Two Orthodox rabbinical organizations today stepped up their attacks on New York State’s liberalized abortion law and demanded their repeal or drastic revision. The Rabbinical Alliance of America expressed concern that abortions would be legalized nationally and claimed that it was “a threat to our people and to the moral and social foundation of our Republic.” The Alliance said, “The Orthodox Jewish community insists upon the immediate repeal of the atrocious abortion-on-demand law” and called on the State Legislature to “put an end to this legalized carnage and restore the reverence of the sanctity of human life.”
Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, urged the New York State Legislature to “review and revise the permissive abortion laws which have been enacted throughout the state.” He claimed that “Abortions have already assumed epidemic proportions, in New York City alone, over 200,000 unborn children have been aborted since the liberalized law went into effect in July of 1970. Most of these abortions are dictated by considerations of convenience, not of health, and the murder of these fetuses is a reflection of the hardening of human sensitivities characteristic of our age.”
NOT IMPOSING JEWISH RELIGIOUS LAW
Rabbi Berzon stressed, “We are not seeking the imposition of Jewish religious law upon the general society. As regards members of our faith, our own spiritual leaders are conducting an avid campaign of enlightenment. What does perturb us, however, is the general deterioration of moral values in our society, of which permissive abortion is a significant symptom.”
He called upon all legislators to “submit their abortion statutes to a serious evaluation in view of the experiences of several states in the past years.” Rabbi Berzon’s appeal to the legislature was unanimously endorsed at the last executive board meeting of the Rabbinical Council of America, which is the governing body of the organization. The executive board also called upon the legislatures throughout the country to set up special study commissions composed of members of medical, legal and religious groups to restudy the entire matter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
