The Outcome of Legal Abortion
The Outcome of Legal Abortion
Roe v. Wade and its companion case Doe v. Bolton, the two U.S. Supreme Court rulings that mandated legal abortion throughout the United States, nullified all state laws and gave women the right to obtain unlimited abortions, not for severe physical or psychological disability, but for convenience and birth control without intervention. Doe v. Bolton is the companion law that codified Roe and legalized abortion for all nine months of pregnancy. To accomplish this, the U.S. Supreme Court denied personhood to the unborn child, ultimately rejecting the child's right to life. The ruling was crafted to intentionally be vague, and the term "health" is broad enough to allow abortion for any reason. Health is defined in Doe v. Bolton as follows: "All factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age - relevant to the wellbeing of the patient." This definition in Roe is too broad to meet the stringent requirements of Jewish law and principles.
Since 1973, here have been over 63 million abortions committed in the United States. According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 862,320 abortions in the United States. However, there are also an additional 339,640 chemical abortions, up from 70,500 in 2001.
The two drugs involved in chemical abortion are mifepristone and misopristol. Chemical abortions are dangerous and cause serious complications including severe cramping, hemorrhaging and infection. Despite the dangers involved, abortion activists want these drugs to be distributed over the counter and/or via telemedicine to pregnant girls and women, bypassing a physical examination by a doctor.
The number of annual abortions is a conservative estimate. It is important to remember that not all state health departments report their abortion numbers, so the actual number of abortions per year are likely higher. Conservapedia reports that less than 1% of these abortions are due to rape or life of the mother exceptions, and these situations are extremely rare when it comes to induced abortion.
The U.S Abortion Clock maintains an abortion counter that updates continually providing the current number of abortions in the United States and worldwide.
Abortion Is Not A Religious Right
Mainstream Jewish organizations support unlimited abortion-on-demand. Since 1973, advancements in fetal medicine and prenatal science show the full humanity of the unborn child. The video of Baby Olivia is a beautiful animation that illustrates the development of the unborn child from conception onward throughout pregnancy. Additionally, 4D ultrasounds of live babies in the womb prove their humanity and can no longer be disputed.
In response, national pro-abortion groups have mobilized and have become more bold and their message more strident to counter the biological reality that life begins at conception. These "progressive" secular organizations have formed alliances with the pro-abortion Democrat Party. Their views are extreme and in our view, dangerous and completely out of touch with a majority of Americans.
The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is a “broad based, national, interfaith movement” as they point out in their mission statement. The RCRC is comprised of 26 national pro-abortion groups that share the same extreme values, that abortion is an unconditional woman’s right and that unborn babies have no right to life. Of those original 26 Founding Members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, 14 of the organizations are Jewish, and they claim that their values on abortion represent traditional Judaism.
But their opinions and perspectives on abortion are antithetical to the traditional tenets of the Jewish faith. Their advocates and members oppose any reasonable limitations on abortion, including parental notification and consent when minors obtain abortions. Judaism does not endorse such extreme views and even permits a doctor to violate the Shabbat to save an unborn child. In one instance, Jewish law not only allows for abortion, but mandates it. That exception is when the mother’s life is at risk and she may die. In America, the mother’s life or physical health accounts for 1.14% of all abortions. For incest, the rate is 0.39%.
Jewish pro-abortion groups selectively choose verses from the Torah and twist the significance and deeper meaning of the passages to bolster their false arguments that abortion was always acceptable in Jewish tradition.
- They oppose parental notification and consent when minors request and obtain abortions.
- They oppose waiting periods, informed consent laws, and safety regulations for abortion businesses and their practitioners.
- They support abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including the horrific Dilation and Extraction (D&E) method of abortion that dismembers a child limb by limb and causes the child unbearable pain.
- They also oppose the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks when an unborn baby feels pain.
- They mobilize to advance their abortion agenda as religious, upholding infanticide as a woman's decision, a Jewish value and virtue, presenting abortion as beneficial for women and a societal good.
There is nothing good or virtuous about killing unborn children.
Most Americans are opposed to the radical and coercive pro-abortion policies promoted and pushed by the Democratic Party and pro-abortion groups. Recent polls show that there has been a significant shift in American voters’ views on abortion, as reflected by two recent polls.
A poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and published last June in Newsweek found that:
- 80 percent of Americans think abortion should be illegal in the third trimester.
- 65 percent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in the second trimester, which begins in the 13th week of pregnancy.
A poll published by The Susan B. Anthony List indicates that likely voters are more inclined to vote for Republican candidates that support a 15 week limit on abortion than Democrat candidates who support unlimited abortion-on-demand.
The abortion industry and their supporters revised their propaganda over the past decade in response to the American culture’s shift toward the pro-life position. Most religious Americans consider funding abortions a violation of their religious faith and moral convictions. That is why pro-abortion groups now prefer "reproductive justice" to "freedom of choice,” because the only choice they support is abortion. Their allies in the Democrat Party have responded by voting to kill the Hyde Amendment, forcing all taxpayers to fund abortions even if it violates their religious beliefs.
