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.
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Abortionists will NEVER acknowledge that ALL abortion is the taking of innocent human life and therefore murder.
At their core, you will always find the eugenicist attitude that some lives are "more worthy" of living than others. The culture of death will always push this view, though sometimes more blatantly than others. The Nazis were very open in their belief that the Jews, Gypsies and other groups did not deserve life, Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood targeted the poor and minorities, the enviornmentalists/global warming alarmists believe that only the elites deserve full access to the world's resources. And, a woman going into the abortuary has decided that her "life" is worth more than her unborn child's, though by life she generally means her imagined "right" to not be inconvenienced by the consequences of her own decisions.
Oh yes, sterner traditional societies had lots of infanticide. They also practiced marriage by bride-abduction, trial by ordeal, and civic building projects via mass slavery. They lacked such concepts as "human rights" and "human dignity."
But this is not true of Judaism --- not even "stern traditional" Bronze-age tribal Judaism --- nor of Christianity.
BTW, why do you put the word "births" in quotes? Are babies born with medical problems not human? And are they not "born"?
A dismissive attitude toward handicapped babies calls into question, not their humanity, but our own.
The test done for Spina Bifida is called a triple check. It is done at 13 weeks.
A positive for a neuro-tubal disease can indicate something as simple as a curvature of the spine, that does not debilitate at all to anencephaly, a child with an undeveloped brain.
At the time of a triple check, one is already over a first trimester abortion. Taking your reasoning, a positive for a neuro-tubal means abortion. Lots of perfectly healthy babies would be aborted. How soon is soon enough for you?
And have you noticed? America is far from having limited resources.
Excellent points.
” 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. “
Wow.
If had this mentality I would have aborted my last four children.
After all...the little buggers make me tired! I’ve been tired for years!
Dennisw said “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.”
Your use of the word ‘viable’ is misguided at best. You do not know what would have happened with any of those births had the lives not been snuffed out too early. The best way to judge that is to look at people who have these afflictions who did live, many of which are more than ‘viable’ human beings.
You reference to the concept of harsher societies that have abandoned sickly infants is really no better. We are not such a society and we would not be improved by becoming one. And even saying that much is giving in to your first mistake rather than pointing out that many innocents who have been murdered because of the lie of ‘viability’ may very well have done far better than was predicted by a the humanist element of our society.
This reminds me of an ongoing frustration I’ve had with reading on freerepublic that many people here like to make a huge disticntion between being socially conservative vs. being economically conservative. I cannot agree with those ‘social conservatives’ who are willing to mess up with liberal economics nor with those ‘economic conservatives’ who are willing to go the Marxist route with things like abortion/euthanisia arguments.
We all share a common enemy. And that enemy is Marxism. What we need to do is realize that Marxism can win on either front and then just take over on the other. If you give them one, you might as well just give up all together.
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"Abortion is a type of murder; I have no doubt about that. ... and declare that I am in favor of abortions."Great. Evil incarnate.
Just put me in a room with Yael Mishali for 5 minutes.
My, my 9 kids, and my 19 grandkids.
LOL!
I love the part where women are supposed to restore their soul by having an abortion.
There are many women out there claiming the abortions ate away at their souls and they never got over it.
Telling women abortion is the answer to continue on with a pleasant life is telling them a lie.
friend’s who discuss ping *wink-wink*
This was almost impossible to believe then I remembered Israel does have a history of child sacrifice.
FSM Said: “I cannot agree with those ‘social conservatives’ who are willing to mess up with liberal economics nor with those ‘economic conservatives’ who are willing to go the Marxist route with things like abortion/euthanasia arguments.”
Diana says:
The Naked Communist by Cleon Skoussen, former FBI Agent, 1958. (This information is also contained in the Congressional Record for 1963.)
#10 - Capture one or BOTH of the political parties in the USA.
They’ve got one and they’re seriously gaining ground in the other. It’s maddening!
Forest. Trees. Cut a few down and see clearly, Freepers!
Voluntary abortion is, in ALL cases, deliberate and premeditated, which are both critical elements of first degree murder.
I had the exact same thought. God help her daughter should she ever become disabled.
So she is in favor of murder. Nice lady.
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