To Save but One Life is to Save a World

Abortion is happening on a daily basis – even in the hospital of the Holy City of Tzfat. The Tzfat hospital caters to a large area of the North – including many kibbutzim and Arab villages. The “Abortion Phenomenon” is not only amongst female soldiers or young teenagers, but also married women with children who are overwhelmed by finances and marital strife. It is rare for a Halachic ruling to permit an abortion – usually only if the mother’s physical health is in danger or her mental status (as in suicidal tendencies) warrants it based on a doctor’s recommendation in consultation with a Rav.       

 The EFRAT organization based in Yerushalayim was established in 1977 with this purpose in mind – to avoid abortions and save lives yet to be born.  In 1989, Nefesh Achat B’Yisrael, another organization was founded to help in the difficulties of a medically strained pregnancy. In Tzfat there is a branch offshoot “combining” the two called Irgun Chaya that began over 18 years ago run by Chabad. I spoke with two of the women involved in the organization about the work they do.        

 One woman has been involved since its inception and was the catalyst for the Irgun Chaya. In Chabad, people go out to do Mitzvot in a public manner – in this case it was the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim and talking with female patients about the importance of Taharat HaMishpacha (Family Purity) in the hospital. On one such visit to the hospital there was a young female soldier in for an abortion. The Chabad woman didn’t even know that abortions were being performed in Tzfat let alone on a daily basis. She spoke with the soldier and explained and informed her of other options to deal with the situation. She was successful but plans for the procedure were already in place. The head doctor was spoken to but there was nothing to be done. Soldiers are “allowed” two abortions free and the third has to be paid for.       The women in Irgun Chaya (ten, at present) are all volunteers entailing talking with females of all ages, offering support emotionally, discussing choices, and through the organization of EFRAT there is often financial aid or items given for the newborn (baby supplies – crib, stroller; babysitters; counseling, and guidance in connecting to other organizations). These services are above and beyond what any social worker can or will do.        

 Who helps these women with counseling from “post-partum depression” that choose in any case to abort? Young teenagers are especially impressionable and naïve. Many are in denial and refuse to take the responsibility for themselves to take birth control – for if they don’t take anything, it is as if the pregnancy “just happened”.      

Medically speaking, every time a woman chooses to have an abortion there is a risk for future chances of pregnancy as well as the possible “after-effects” of having had an abortion – guilt and depression.   There is a need for volunteers to assist with this mitzvah in paperwork and at the hospital. There is the hope that one day there will be a room available in the hospital to talk privately with a woman considering an abortion, to discuss her options. As of now the situation is that there is a medical review committee twice a week specifically for abortions. The hospital frequently changes the time slot to avoid these courageous women.       But in spite of the hospital staff’s animosity to Irgun Chaya’s efforts, many are the successes. Women have been persuaded to change their minds and have kept their pregnancies to full-term and birth. Most of these children know they were not at first “wanted’ and all the more are their parents grateful for their life.     

One true story told to me by one of the woman I spoke to that happened about twenty years ago. A woman was contemplating an abortion and was discussing it with the pharmacist at the time of purchasing medications. He convinced her otherwise. She kept the pregnancy and some time later gave birth to a baby boy. He grew up. Flash-forward to army-age: a young Yeshiva bochur in Chevron being attacked and stabbed almost to his death. An Israeli soldier steps in to save him. The Yeshiva bochur was the son of the woman who almost aborted him. The soldier was the son of the pharmacist.      Many are the miracles of Hashem. And one never knows for what reason we were put on this world.     

For more information or if one would like to volunteer…     

 please contact Yehudis Rothchild: 04-697-3036 .