Israel's rabbis urge anti-abortion drive
2013-01-03 14:02
Jerusalem - Israel's two chief rabbis have urged the
country's religious establishment to back an organisation campaigning against
abortion, Israeli media said on Thursday.
"We must support organisations that give financial assistance
to women who do not wish to have abortions, because it is murder that deserves
no pity," Yonah Metzger, the chief Ashkenazi rabbi, told Israeli military
radio.
In a joint open letter, Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi
Shlomo Amar said that the work of the Efrat organisation could "save 4 000
human lives in a year”.
The Haaretz daily said rabbinical support for the work of
anti-abortion campaigners was nothing new, but that the language employed in
the letter was unusually harsh.
"This year we hope to raise awareness among a larger
part of the public about the extremely grave nature of the decision to kill a
foetus," the rabbis wrote.
Abortion is legal in Israel for girls who become pregnant
under the age of 17, for women over 40 and for any women who has been raped or
is the victim of an incestuous relationship.
It may also be authorised by a medical committee in cases
where the pregnancy endangers the woman's life or the foetus is malformed.