Abortion supporters are not progressive. They are intolerant when it comes to the religious beliefs of Chassidic Jews and practicing Christians.
On June 30, 2020 the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism issued a press release: “Reform Jewish Movement Denounces Supreme Court Decision Allowing Government Funding of Religious Education.”
Consider that the RAC supports taxpayer funding of abortion, But they oppose funding religious instruction. Think about that.
Pro-abortion organizations lobby for laws that would force businesses to provide abortion coverage as health care, even if abortion violates the moral and religious convictions of the business owner. Today, killing babies is "care."
They now use the phrase “pregnant people" rather than "pregnant women" to include "non-binary gender non-specific" individuals as mothers and fathers. This misinformation campaign and illogical language is a construct meant to dismantle the structure of traditional religion and values and grant no rights other than their own.
Abortion is Not a Jewish Value
The National Council of Jewish Women is one of the most extreme advocates for killing babies up to birth. The following slogan appears on their website:
Protecting women, children and families
Their mission statement reads in part:
"Our Jewish values teach us that our reproductive freedoms are integrally bound to our religious liberty; we are committed to advancing the goals of reproductive justice so that every person can make their own moral and faith-informed decisions about their body, health, and family.
These organizations have been very successful marketing their propaganda for decades with a false message that is anti-Jewish and anti-G-d.. They have big money supporters, including billionaire donors, social media oligarchs and small donations from people across America.
As pro-lifers our mission is to stay engaged, spread the true message of pro-life Judaism, help pregnant women with compassions and life-affirming choices.
Status of Abortion in Israel
In 2021, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released the following population demographics:1,2
Total Population: 9.327 million
Jews: 6.984 million (73.9 %)
Arabs: 1.966 million (21.1%)
Others: .377 million (5%)
The Jerusalem Post reports that the percentage of Jews as part of the total Israeli population has decreased from 82.1% (1948 founding) to 73.9% (2021), a decrease of 8.2%.3 Future projections by CBS for Israel’s future total population growth are:
2030 11.1 million;
2040 13.2 million; and
2048 15.2 million.
Approximately 47% of the world’s Jewish population resides in Israel.4
The statistics for 2020 are positive with a population growth of 1.7%. The population growth was mainly attributable to natural growth (defined as births-deaths) of 84% with immigration (entries-persons leaving country) contributing only 16% of the 2020 population growth.5
In 2020, there were 176,000 births with 73.8% among Jews and only 26.2% among non-Jews. Among Jews, 92% of their overall population growth was attributable to natural growth (defined as births-deaths) with the remaining due to net immigration.6
In Israel, abortions must be first approved by an Abortion Committee. These committees must include an OBY/GYN, a regular physician and a social worker. In addition, there is a gender requirement that a least one member of the Abortion Committee be a woman. For 2019 there were 17,688 referrals made to Abortion Committees. Almost all (99.4%) requests were approved. Potentially, this means that in 2019, Israel has lost 17,582 children to abortion.7
However, the actual number of abortions in Israel may be grossly understated. According to Be’ad Chaim (Pro-Life Israel), the actual number of abortions performed may be between 30,000 and 40,000 because the Abortion Committees have been bypassed. If these numbers are correct, that means that since 1948, Israel has lost two million babies due to abortion.8 The tragic outcome is that generations of families have been lost. This means there have been generations of future families, people that would be here today, lost to “choice.”
Unfortunately, Jewish women also were the second highest referral for abortion in the category by religion. Only non-Arab Christians and women expressing no religious affiliation had more abortion referrals.9
From 1988 through 2019 there was a significant decrease in the number of applications sent to Abortion Committees. In 1988 there were 18.6 applications per 1000 women to 8.4 per 1000 women in 2019. However, the approval rate has increased from 90% to over 99% during this period.10
Over 86% of abortions occur in the first trimester (up to 12 weeks), almost 12% in the second trimester (weeks 13-23) and around 2% in the third trimester (over 24 weeks). The most common reasons for the abortions were child conceived out of wedlock (51.5%). Also, more Israeli women are choosing to end the lives of their unborn children when they discover there is a risk of physical or mental disability. According the CBS Communications Notice, abortions of disabled children are on the rise “from 14.7% in 2000, to about 19% - 20% of approvals in recent years.”11
Almost half (48.1%) of women requesting an abortion in Israel are married. Single women make up the remaining 41.8% followed by divorced women at 9.9% and widowed .3%.12
How to Build a Culture That Revalues Life
Israel needs to focus on better pro-life education by its religious leaders to discourage abortion as a choice. There are pro-life pregnancy resource centers that help pregnant women throughout their pregnancies, and we highlight them on our Organizations page.
