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.
(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!]
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