המוסד למען קדושת חיי אדם
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We're Making the Original Pro-Life Religion Pro-Life Again! ✡︎

✡ PRO-LIFE RABBIS ✡

Rabbi Simcha Wasserman zt”l

"Hashem gave women a very strong sense of intuition or Binah in order that mothers will be able to communicate with their infants and to feel and understand his or her needs."

✡︎ The Jewish Soul 
✡︎ A Simple Thing 
✡︎ At One With God 
✡︎ In Everything    
A poem by Rav Wasserman
Rabbi Bachya ben Asher zt”l
Rabbi and scholar of Judaism, best known as a commentator on the Hebrew Bible in Spain.
"There are three stages in a man's life: (a) in the womb, (b) in this world and (c) in the world to come.When the child is in the mother's womb all his needs are met. If it were up to him, he would remain there forever. When he leaves the womb it is because he has no choice in the matter. In truth, whatever takes place in the womb is wondrous and beyond our comprehension, such as how the infant exists in that environment, and what it is that forces him, at the appropriate time, to emerge from there. Just as the understanding of the workings of this phenomenon is hidden from us, so too the work of G-d, in general, is hidden from our comprehension and is wondrous. The fact that we cannot comprehend it should not prevent us, however, from appreciating and seeing the hand of G-d and the wonders of His creation, every day, as we go about our daily lives." 
Rabeinu Bahya ibn Paquda zt'l
Author of the first Jewish system of ethics, Chovot HaLevavot, The Duties of the Heart, and judge at the rabbinical court in Spain.
"At the beginning of a human being's existence, the Creator appointed the mother's body to serve as a crib for the fetus so that it might abide in a safe place, a strongly guarded fortress, as it were, where no hand can touch it, where it cannot be affected by heat or cold, but is shielded and sheltered and where its food is ready for it. Here it continues to grow and develop, even becomes capable of moving and turning, and receives its nourishment without any effort or exertion. This nourishment is provided for it in a place where no one else can in any way reach it, and is increased as the fetus develops until a definite period."
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon zt”l (Maimonides or Rambam)
Author of Mishneh Torah, a
codification of Halacha,
astronomer, and physician.  
"The definition of murder according to the Noahide Laws includes a person who kills "even one unborn in the womb of its mother," and adds that such a person is liable for the death penalty.”

The Rambam's comments in Mishneh Torah.

"Men like the opinions to which they have been accustomed from their youth; they defend them, and shun contrary views: and this is one of the things that prevents men from finding truth, for they cling to the opinions of habit." 

Rabbi Joseph ben Ephraim Karo zt”l Author of the Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch is the code of Jewish law most referenced for Jewish legal opinions. It contains the opinion that all Sabbath rules prohibiting carrying, working and traveling must be violated to help a Jewish woman in labor.
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l
President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
"Not only are Jews prohibited from having an abortion (except in the most extreme circumstances), but they are prohibited from assisting non-Jews from having an abortion too. According to halacha, abortion is prohibited for non-Jews; it’s actually a capital crime. A Jewish doctor may not perform an abortion even if it would result in antipathy towards Jews." (Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 2:73:8) In responsum 69, Rav Moshe not only categorizes abortion as bloodshed; he takes the rare step of unequivocally warning against relying on an erroneous heter for aborting Down Syndrome babies."
 
Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l
Rosh Yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University
“I consider the society of today as insane…I read from the press that in Eretz Yisrael they permit abortions now! Sapir comes to the US and asks that 60,000 boys and girls should leave the US and settle in Eretz Yisrael. When a child is born, it’s also immigration to Eretz Yisrael, and yet you murder the children.”Rav Soloveitchik then predicted:“And if you kill the fetus, a time will come when even infants will be killed…The mother will get frightened after the baby will be born…and the doctor will say her life depends upon the murder of the baby. And you have a word, mental hygiene, whatever you want you can subsume under mental hygiene…And there is now a tendency for rabbis in the US to march along with society, otherwise they’ll be looked upon as reactionaries."


