Orthodox Rabbi Defends Unborn Babies in Public Hearing

Orthodox Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter delivered this testimony to the Connecticut Joint Legislative Committee on March 20, 2023. May HaShem inspire other Orthodox rabbis to follow his righteous example.

Esteemed Committee Members,

My name is Rabbi Noson Leiter, executive director of Help Rescue Our Children, based in New York State. HROC works with diverse partners in multiple states, and with partners in Israel, to secure the rights of the frequently disadvantaged, including the preborn, the severely ill and disabled, and victims of child molestation and sexual exploitation. I'm writing to request that the members of this Joint Committee reject the legislation at hand, JR42, which proposes to insert a legal right to abortion-on- demand into the Connecticut Constitution.

Our Sages exhort us that during the culmination of the Exodus from Egypt, which we celebrate in just a few weeks, even the preborn Jewish infants sang praise to G-d for His miraculous deliverance of the Jewish People from the Egyptian Armed Forces (Talmud tractate Brachos, folio 50a, quoting Psalms). This reflects the inherent, inalienable value of preborn lives.

Abortion-on-demand is unequivocally and demonstrably against Jewish Law, both in letter and in spirit, even according to the most lenient authorities. This is not encumbered with even a shadow of a doubt. That's despite whatever else you may be hearing.

Those who insist on ensconcing the mandate for mass-murder of the preborn in legislation, and how much more so into the Connecticut Constitution, would be best advised to comply with basic transparency protocol and reveal their agenda. Any such legislation must be clearly identified for what it truly is: the State mandate for the wholesale liquidation of preborn citizens. That needs to be articulated unambiguously in any ballot amendment.

In plain English, please do not obscure "lethality" under the guise of "privacy." And please do not masquerade the license to end the life of an innocent victim as the right to privacy or choice of the perpetrators and their enablers. Doing so deceives the public and thereby undermines the legislative legitimacy of any such ballot amendment, and its legislative mandate. Furthermore, it establishes lethal precedent, inasmuch as "the road to Genocide is paved with deviant definitions."

Thank you kindly, in advance. Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,

Executive Director,

Help Rescue Our Children 845.642.1679 Direct: 771.215.8892 Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337 Rockland County, NY

torahjewsfordecency@gmail.com