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 isnt 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.
Who’s going to take care of Yael Mishali when/if she becomes disabled?
Oh silly me, the Taxpayers, or course.
Apparently she already is disabled. She was born without a heart.
The "Palestinians."
Our family is friends with another family who has a DS girl. She is the sweetest, most loving and tenderhearted teenager I’ve ever met. There’s a Godly simplicity in her that I honestly envy.
It’s the least they can do, since she’s so helpfully encouraging Jewish people to kill their children.
I have an adopted brother and an adopted sister. Thank God that there were three women, back in the 1960’s, who were not as selfish as the writer of this article!
Thanks for posting this, Alouette.
By denying life status to the unborn, the Supreme
Court has thus decided when life begins. That is
a religious matter and crosses the line into the
establishment of a state religion.
“For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfuly made.... (snip) ... Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance...” (Psalm 139)
When the Supreme Court legalized abortion, it made
a moral (Defined: Good. Defined: Pious. Defined:
Religious) decision. A definitive intrusion of
Government into church affairs. Our Government
cannot force a religion on its citizens, yet by
its decision to legalize abortion, it has created
and sanctioned the state religion of sacrificing
our unborn to the gods of promiscuity.
I believe that Government is not to blame for this
wholesale slaughter of the innocent. Moral decisions
come from Bible-Torah literacy, (Psalm 139), not from
legislation. Roe v. Wade aside, we have not been
forced to kill our babies. Abortion statistics are
staggering because we (yes, I mean Judeo-Christians)
have chosen to murder our unborn.
I believe that liberals have used the abortion debate
to divide and conquer. We need to stop this naive
militancy. In Deuteronomy 11, God tells us clearly
how to raise moral people.
And you shall teach them (Gods statutes and ordinances
V1) to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your
house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. V19.
Though separation of church and state cannot be
found in the Constitution, the following might be
a better way to view the concept
Morality (religion)
is nor Government business. We see the effects of
perverse immoral legislation in gay marriage and
climate change laws.
I believe that the Government is a business and
should be run as a business. We should elect a fiscally
conservative leader. We should elect a military
leader. We should elect a Godly leader. Moreover,
we should be informed and not easily swayed by an
anti-American agenda disguised as concern. It is
nothing but pathetic, alarmist rhetoric. Abortion
and terrorism are both wars against humanity. But
the battleground for the unborn should be (and should
have been) waged from the home (church), not the
Supreme Court!
Jo -— CHAMPION OF CIRCUMSTANCE
That sums it up very well.
Children are looked at as burdens, and at times they can FEEL like burdens.
But in the end - they are the ones who have given us the greatest gifts.
They’ve taught us unconditional love, patience, and kindness, and the value of self-sacrifice.
That sounds like every life that's ever been lived.
This woman does not believe that all human life is sacred. She is advancing a consequentialist argument, in which only the consequences of the abortion are considered, not the morality of the act itself. In her opinion, the consequences of continuing an unwanted pregnancy are worse than the consequences of ending it. Therefore, abortion is justified. While she acknowledges the humanity of the unborn child, she does not believe that the child’s right to life is absolute or that it trumps the mother’s “right” to a problem-free life or her right not to suffer the consequences of her own behavior. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking has become very widespread in our society.
The pro-abort movement has been shifting this direction for the past several years. The argument is no longer when life begins — biology settled that decades ago, and only a few pro-aborts persist in fighting that issue. Now the pro-aborts acknowledge that the fetus is alive, but either argue about metaphysical concepts like “personhood” & “the soul” (who’s the one codifying religion in law, here?), or they take this writer’s stance that killing a child is not only tolerable but downright noble. It’s refreshingly honest, albeit vile & diabolical.
I wonder is she quite ready to accept that should she kill an unborn child that she is a murderer and will in due time receive punishment. I also wonder whether she is willing to accept that by promotion of infanticide then she already is aiding and abetting murder and is just as guilty of muder in God’s eyes.
Maybe the I’s and ME’s will seem ever more imperative when it is judgement time.
Mel
Oh and BTW to this b*tch- my nephew has Down’s Syndrome. He is a person who has Down’s but he is far more than the Syndrome. Joseph is a wonderful gift from God - to treat a any child as anything less is sick!
Mel
Sorry bout the language but people like this make my blood boil.
[... why isn’t support of a constitutional right to abortion equally religious in nature? ...]
Hmmmm.... knowing you, this could be a trick
question, so I’ll just answer from my gut.
Deciding when life begins and when it ENDS is
appointed by God. When a person or the Supreme
Court makes that decision, they are playing God
... establishing religious tenets.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.