she made. Generally speaking, when a mother of five, or three, or two feels that this pregnancy is exhausting her and the only thing she can see in the future is growing mental (or financial) distress, I completely agree that it would be better to terminate the pregnancy and rehabilitate the soul before any future pregnancy.
A question of saving lives?
The Chief Rabbinate decided to act against abortions. They take it for granted that the vast majority of abortions are “not necessary” because the “life of the mother is not at risk.” I agree with them that if we are only talking about actual death, this is not a question of saving lives.
However, if they take the time to visit psychiatric wards at various hospitals and see the growing numbers of ultra-Orthodox mothers who can no longer bear the burden, if they meet mothers who are unable to love the children they did not want to have, if they meet women whose lives were stopped because of an early pregnancy that left them bitter, if they see children whose parents could not devote enough time to them because their siblings were born with a defect, perhaps then the rabbis would be able to expand the definition of “saving a life”.
When a woman says that for her the pregnancy is a matter of life or death, you rabbis (with all due respect) cannot tell her it isn’t so.
I, of course, admire and appreciate all of those people who are not like me. The ones who raise children with defects with great love, and who courageously face any mission God had tasked them with.
I feel the same about people whose daughter has no chance of becoming pregnant too early, or ones for whom a mental or financial difficulty has no meaning. But even those saints must realize that for us, the simple people, terminating a pregnancy is sometimes the only way to keep on living.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
ping for the pro-lifers.
Wow. I am continually amazed at just how evil this world we live in really is. I never seem to finish with becoming thoroughly dissolutioned.
I am tired of the way Down Syndrome children are looked upon as a blight and scourge. This is a selfish and evil way to think.
I thank God that this woman was not my mother.
Haven’t this woman ever heard of adoption?
Why must killing be the only choice?
I reject any arguments for abortion based on the “inconvenience” a child would cause its parents, or the world. The very same logic could be used to clear out the prisons, mental institutions, homeless shelters, retirement homes and AIDS hospices across the country. After all, why would we want to force people to continue an existence if they are unwanted? Isn’t it more humane to save them from a life of being deprived and unloved? And if you don’t let me “terminate” my Grandpa, then don’t be a hypocrite - You take care of him!
All these arguments sound horrific in the contexts I have mentioned, yet many, many people raise them seriously in the context of abortion. And, for good measure, this argument is usually advanced only a moment after the
“it’s only a clump of tissue” justification is tried. So this whole “spare the child (and society) the heartache” excuse actually undercusts the first, on top of everything else.
There are other arguments advanced for abortion - I don’t have the time and energy to go into them. But this type of justification should be seen for the grotesque and uncivilized rationale that it is.
Its so interesting the lengths people will go to justify the unjustifiable.
And she calls this rejection of hypocrisy.
The whole article is an excellent illustration of the moral bankruptcy necessary to "support" abortion "rights." Everything that is wrong and evil about "choice" is summed up in this degenerate column.
frogjerk said, “I am tired of the way Down Syndrome children are looked upon as a blight and scourge. This is a selfish and evil way to think”
You are absolutely right. I really think that as many people who see this who think that can make a rational comment to this irrational/evil author should do so at the site that it is posted. They may never make it public, but the people involved in posting this horrible stuff may well be influenced when they see it. I actually already did this.
Remember, when you want to influence someone in writing, whether it be the editor of a newpaper or a political official, concise is good. Try to think of one important point that can be made crystal clear in a short paragraph. And avoid, like the plague, anything that can be easily dismissed as name-calling or overtly emotional.
Proabortion women commonly will tell you that it "would just be too hard to give the baby away." So they kill her instead. The height of narcissism--for a mother to kill an innocent child, to avoid discomfort.
There, fixed the closing sentence.
Uh... have they heard of an adoption agency? The child they give up in that fashion could someday unknowingly save a parent’s life.
There is so much idiocy in this article that I can’t help thinking the person is possessed by the devil.
The woman’s body ends at the umbilical cord.
I am tired of the way Down Syndrome children are looked upon as a blight and scourge. This is a selfish and evil way to think.
Don’t shoot the messenger on this one, BUT abortions are on the rise in America of this type of child and another disease called Spina bifida. Mostly because of the new test they have for fetuses they have now, and the fact that most young mothers do not have the time to care for them. Also some, some mind you doctors encourage it. I have heard these babies called “mere blobs” by doctors in articles. A lot of moms of downs babies are upset over this because less Downs babies are now being born, and that means less studies on them and less money for programs.
(A) The March of Dimes now strives to prevent birth defects by terminating the defective.
(B) Not all tests are accurate in their diagnosis.
(C) From where came the law that those with non-terminal birth defects were unsuitable for this world?
And even if we accept that argument, that would mean keeping any viable unborn children alive after any procedure - not letting them die, as Barak Obama apparently favors:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18647
[One day I WILL have to learn to post clickable links!]
Haven’t this woman ever heard of adoption?
Why must killing be the only choice?
What does Jewish/Hebrew law say about adoption? Is it allowed or forbidden? Maybe that is why they are choosing abortion. I do not know, that is why I am asking.