In 1975, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik said: “to me it is something vulgar, this clamor of the liberals that abortion be permitted.”He wrote on corresponding Noahide themes, “Our task was and still is to teach the Torah to mankind, to influence the non-Jewish world…. In a word, we are to teach the world the seven mitzvot that are binding on every human being."

Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik zt”l
Rosh (Brisk Rabbinical College in Chicago
After New York State Legalized Abortion in 1970:"Sometimes we must protest under sacred and noble causes. It bleeds my heart that none of the Jewish organizations in New York protested......We are more guilty than any other people; we are more ashamed than any other generation." 

Read Rabbi Soloveichik's complete statement.

The Torah is compared to the sneh, the Burning Bush, because “fire gives heat, light and devours fuel, but the light of Torah must only give warmth and light, love and hope; it must never be used to destroy or kill. This is not Torah; it is a perversion of Torah.”
Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik referred to second-trimester abortion as shefichut damim and argued:"The third trimester is arbitrary. It is grounded in a desire to adjust HaKadosh Baruch Hu to one's capricious desires. It is paganism...They think that a woman in the sixth month of pregnancy, since she is before the third trimester, her right to liberty takes precedence over the fetus's right to life. That is moral values? That is paganism. That is the philosophy that motivates the mechashefim and the pagans." 
Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller zt”l
Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago and Member of Agudath Israel of America.
Rabbi Keller condemned the new abortion law in New York State. In an article entitled “The Unbridgeable Gap: A Torah Look at the American Reality” published in The Jewish Observer in May 1971, Rabbi Keller made this observation: "Then (it was just before Pesach) one of the legislators arose, and with tears in his eyes, in effect said: How can I sit at the Seder with my family knowing that my vote caused this measure to be defeated? He, therefore, in the name of all that Pesach stands for, changed his vote, which was the decisive one vote passage of the bill. In the State of New York, as of today, close to one hundred thousand human lives have been snuffed out before they had a chance to see the light of day, all in the name of Jewish liberalism." 
Rav Elazar Shach zt”l
Dean of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak
Rav Shach on Chumash Parashas Va’eschanan p. 215. “The only relevant factor is prolonging life. Even if the quality of life will be reduced and there will be what appears to be unnecessary suffering, life is paramount. We find that our master, Moshe, asked to remain alive even. As a bird! What value can life as a bird have - he cannot fulfill mitzvah as a bird! Yet, one who knows that everything that HaShem created was created for His glory, and that each creature adds to the glory of Heaven in this world, knows the true value of each second of life, in whatever state! "
Rabbi Joseph Karasick zt”l
President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
"To destroy a human embryo is sacrilegious interference with life itself and akin to murder. Only when there is actual and acute danger to the life of the mother does Jewish religious law permit termination of pregnancy,” he said. According the the rabbi, the Talmud asserts that “whoso sheds the blood of man within man his blood shall be shed.” This has been traditionally interpreted as constituting a commandment against the killing of unborn children."
Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon zt”l
President of the Rabbinical Council of America.
"No woman was the “final arbiter about the disposition of her body and the embryonic human life flourishing therein. “Doctors, too, must face up to the moral dilemma: whether they can play havoc with the basic worth and dignity of human life when they freely perform abortions. In Judaism, the life of an unborn child is sacred and only when It is a threat to the mother can the moral issue of abortion be resolved. For each person to decide arbitrarily, on the basis of economics or convenience, whether a fetus is to survive is literally for man to play God and is religiously blasphemous and socially destructive."
Rabbi Joshua Sperka zt”l
Rabbi at Congregation B’nai David, Detroit Michigan
Detroit Rabbi Joshua Sperka was one of the first anti-abortion activists to speak in the graphic terminology that has marked the movement during testimony on the abortion bills."We have experienced the impact of a society which, step by step, has betrayed humanity's essential reverence for the sacredness of human existence," he said during a Senate Judiciary committee meeting in 1967. "These words disguised the mass murder of a people. We are dealing with human life and the consequences of this proposal no man can foresee."
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l
"Abortion is murder and today we are desensitized to (this kind of) murder because of its frequency."


