Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor – “Generation to Generation” in Hebrew filed a lawsuit against a new law in Florida banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The legislation known as HB 5 was championed and brought in by Governor Ron Desantis.
Rabbi Barry Silver claims the law is religiously motivated siting the example of it being signed into law publicly within Nacion De Fe Church. Claiming this violates the principles of separation of church and state, while supporting the view the state should keep abortion legal to accommodate his version of the Jewish faith. Generally Orthodox Jewish believers oppose most abortions considering it murder.
“Jewish law says that life begins at birth, not at conception,” Rabbi Silver said.
“A woman is not just entitled to have an abortion [in Judaism], she is required to have an abortion to protect her mental wellbeing, to protect her health, to protect her safety,” he said.
“This law would prohibit Jewish women from practicing Jewish law.”
“A woman is not just entitled to have an abortion [in Judaism], she is required to have an abortion to protect her mental wellbeing, to protect her health, to protect her safety,” he said.
“This law would prohibit Jewish women from practicing Jewish law.”
Like all Abrahamic religions the Jewish faith teaches the value of all human life as sacred having been made in the image of God.
“House Bill 5 protects babies in the womb who have beating hearts, who can move, who can taste, who can see, and who can feel pain,” DeSantis said when singing Bill 5 into law.
When life begins is no longer debatable. Modern science precisely demonstrates when a fetuses heart starts beating, when brain activity begins and when a fetus responds to stimulus. Both heart and brain activity are signs of being alive applied to an adult person. Even on life support people are kept alive meeting the condition of brain activity or a heartbeat. Unlike some on life support, a fetuses response to stimulus can be measured.
Claiming Bill 5 violates Jewish law and religious right to abortion ignores the reality of when a fetus develops measurable organ and nervous system function of a person. The Jewish faith forbids euthanasia and even the shortening of life, when a person will die soon because all life is sacred.