You have to wonder how the pro abortion groups are going to get past this one while they attack the Catholic church the Rabbis are now speaking out. Praise God…

Women’s rights activists are furious at a decision by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate to launch a public offensive against abortion.

Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar have written to all
state-employed rabbis urging them to use their pulpits tomorrow to
raise the issue, linking it to the Torah portion in which midwives in
Egypt save Israelite babies in defiance of Pharaoh.

They claim in their letter that the “vast majority” of the abortions
are “unnecessary” and “forbidden by Jewish law”, and argue that the
situation “impedes the coming of the Messiah”.

Despite the public outcry, their request to rabbis still stands, and
a plan to strengthen a two-year-old Chief Rabbinate committee
established to disseminate Orthodox views on abortion is still going
ahead.

According to Jewish law, abortion is not permitted for economic or
social reasons, but is permitted when continued pregnancy or birth
could pose serious physical or psychological danger to the mother. Some
rabbis also deem it permitted if a fetus has a serious illness like Tay
Sachs or in cases of rape or incest.

Israeli law takes a more lenient view. Around 20,000 women apply for
state-funded abortions and in 98 per cent of cases receive the
necessary green light from a panel of doctors and social workers who
consider their request. Common reasons given by the women include that
they are unmarried, deem themselves too young or old to have a baby, or
have evidence that their baby will have a physical or mental defect.

The Chief Rabbis and their sympathisers claim that the most common
reason is actually economic and women just tell panels what they want
to hear.

In addition to the legal abortions, both sides of the debate
estimate that 30,000 women a year circumvent the panel and pay a doctor
privately to terminate their pregnancy.

Irit Rosenblum, executive director of New Family, a non-profit
organisation that opposes rabbinic involvement family affairs, called
the Chief Rabbis’ offensive a “disgrace” designed to restore the taboo
on abortion. As such she considers it a return “to medieval times” and
“a kind of ayatollah-ism”.

Ms Rosenblum was particularly angry about Rabbi Metzger’s comments
to the local media following the release of the letter, in which he
indicated that he views confronting abortion to be part of Zionists’
demographic battle to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel.

This is a “cynical use of women’s bodies under the umbrella of Judaism”, she said.

Among Orthodox Israelis, some consider the Chief Rabbis’ campaign heroic.

“I agree completely with this letter,” said Dr Eli Schussheim, an
Orthodox physician who heads Efrat, a charity that discourages women
from aborting and which is singled out for praise in the letter.

Dr Schussheim dismissed the criticism that the Chief Rabbis are venturing outside their remit.

“This is pure, pure, pure Judaism — nothing connected to politics,”
he said. “Life is the most huge thing in Judaism, more important than
Shabbat, Yom Kippur and all these other things.”

Other Orthodox public figures have a less favourable view. While the
Orthodox feminist movement Kolech did not take an official position on
the campaign, chairwoman Rachel Keren said that personally she felt it
is “irresponsible”.

Speaking about abortion is within the Chief Rabbis’ remit, she said, but the message “must be more complicated”.

‘I couldn’t afford the baby basics’

In February 2005, Mali Aharon of Netanya, then 29, became pregnant
after sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. Unable to meet the cost of buying
the basics for a baby, she considered an abortion.

According to Efrat, a charity that discourages women from aborting,
her thinking is not unusual. Financial worry is the main factor that
leads Israeli women to consider ending a pregnancy, and the global
economic crisis is causing more women to abort their babies.

The Chief Rabbis have claimed that there is a nationwide “epidemic”
of abortions — although Health Ministry figures released on Monday
suggested that demand for abortion has actually dropped by 10 per cent
between 2000 and 2008.

However, Efrat notes that the figures do not cover 2009, when the
crisis really hit Israel. Efrat’s own statistics show a 15 per cent
increase in women contacting it for financial support to enable them to
go through with the pregnancy in 2009.

The Orthodox-run group supported 4,013 women last year, providing
them with baby basics including a pushchair, a bath, a cot, nappies,
formula milk if requested, and cash. Its social workers provided advice.

“There is a financial crisis and lots of people think that another baby will be very difficult,” says Efrat’s
head, Dr Eli Schussheim.

Assistant director Ruth Tidhar reports that around 65 per cent of
people requesting help from Efrat are married, and some are middle
class.

“In Israel we live to the very end of our income so if two people work and one loses their job it causes a real crisis.”

Some of the couples turning to them are even religious or strictly Orthodox.

Some critics consider Efrat to be promoting a reactionary agenda and
take particular issue with its open admission of concern about the
effect of abortions on the demographic balance between Jews and Arabs.
But Dr Schussheim insists that it is progressive and “the highest level
of feminism”. His group, he reasons, enables pregnant women “to make a
decision with all the information and with support to carry through
their decision.”

He also shuns the label “pro-life”, saying: “We are not pro-life, we are pro-choice after information”.

He adds: “We are not looking to change the law, but we are treating the main reason that people have abortions.”

Mali Aharon says that she “prefers not to think” about what would
have happened to her were it not for Efrat. She received support from
the organisation and went through with the pregnancy, alone.

After being “helped back on to my own two feet” by Efrat, last year she got back together with her ex-boyfriend.

The couple wed, and are now expecting a sibling for their first
child, four-year-old Eyal. Both Mali and Amir are non-observant and say
that there was no expectation that they became religious although Efrat
is Orthodox-run and considers its work a religious undertaking.