"Abortion is murder of unborn children. When murder becomes the law of the land, we are indeed in need of Heavenly mercy."

Rabbi Kamenetsky's comments in The Abortion Bill In Israel. The Jewish Observer. p.9.
Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler zt”l
Professor of Medical Ethics at Yeshiva University
“Abortion is included in the Noachidic prohibition of murder.”
Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog zt”l1st Chief Rabbi of Israel
In 1942 Rabbi Herzog wrote about abortion in Israel vis-a-vis the slaughter of children in the Holocaust: “It is a hideous sin, a double sin, against the laws of our holy Torah and against the future of our Jewish nation. It is a grave sin against the laws of our sacred Torah, which is a Torah of life, which desires life and the multiplication of life." 

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l Former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain
"This is not to say that Jewish and Catholic views on abortion are completely different. In practice, they are quite close, especially when compared to the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome, or the secular West today, where abortion is widespread and not seen as a moral evil at all. Judaism permits abortion only to save the life of the mother or to protect her from life-threatening illness. A fetus might not be a person in Jewish law, but it is a potential person, and must therefore be protected. In Judaism, abortion is not murder. In Catholicism, it is."
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt”lRebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
Advising an expectant mother in 1971, Rabbi Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) wrote, “Should there be those who desire to persuade [you] that — God forbid — you perform an abortion: Tell them that this constitutes deliberate murder of a creature who is as yet unable to protect himself from those who seek to murder him.” 
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein zt”lRosh Yeshiva/Kollel at Yeshiva U. Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshivat Har Etzion in Jerusalem. 
“Abortion on demand is a moral abomination, whoever the fetus may be. We have much to learn from the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who took up the cudgels for a modicum of prayer in the public schools. Unquestionably, we shall be far more concerned if and when our own are involved. Insouciance is, however, out of the question.” 
Rabbi Norman Lamm zt”l
Ret Chancellor of Yeshiva U.
“The freedom of parents to crush prenatal life, which now seems to be in vogue, will eventually lead to utter destruction,” Rabbi Norman Lamm stated in 1970, “because it is only a small leap of logic from feoticide to infanticide, to getting rid of infants who may not fulfill our ideals of mental and physical health, or, eventually, ethnic and genetic respectability.”

Rabbi Lamm's Shavuot II 1970 sermon Why Moral People Need Torah.

Rabbi Lamm reiterated those themes in a sermon from 1976: “Never, never, must we allow this desacralization of life — whether in the form of benevolent euthanasia or free and easy abortions … or any of the other manifestations of this fundamental antagonism to life — to influence us.”

Rabbi Pinchas Teitz zt”l
Dedicated to rescuing threatened Jews in Europe and America. 
"Shedding innocent blood in Jewish life is so reprehensible that at times even those not responsible for the act of murder who hear of such an incident must dissociate themselves from it. This is expressed by the recitation of the elders of the city in whose proximity a dead man is found. In the eglo arufo ceremony that the Torah mandates, they must wash their hands, saying: "Our hands did not shed this blood," even though there is no reason to assume that they were directly involved in the death. How, then, are we to respond with less than shock to the killing of 100,000 fetuses through abortion in Israel, year after year? This is certainly a sin against Torah . .. It is a crime against Jewry, against mankind, and even against the Land itself - for the Torah clearly warns that the Land, in its sensitivity to corruption, can tolerate no bloodshed. The Midrash relates that in ancient Egypt, a tiny Jewish child, born prematurely, tumbled into the mortar from which the bricks were made. The Angel Gavriel scooped up the brick encasing the infant's form and presented it before the Almighty as an accusation against the cruelty of Pharaoh's slave-labor. This evoked the Almighty's mercy and the Jews were redeemed. For the sake of the security of our people in EretzYisroel, we cannot permit the sanction of a practice that mirrors the brutality of ancient Egypt."
Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt”lAmerican Haredi rabbi, author, and lecturer.
Their blood cries out from the earth,” Rabbi Miller said of Israel’s abortions. 

