One should not engage in life-producing sex if one does not wish to support the life which is produced. Existence of life is G-d's choice, but the possibility of reproducing life is a person's choice. We should act responsibly. Only G-d has the right to discontinue life, once it has begun! - D. K. -0/2-/2001
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The imperative to protect all forms of life is clear in the Torah. Even animals are to be slaughtered in a way which respects their lives, and even animals are not to be killed needlessly or frivolously.
Protecting the lives of pre-born children is clearly a logical consequence of what is taught in the Torah, and in the whole Tanakh. The Talmud even teaches:
"Rabbi Meir used to say: from where in the Bible do we derive that even embryos that were in their mothers' wombs sang the song of Moses by the Red Sea after the Israelites had crossed through its parted waters? From the verse which says 'bless God in the congregations, the Lord from the fountain of Israel.'" Rabbi Meir (and also Rav Nahman) interprets the verse as saying that even the embryos that were still in the "fountain" of Israel - i.e., still inside their mothers' wombs - joined the "congregations" of Israelites in singing a song of thanksgiving to the God.
Rabbi Steinsaltz adds: since this was a general revelation of the Divine Presence, not only the great and small among the Israelites saw it, but also those who were yet unborn.
Shmuel ruled that if someone assigns a gift to an embryo, the embryo acquires the property, because the embryo in its mothers' womb is considered as if it is already in existence.
Rambam commented: if someone assigns property to an embryo of which he himself is the father, the embryo does acquire the property (following the Gemara in Bava Batra 142b).
- A. S. -0/2-/2001
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Hi,
The reason so many Jewish Americans, secular or not, support a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy until viability is that it is the camel's nose under the tent, so to speak. It is the straw by which Amalek is trying to make the US a Christian nation. Of course, the majority of Americans profess Christianity, but it is not a Christian nation, at least not anymore. There are no pogroms here, we are free to worship as we choose, we are free to say Aleinu as we wish.
The conservative Christian Right-to-Lifers are the same people who persecuted us in Europe. The right to choose to abort is also the right not to choose to abort. Observant Jews should be in the forefront of those seeking to preserve our non-Christian nation. - S. H. -0/2-/2001
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