Israel – Knesset Committee Rejects Bill Prohibiting Abortion After the 22nd Week

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    FILE - Member of the ultra orthodox Shas party Nissim Zeev addresses the Israeli Parliament on January 04, 2010. Photo by Gili Yaari/FLASH90Israel – The Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs on Monday rejected a private bill proposed by Knesset Member Nissim Zeev (Shas) prohibiting abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy, and implementing a change in the current law which allows abortions during later stages of the pregnancy.

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    In his commentary on the bill to amend the penal law on abortions, MK Zeev wrote: “At 22 weeks the fetus is alive and termination of the pregnancy is murder of the fetus and not ‘abortion’. This is why the claim that prevention of abortion is interfering in a woman’s rights to her body cannot justify the termination of the pregnancy at this stage”.

    According to the MK, termination of a fetus at this stage is “executed in a cruel manner by putting the fetus to death via injection, causing the fetus to endure a great deal of pain.

    “Putting live fetuses to death, when scientific and technological progress means that their lives could be saved outside the uterus, is an immoral and unjustified act in spite of the collision with the right a woman has to her body.”

    In the rejected bill, Zeev claimed that according to the existing law, the committee for pregnancy terminations is given the almost unrestricted authority over the decision to put an end to fetuses’ lives.

    According to figures he presented, over 20,000 legal abortions are carried out in Israel every year, with double that number being performed privately or illegally. So that according to unofficial estimates, around 80,000 abortions are carried out in Israel every year.

    During the meeting, Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) reprimanded a ministry employee who presented a position which was in complete opposition to his own policy. He made it clear that she would not be invited to future meetings.

    Litzman’s policies enraged ministers present at the meeting who stressed that Litzman is only deputy health minister, and that the acting minister was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Shas Ministers Meshulam Nahari and Yakov Margi voted in favor of the bill, the rest of the ministers opposed. Litzman has no voting rights as he is not a minister.

    The committee chairman, Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman, rebuked Litzman for preventing a Health Ministry employee from presenting an opinion he disapproved of.

    “I have allowed ministry employees to present opinions that differ from my own on numerous occasions. I will appeal to the attorney general over the fundamental question of whether a government official is allowed to express an opinion that is contradictory to that of the minister” said Ne’eman to his committee colleagues. An angry Litzman responded: “This isn’t the case”.


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    13 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Its time to get out the ductape and close Litzman’s mouth for good or else just quietly terminate him as health minister. He had no qualifications when he was appointed and over the past two years and caused embarrassment over his sheer ingnorance of public health issues. Now he injects his personal political agenda into a sensitive debate contrary to his own government’s views. Let him stick to principle, resign and never again show himself in public affaris.

    13 years ago

    More young Jewish lives are lost in Israel through abortion than during the holocaust.

    EveryNormalNameWasTaken
    EveryNormalNameWasTaken
    13 years ago

    Thank goodness they didn’t pass that bill!

    This decision should be made between a woman, her husband, their rabbi, their doctor – and that’s it. The government should not make blanket laws to govern issues that MUST be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. This issues is NOT halachically black and white and requires a posek – not a politician – to help determine the correct course of action.

    For instance, there are terminal (meaning, no matter what, the baby will NOT even survive birth) chromosomal disorders that don’t show any signs of being present until around 22 weeks. Giving birth to an enlarged, structurally deformed baby can be physically (not to mention mentally) traumatic to the woman and, in some cases, might even endanger her ability to carry to term and give birth in the future. If a woman finds out this very sad news in her 22nd week, she needs time to discuss all the relevant issues with her doctor and rabbi to determine what the correct course of action is for her.

    This matter should be referred to a posek so that it can be properly dealt with on a case by case basis. Politicians should stay out of it.

    Raphael_Kaufman
    Raphael_Kaufman
    13 years ago

    The halacha clearly is that, if the mother’s life is threatened, and abortion may be performed up to the moment of birth. Absent that threat, abortion is not permitted at all from 40 days after conception.

    cowfy
    cowfy
    13 years ago

    double 007.license to kill. hey bebe is the “acting health minister”.excuse the expression but ham actor at best.

    charliehall
    charliehall
    13 years ago

    #4 ,

    Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli, Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, and Rabbi Levy Yitzhak Halperin all disagreed with your psak, permitting abortions for other reasons.

    charliehall
    charliehall
    13 years ago

    #10 ,

    I think you are partly correct and that four of the five rabbis I mentioned considered emotional factors. Rov Soloveitchik, however, ruled that a Tay-Sachs fetus may be aborted through the sixth month of pregnancy and did not express any indication that the mother’s condition mattered. When another rabbi questioned him on this, The Rav replied simply, “Did you ever see a Tay-Sachs baby?”