Eretz Yisroel is a country of a great deal of abortions. Authorities have said that at least two hundred thousand Jewish children were aborted from the beginning of the state until a few years ago. But now it’s much more. While the Arabs are having children like nobody’s business. They never had so many children before. Because the Arabs in Eretz Yisroel are getting the best medical treatment. The Arabs in Israel are increasing more than the Arabs in any other place in the world.

Rav Immanuel Jakobovits zt”l
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth and Jewish medical ethics expert.
Abortion in Israel is “mass slaughter of the innocents … posing a security problem graver than any threats of war or terror."
Rabbi Abraham Gross, Past President of the Rabbinical Alliance of America
At a 1972 rally in Central Park urging the repeal of New York State's liberalized abortion law, Rabbi Gross declared,“Let us call abortion by its proper name — murder."
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Har Bracha in Israel, author of Peninei Halachah” a series of books on Jewish Law, and Rabbi of the community Har Bracha.
"...it is clear that a Jew may not kill a fetus, as there is a general principle that anything forbidden to non-Jews is forbidden to Jews as well. The purpose of the Torah is to sanctify the Jewish people and to demand much of them when it comes to mitzvot, so it is inconceivable that something forbidden to non-Jews would be permissible for Jews (Sanhedrin 59a). Thus, once we know that a non-Jews may not kill a fetus, it follows that Jews may not, either."
Rabbi J. David Bleich, Author of Contemporary Halakhic Problems. Authority on Jewish law, ethics, and medical ethics. Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva U. 
"A Jew is governed by such reverence for life that he trembles lest he tamper unmindfully with the greatest of all divine gifts, the bestowal or withholding of which is the prerogative of God alone. Although he be master over all within the world, there remain areas where man must fear to tread, acknowledging the limits of his sovereignty and the limitations of his understanding. In the unborn child lies the mystery and enigma of existence. Confronted by the miracle of life itself, man can only draw back in silence before the wonder of the Lord."


"There are those who maintain that the prohibition against feticide is applicable from the moment of conception and deem the fetus to be a nascent human being even in the earliest stages of gestation. According to this view, the zygote may perhaps be viewed as having already acquired identity and parentage."


