The Law on Abortion in Israel

JERUSALEM — You learn some­thing new every day. Here is Israel’s law on abor­tion:

Under Israeli law, abor­tions are per­mis­si­ble if the woman is younger than sev­en­teen or older than forty, if the preg­nancy was con­ceived under ille­gal cir­cum­stances such as rape or incest, or out­side of mar­riage, if the fetus has a phys­i­cal or men­tal birth defect or if con­tin­u­a­tion of the preg­nancy could put a woman’s life, health or men­tal well-being at risk.

In order to have a legal abor­tion car­ried out by a rec­og­nized prac­ti­tioner, a woman must seek approval from a three-person review com­mit­tee, of which at least one of the mem­bers must be a woman. Two of the mem­bers must be licensed physi­cians, and the third must be a social worker.

I’m reserv­ing com­ment for the moment. I was just intrigued by the dif­fer­ence between Israeli and Amer­i­can law. As read­ers can see in the com­ments quoted in arti­cle, the Rab­binate wants to encour­age women to have babies.

Adden­dum: The issue over abor­tion is not whether the pro­ce­dure is legal under the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion or any other country’s par­tic­u­lar sys­tem of law. The issue is: When does life begin? If life does not begin, say, until birth, then abor­tion is not mur­der. If life begins at a cer­tain point when the embryo or fetus is inside the mother’s womb at or after con­cep­tion, then per­form­ing an abor­tion after that point is mur­der. (In that sce­nario, mak­ing the pro­ce­dure legal would be akin to mak­ing mur­der legal.) From a moral and eth­i­cal stand­point, the cen­tral issue is when life begins. The ques­tions of life and moral­ity super­sede that of legality.

Now, I’m not going to answer that ques­tion; I do not know the answer. I am nei­ther God nor knowl­edge­able enough about phi­los­o­phy and meta­physics. But this is the way the ques­tion should be framed.