There also needs to be tightening of the rules governing its Abortion Committees because the increase in abortion approvals is a disturbing trend. Further investigation is required to confirm the number of illegal abortions being performed annually and increase efforts to stop these Illicit activities. Relative to the positive developments with the increased birth rate, Israel’s Jewish population percentage will continue to remain below its 1948 levels.
Whether it is the United States or Israel, the cultural decline that has changed the way we value human life is heartbreaking. Secular progressives have taken over our institutions, schools and media. They embrace moral relativism and reject G-d. There is a diminished empathy and compassion not only for babies, but also for all the less fortunate among us. Those deemed too sick or infirm; those who are old and frail, are often eliminated by assisted suicide.
Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics has often stated in his podcasts that once you devalue life on one side of the spectrum (preborn babies) it is only a matter of time before you devalue all human life.
Post-abortion trauma is also a very serious problem that is covered up in the mainstream media. Feminists and pro-aborts have dismissed the fact that women are frequently left emotionally and physically scarred from their abortions, and many unable to carry a later pregnancy to term. Operation Rescue documents serious abortion injuries and deaths. Their website provides online videos of abortion victims being transported from clinics that are often unregulated and not meeting the Health Department standards in their states.
Fortunately, there is now a group that helps Jewish women and men who have been left hurt and filled with remorse after a previous negative abortion experience. The group is Tikvat Rachel Post-Abortion Healing Program, and we promote them on our website. Those who are hurting from abortion need not grieve in silence. There is help and healing with Tikvat Rachel.
G-d created man in His image, and commanded us to go forth and multiply. If we are to respect and revere life, this message is to apply the commandment to all stages of life. Judaism never allows abortion for choice; such an idea is absurd. In the ancient world, while pagan culture allowed and even condoned abortion and infanticide, it was the Jewish people who abstained from such evil practices. Only in the most extreme and rare circumstances, when pregnancy puts a woman’s life is in danger, is abortion permitted. Other than that, the answer is NO.
Mainstream Jewish organizations and civil rights activists endorse a pro-abortion position that is antithetical to our faith and not substantiated by Torah teachings or Halacha. This disturbing trend has convinced many Jews that the liberal stance on abortion is the right one and the authentic one. This sets a dangerous precedent, informing the public that sanctioned killing of innocent babies is ok. That viewpoint is now widespread and prevalent among many Jews in the United States.
The majority of support for legal abortion comes from the secular Jewish community. Back in 2015, a Pew Research poll showed that 83% of mostly American Jews believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A 1976 Louis-Harris poll showed that 76% of Jewish Americans supported abortion. What this reveals is that over the past five decades, there is increased contempt for the value of human life in the secular Jewish community.
With an even larger proportion of unaffiliated Jewish Americans supporting abortion today, we need to become more aggressive with our Jewish pro-life message and voice our concerns when organizations like the NCJW and the RAC promote lies about our faith.
The preborn child is considered a life in formation in G-d's image that has value and must be protected. We are depriving our world of future generations. We are murdering innocents. What’s more, abortion does not free women. It enslaves them to a negative ideology that leaves them changed and damaged.
As written in Isaiah 5:20, “Woe upon those who call evil good, and good evil.” Judaism is a pro-life religion. Any attempts by special interest groups embracing a “pro-choice” abortion ethic are promoting evil as good. That is why they must be denounced.
“If our mothers had aborted at the same rate as our daughters, we wouldn’t have been able to build a nation.”
– Ben Gurion
“Let Our People Grow!”
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, March of Life, January 2010
1Cohen, Cohen/Maariv. “Jewish population at lowest percentage since founding of Israel.” The Jerusalem Post, 12 Apr. 2021, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/jews-make-up-smallest-percentage-of-population-since-founding-of-israel-664899
2Klein, Zeev. “Israeli birth rate reaches all-time high as population tops 9 million.” Israel Hayom, 27-09-2019, https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/09/27/israeli-birth-rate-reaches-all-time-high-as-population-tops-9-million/
3(Jewish population at lowest percentage, Jerusalem Post, 12 Apr. 2021)
4Jewish Virtual Library. Vital Statistics: Latest Population Statics for Israel, (2020). https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/latest-population-statistics-for-israel
5State of Israel, Central Bureau of Statistics. Media Release; Population of Israel on the Eve of 2021, 31 Dec. 2020, 438/2020 https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/mediarelease/DocLib/2020/438/11_20_438e.pdf
6Ibid.
7”Israel abortion rate continues 32-year decline,” Right to Life News, 8 Jan. 2021, https://righttolife.org.uk/news/israel-abortion-rate-continues-32-year-decline
8Shoshani, Sandy. “Overview on Abortion in Israel.” Be’ad Chaim, Pro-Life Israel, 10 May 2021, https://www.beadchaim.com/article/overview-on-abortion-in-israel
9https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9c574383-4bd3-462f-894f-4ff03c80783b CBS Communications Notice.
10Ibid.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