"Since the sole available medical remedy following diagnosis of severe genetic defects is the abortion of the fetus, which is not sanctioned by Halakhah in such instances, amniocentesis, under these conditions, does not serve as an aid in treatment of the patient and is not halakhically permissible. Initiation of this procedure in the absence of a therapeutic goal poses a pointless medical risk to both mother and fetus and also constitutes an act of ḥavalah—an unwarranted assault upon the mother."
Rabbi Mayer Stembler 
Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine
“The Torah sanctifies life, which means we cannot take lightly the taking of the life of a fetus, who holds the potential of decades of human life,” Stambler said in a statement. Aborting a fetus, if not performed to save the mother’s life, could be tantamount to murder — a view, he said that “has been the position of the rabbis of Poland throughout history and is the position of anyone who cares about the authentic Jewish tradition.” 
Rabbi Yosef Berger, Rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion
"Shortening life in any way is most assuredly a sin and delays the final redemption." He quotes the last verse in Psalms to illustrate how every moment of life is a unique opportunity to praise the Creator. "God breathed life in Man,” Rabbi Berger said. “The purpose of life is to praise God. Anything that lessens life, reduces God’s praises and delays the Redemption. Euthanasia denies the inherent sanctity of life, denying that life comes from God. The Children of Israel were supposed to be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years but were actually in Egypt for much less.The Bible describes that the Children of Israel multiplied greatly. It was this increase of life, this love of life, that shortened the exile in Egypt. Pharaoh tried to lengthen the exile by throwing the male babies into the Nile, offsetting the Israelite’s fertility, thereby lessening the power of life and increasing the exile.There is a very simple rule: anything that increases life is from God and brings the Messiah closer. Anything that increases death is precisely the opposite and delays the Messiah. Killing children was a pagan ritual, most notably burning children alive for Ba’al. When Pharoah ordered the Israelite children thrown into the Nile, it was only the boys since this was a more ‘worthy’ sacrifice to the Egyptian gods. The natural order is for the parents to protect their children, which is why Moses refused Pharoah’s offer to leave Egypt so long as the children and elderly stayed behind. Sacrificing the children and elderly in the name of survival is a trait of the godless and doing so certainly delays the Redemption." 
Rabbi Shimon Cowen, Director of the Institute for Judaism and Civilization. Known for his research on, and advocacy for, the Noahide Laws.
“The opposition of Noahide law to the abortion of an unborn life, except in very special circumstances, embodies one of the deepest norms of human society, the protection of life.” In other words, Torah forbids abortion on demand, whether by a Jew or non-Jew. The ‘pragmatic’ consideration that if we insist on this, another purported ‘religious’ position, which does not allow the exceptions provided by Noahide law, could also prevail, in fact panders to moral relativism. It supports the extension of this global mass phenomenon of killing, both morally wrong itself and with all kinds of further corrosive consequences for society. So too, it is spurious to allow a person a so-called "civil liberty" to abort. There is no such liberty to kill, in the sights of Noahide law."
Rabbi Chananya Weissman
Educator, author and host of 
F.I.M. Torah Fellowship
"It should not need to be debated that unborn children have the right to be born, and the lives of the elderly and infirm are no less precious than the lives of society's most fortunate. The rich and powerful do not have the right to decide the value of anyone's life, nor when someone has “already lived their life” and it's time for them to go. That is strictly the purview of God, who forbids us to make such distinctions or calculations, even for the alleged “greater good." It's always for the greater evil. It's always to displace God. The Torah teaches that every life is a unique world, and every moment of every life is infused with the potential to achieve great spiritual heights. One can achieve a share in the world to come with a single heroic act (Avoda Zara 17A and 18A), and one can repent his sins in a quiet moment of reflection (Kiddushin 49B). 
That “unresponsive” hospital patient may well be engaged in powerful repentance right before an “enlightened” doctor pulls the plug on his life. Cheating anyone out of a single moment of life robs them of this great potential, reduces human life to nothing more than another commodity in a marketplace, and wages war on God. One who shortens a dying person's life by a single moment is a murderer according to the Torah the same as one who murders anyone else.God's first instruction to Adam and Eve was to fill up the earth, without limit. Procreation is an obligation, not a “lifestyle choice”. Children are a blessing, not a burden, and certainly not the property of the government. Those who speak of “overpopulation” and “depopulationdeny God's power to sustain humanity and wage war against His will. They want to take over God's business."
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union and author of Ask Rabbi Jack.
“The Torah does not permit abortion on demand…The Torah not only prohibits abortion for Jews, it is universally prohibited under the seven Noahide laws under the general category of murder.”“The Talmud in Yevamos (63b) says that Moshiach won’t come until all the souls that are waiting to be born have been born (based on Isaiah 57:16), so intentional refusal to procreate holds up the redemption."
Rabbi Lazer Brody, Host of Lazer Beams, award-winning daily web journal,  author, speaker. soldier, farmer, coach and spiritual guide.
With reference to that Gemara, Rabbi Lazer Brody has written:“In light of the above Talmudic teachings, any person who performs, supports, assists, or encourages abortions is delaying the arrival of Moshiach with his or her own two hands…So, if you’d like to lend a helping hand in bringing Moshiach as fast as possible, do what you can to fight against abortion in every way possible.” 