I know, the article I read was a little disturbing. It was about Downs and Spina Bifida babies being aborted because they had that illness. Fetal testing had a lot to do with it. But also the money it would take to care for a child like that, and time. Most young mothers just did not want to “deal with it”.
“religious hypocrisy and politically correct attitude of the religious social discourse”
I see those who advocate murder for their own convenience attack others to make themselves feel more righteous about their terrible choice.
Certainly mentally ill, if not actually possessed. I am repelled.
Actually if Israel want abortion clinics I do not mind as much, How many muslim terrorist babies do they abort?
It’s as if the word “adoption” doesn’t even exist.
The answer is Not enough terrorist babies are aborted!! Israel needs to encourage abortion among the muzzies!
Why not? they want to die and go to allah anyway!
The shedding of innocent blood via Moloch worship is what got the children of Israel into such trouble with the Lord long ago. Yet here is this woman promoting a modern version of it in Israel. Very sad.
Abortion is murder but murder is sometimes beneficial when there are social advantages to it and should be permitted.
“As a mother, had my daughter faced pregnancy at a very young age, I would strongly recommend that she terminate it rather than punish herself and the child throughout her life because of the mistake she made.”
Change the position of two words:
“As a daughter, had my mother faced pregnancy at a very young age, I would strongly recommend that she terminate it rather than punish herself and the child throughout her life because of the mistake she made.”
Dilemma solved!!
True, but it times such as those, it helps to be in the majority.
When is killing the innocent a social advantage?
What if congress passed a law prohibiting physicians from charging for abortions. Rather than making abortions illegal, making it illegal for physicians to charge for the abortions?
I bet that we would see a huge decline in the number of abortions that would be performed.
Why? Because the abortion-minded woman is saying, "There is not one other woman on earth that I would trust to adopt my baby. I would rather kill my baby outright, than place him in the arms of another woman who would love him."
It's a repudiation of everything that as ever said by women about "sisterhood," "women united will never be defeated," "solidarity" and all those fine words used by religious women and feminists alike. It's saying, "I would rather reduce my baby to a bloody mound of torn flesh, then let another woman delight in him and treasure him." It's turning thumbs-down on every woman in your life--- your own grandma, mother, aunts, sisters, cousins, sister-in-laws, schoolmates, friends --- and every kind-faced stranger on the street, saying, "No one else can raise my son (or daughter.) I'll kill him first."
A truly desperate woman could at least wait through the pregnancy, give birth, and then leave her newborn in a church or synagogue or a hospital so he could be adopted by someone else. That's the rock-bottom least she could do.
But "No, I'll crush him instead. I'll rub him out." It's treason to womankind --- and to the whole human race.
Only people who can guarantee that their child's life will be completely free of distress of one type or another should contemplate having a child.
If people held to this standard, the World population would be about twelve.
L
NOT WITH INNOCENT LITTLE ONES..HOW CAN THIS BASIC
AFFRONT TO OUR GOD BVEN BEPERMITTED, AND IGNORED BY THE
LAWS OF NATURF...THE HELL WITH THE SUPREME COURT IDIOTS,
AND DUTIFUL (?) POLITICIANS WHO SANCTION MURDER !! JK
I am mocking the author of the original post. It is an attitude that is actually normal on the left who advocate that it is good to kill some people for the benefit of more deserving people or for “society.” I have to remember that many people here are totally mystified by any sort of subtlety or sarcasm.
This also ties in with all those men, and occasionally women, who kill their entire family rather than see them go on without them.
Utter selfishness.
Eliminating "defective" people is nothing new. A fellow named Adolph Hitler considered the Jews "defective" people and aborted 6 million of them. One would think the author would remember that.
Don’t shoot the messenger on this one, BUT abortions are on the rise in America of this type of child and another disease called Spina bifida.
__________
This kind of abortion is OK with me but should be done ASAP. Not when the fetus is older and viable. In sterner traditional societies these kind of “births” were left to die. This kind of abandonment of non viables has gone on forever especially when a tribe or family has limited resources
Sometimes it is difficult to convey that subtlety or sarcasm via a keyboard without other clues/hints via visual or aural means. But now I understand the intent of your post...
Why would an abortion be better, for argument sake, say at 6 weeks than at 20 weeks. in your opinion?
I thank God that this woman was not my mother.
I hate abortion!!!!! But, may-be her mother should have aborted her and, we would not have read the article???
She should include toddlers and elderly relatives in her rant.
And...why not the poor, socially undesirable, assorted enemies, and those declared by whim to be “jerks.”
Interesting details: I hadn't realized that the following people had spina bifida:
People like that give us hope and make us proud of the human race. Somehow, abortion only manages to accomplish the opposite.
The I, me syndrome makes me ill. When I read of Down’s Syndrome as being one of the dreaded diseases, I am even sicker — the most loving, children of Innocence created by God are those so “afflicted”. Her selfishness is disgusting and her acknowledgement that she is wrong is sheer hypocracy.
I raised my step-daughter who has Down Syndrome and Autism. We tried to adopt another Down Syndrome child but there are very long WAITING LISTS!!!!! So why would anyone abort a Down syndrome baby?
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