Rabbi Moshe Avraham Halperin Director of the Science and Technology Torah Law Institute
“In Judaism, there is no difference between morality and Torah law,” Rabbi Halperin explained. “What others call morality is how Jews serve God. This especially includes difficult life and death decisions, what we call the sanctity of life. Life is holy, the holiest thing in the world, because it is through life that we serve God. “Therefore, no person can be the master over life; not his own and certainly not someone else’s. Life belongs to God and He is the only one who decides over when it begins and when it ends. So even a person who is in a vegetative state, his soul being in the world increases the Glory of Heaven that is in the world. “Morality that is not based in the Torah is selective, placing Man at the top, in the decision making role. A person can destroy his own property or tell someone else to destroy it because it is his property to do with as he chooses. In selective morality, if a man chooses to end his life, since it is his life, he is within his right to do so. “But if you believe that the essence of life is the soul that was placed there by God, and that belongs to him, is part of him, then taking life is the worst crime possible. “It is absolutely forbidden under any condition to remove someone from life-saving measures, even if he is suffering, even if he requests it. Similarly, it is forbidden to withhold normal treatment, or food and water and medicine, that will extend his life. These things are murder, plain and simple. You can pray for his suffering to end but you cannot actively end it. “If a person has a chance to live after resuscitation or CPR, even if he will be disabled, then every effort must be made to lengthen his life. But if there is no chance for him to return to life, if he will for sure never return to consciousness, then there is no necessity to resuscitate the person.”In the case of many people and limited resources, of course the doctors must choose who they have the greatest chance of saving. But the doctor may not make a judgment between the value of two lives. It is not his place to do so.” 
Rabbi David Novak
Past Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the U of Toronto,  author of The Sanctity of Human Life, and Vice President at Jewish Pro-Life Foundation.
"Thus, the discovery of DNA and when it first emerges in a human being should change our thinking about the beginning of human life in the same way that the discovery that babies born in the eight month of pregnancy are viable.(ben qayyama) changed our thinking about early infant life, even though in the days of the Talmud people believed that they were not viable. Jews are bound by halakhic norms. With regard to questions of human life and death, however, they are not bound to some of their applications that are based on what we now know to have been inaccurate, outdated science. The science of the Talmud has been superseded by more current science, which itself might be superseded in the future." 
Rabbi Shlomo Nachman ben Ya'akov, Rabbi at Beit Emunah 
Director at Jewish Pro-Life Foundation 
"Exodus 21:22-25 must be carefully understood. Many translations read “and a miscarriage occurs” rather than as “a premature birth results.” The passage, in my opinion, is to “a premature birth” when the context is considered. The text actually says that if the child “departs” [“yasa”] the womb and no other damage ensues from the event. In other words, if because of the struggle the baby is born early but is otherwise fine, then the men may be required to pay damages for their carelessness but no more. “But if other damage ensues,” i.e. the baby is born with some deformity or born dead, then the standard penalties will apply, 'an eye for eye, tooth for tooth'. If the child dies as a result the men are guilty of the murder, a life for a life. The text makes no sense any other way. The Hebrew term shachol references an abortion or miscarriage. That word is not used here.  There is conclusive evidence that both Torah and Rabbinic halacha regarding the pre-birth child as fully human and subject to the same protections and respect as all other people."
Rabbi Alan Betsalel Friedlander Lecturer at Congregation Yeshiva Yaakov Ovenu, and Torah educator on his blog, People For Public Morality, and commentator on Quora.
Terminology is so important. Not everyone who discusses abortion is actually discussing a medical abortion. Pre-term deliveries that result in death are not technically, induced abortions, medically speaking, according to the AAPLOG (American Association of Pro-life OBGYNs). But a pre-term delivery is what some lenient halachic discussions mean by the word “abortion.”
Hebrew and Aramaic are not English. The English word abortion has nothing to do with leniencies in Torah law whose discussion on potential leniencies in these matters is exclusively limited to the concept of pre-term delivery as we know it.
All halachic discussion about saving the mother at the expense of the fetus, is a discussion of what doctors call pre-term delivery.All medical debate on abortion as a whim, is what the Torah law calls bloodshed.
Know this clearly, and let your moral decision also be clear, from now on. Don’t allow the misuse of semantics to lead you astray on a matter of life and death. So if you ever heard a quote of a rabbi that somehow supports abortion in some rare cases, pre-term delivery is what he probably meant. The intent is to save the life of the mother and how much can one risk the fetus to do so. In both cases we desire life, that both mother and child live. The discussion is in how much and under what circumstances can the fetus be risked if the mother is at risk without the operation, and the necessary procedure would place the yet to be born baby in significant jeopardy.There is no Talmudic discussion about lifestyle preferences that enable bloodshed, whatsoever. 
All who attempt to write leniencies into God’s law based on a misunderstanding of Torah law (halachah) make this same mistake at the onset of their assumptions. But please understand that there is no such thing as open season hunting on fetuses, in the Torah. It is heretical to fundamental Torah ethics and morality to even suggest that.



Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter, Executive Director of Help Rescue Our Children. Works in Rockland County, NY in defense of individual victims of child molesters, and advocates against policies that promote immoral exploitation of children and adults in America and Israel.
While the Washington D.C. March For Life was taking place on January 22, Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter, Executive Director of Torah Jews for Decency, was standing outside the Planned Parenthood abortuary in Spring Valley NY, reading a list of “uncomfortable questions,” and providing the equally uncomfortable, but necessary answers.
Carrying a banner that said, “Planned Parenthood Spreads Spirit of Barbarism” Rabbi Leiter began by asking, “What is worse than yet another year of mass-murder of the most defenseless citizens?”The answer? “Another year of the State-Sanctioning of that Holocaust.”He then asked: “What is even worse than the murder of 60 million preborn babies?” answering: “Planned Parenthood – which brazenly legitimizes – and thereby perpetuates – that crime.”


Rabbi Yitzchak Kolakowski
The Koblentzer Rebbe, an  Hasidic rabbi serving as a full-time chaplain and supervisory chaplain in a Pennsylvania State Prison.
Rabbi Yakov Dovid Cohen, Director of the Institute of Noahide Code. Renowned Talmudic scholar and Dayan, and 
author of Divine Image Laws of Noah, a compilation of the Rebbe's works for Noahide practice.
Respect for human life – Do not murder
This principle teaches that human life is sacred. One must never do anything that would result in the death of a fellow human being; one must not derive any profit from the death of an innocent human being. This principle also considers abortion as well as euthanasia to be equivalent to murder.It is permissible to kill a murderer.It is also permissible to kill in self-defense. One may also kill, if it is absolutely necessary to save an innocent person’s life. This principle forbids suicide. You may not do anything that may endanger your own life.You must not do anything that endangers the lives of others. If you have a business, you must make sure that it does not endanger the safety of others.

Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Smith 
Delivers Torah sermons and teaches live classes at Beis Chabad of Passaic-Clifton. Promotes Torah based life affirming policy at The Rabbi Smith Bulletin.
Being a genuine Rov is not merely about knowing the truth. The truth is relatively easily to ascertain by learning or by observation. In fact, a non-Jew who never heard of the Torah is responsible to know the Sheva Mitzvos because he is obligated to learn what is right and wrong from observing the world. (See. R. Steif, Mitzvos Hashem). Being a genuine Rov is about being willing to say truth clearly and publicly in the face of loud and threatening opposition.Therefore, we don’t need the gedolim (prominent Torah scholars) to tell us or the world about the Torah position on abortion. That is already clear. It has been written on extensively and the previous generation of Gedolim spoke out clearly against abortion.
What is needed now is those who will stand up and speak the words of Torah in the face of the lies, distortions, mockery and threats. 
A  Rov must also understand context. The pro-death lobby is making war against G-d Al-mighty by eliminating human beings from being conceived, eliminating those conceived, convincing those who are born to eliminate themselves, and forcibly eliminating those who are still living through war and famine (see, e.g., Malthus)The discussion of nuances in Halacha is intended to distract and confuse, to push Torah observant Jews into the defensive and to debate the nuances, which is always a losing proposition because the agenda is not the Truth, but rather to take every concession and turn it into a broader endorsement of death.The nuances of Halacha are only relevant for the Rov in dealing with the extremely rare question of whether an abortion is necessary to save to the mother’s life.Therefore, the Rov, in understanding this must fight the battle on the highest level which is not on the arguments of the details of Halacha but rather to promote G-d Al-mighty’s vision to expand exponentially the human population and to fill the world with human beings.

Rabbi Smith in the JPLF video Made In God's Image - A Jewish Defense of Human Life in the Womb
Rabbi Ze’ev Smason retired as the rabbinical leader of Nusach Hari B’nai Zion, a modern Orthodox synagogue in Olivette, MO. He now chairs CJV Missouri, formed to promote traditional Jewish values with legislators, media, and the public at the state and local level.
The Divine gift of a soul was given to your child, Samantha, when it was conceived within you. The Talmud identifies this moment of ensoulment in a fascinating dialogue between Rabbi Judah the Prince and the Roman Emperor Antoninus (Sanhedrin 91b). Although the popular joke goes that a Jewish fetus is only considered viable when it gets into medical school, the truth is that Judaism has always believed that life begins at conception, i.e. that the soul — that all-knowing, all-feeling inner self that is the true person — is present at the very beginning of an unborn child’s formation. Most Torah authorities consider feticide an act of murder. Even the most permissive opinions of Torah scholars reserve abortion for extreme situations that no woman should ever experience. However, the tragic fact remains that in the United States, nearly 95% of abortions are performed on healthy children being carried by healthy mothers. Don’t be misled, Samantha, by those who misrepresent biblical passages in order to promote the idea that abortion should be regarded as simply a “choice.” Jewish law is based on the theological presumption that a human being does not possess total ownership of one’s body: Our bodies belong to God. We are His stewards of our bodies. And we are stewards of His children, both those already born and of those conceived but not yet born. Samantha, I suggest you listen to your heart. It is telling you that the child you are carrying is a gift, arguably the greatest gift God can grant us. As you begin your pregnancy, rejoice in being a sacred repository — like a Holy Ark containing a Torah Scroll — of a yet-born child with a precious soul who is of inestimable value in God’s eyes.






Talmud Sanhedrin 57b: 
"A heathen is executed..for the murder of an embryo..Because it is written, 
Whoso sheddeth the blood of man within [another] man, shall his blood be shed. What is a man within another man? 
An embryo in his mother's womb."

Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 329
דיני יולדת בשבת. ובו יא סעיפים
יולדת היא כחולה שיש בו סכנה ומחללין עליה השבת לכל מה שצריכה קוראין לה חכמה ממקום למקום ומילדין [אותה] ומדליקין לה נר אפי' היא סומ' ומ"מ בכל מה שיכולין לשנות משנין כגון אם צריכים להביא לה כלי מביאו לה חברתה תלוי בשערה וכן כל כיוצא בזה 
A woman giving birth is treated as a dangerously ill person and Shabbat is desecrated for everything that she needs. 
We call a midwife from place to place. We help (her) give birth and light a candle for her, even if she is blind. 
In any event, that which can be done slightly differently is done differently. 
For example, if she needs an object brought to her, her friend can bring it tied to her hair, etc.

Malachi 3:23-24 
כגהִנֵּ֚ה אָֽנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת
אֵֽלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּוֹא י֣וֹם יְהֹוָ֔ה הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא
 כדוְהֵשִׁ֚יב לֵֽב־אָבוֹת֙ עַל־בָּנִ֔ים וְלֵ֥ב בָּנִ֖ים עַל־אֲבוֹתָ֑ם פֶּן־אָב֕וֹא וְהִכֵּיתִ֥י אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ חֵֽרֶם
Lo, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, that he may turn the heart of the fathers back through the children, and the heart of the children back through their fathers
Lest I come and smite the earth with utter destruction. 

Rashi interprets 'that he may turn the heart of the fathers back to the Holy One, blessed be He.' 
He will say to the children affectionately and appeasingly, “Go and speak to your fathers to adopt the ways of the Omnipresent.” So we explain, “and the heart of the children through their fathers.” This I heard in the name of Rabbi Menahem, but our Sages expounded upon it in tractate Eduyoth (8:7), that he will come to make peace in the world.

Eglah arufah 
As described in Deuteronomy 21:1-9, refers to a blameless calf that is sacrificed as atonement by villagers for shedding innocent blood by failing to provide safe passage and provision for an unidentified person found in the local vicinity murdered by an unknown assailant. We are actually commanded and held responsible for keeping our blameless neighbors and kinsmen safe from murdering predators. We must atone if we fail in our moral duty.

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