Abortion Law Amendment Deadlocked

The amendment to the abortion law demanded by Agudath Israel failed to win a majority on its first reading in the Knesset today. The vote was deadlocked at 54-54 with two abstentions.

The failure of the government coalition to push through the amendment could endanger the government majority, since the four Aguda MKs have threatened to leave the coalition if the amendment is not adopted. “We will do whatever our Sages instruct,” Aguda MK Menachem Porush told reporters after the vote. Aguda’s Council of Sages is expected to meet soon.

The amendment would have removed the “social clause” from the abortion law which allowed women to seek abortions for social or economic reasons. Orthodox rabbis view abortions for non-medical reasons as a grave sin. The Aguda MKs were told by the Aguda Council of Sages to press for the amendment even if it meant bringing down the government of Premier Menachem Begin.

Porush blamed Liberal Party defectors and Democratic Movement “subverters” for the coalition’s failure to push through the amendment. He decried the Liberals who had “promised as part of the coalition agreement” to support the amendment.

Parliamentary observers pointed to Liberal MK Sara Doron and La’am MK Ehud Olmert, who both cast negative votes, as the surprise votes which were apparently not anticipated by government whips. Other Liberals – including Yehezkel Flomin and Yosef Tamir – absented themselves and all the Democrats denied their support for the amendment. Also voting “no” was former Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan.

SEEKING TO LINE UP VOTES

Government whips worked feverishly in the dining room and lobbies right up to the moment of the vote, trying to persuade coalition waverers to vote for the amendment. To give them time to make an impact, Health Minister Eliezer Shostak took an inordinate length of time to make up his wind-up speech in the plenary – to the jeers of the opposition.

Shostak said that for Aguda and other Orthodox circles the amendment was a matter of “holiness” while for the opposition it was a cynically-used opportunity to embarrass the government.

In order to embarrass coalition members still more – especially the secular-and liberal-minded among them – the opposition insisted on a roll-call vote, thereby forcing each member to vote individually by shouting out yes or no, “for or against” while the TV cameras played on each member.

Aguda’s departure would put the government’s Knesset majority in serious jeopardy-especially in view of the unreliable voting record of several of Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin’s Democratic Movement. It was apparently for that reason that Begin himself took on active part, together with the coalition whips, in trying to drum up sufficient support to pass the abortion amendment.

Meanwhile, Porush said he would recommend to the “Sages” that they give the amendment another chance – in view of the sincere efforts made by Begin and the coalition leaders to have it adopted. According to Knesset regulations, the amendment can be introduced again in two months.

But observers recalled that Rabbi Simcha Bunen Alter, the Hasidic Rabbi of Gur, the Gerrer Rebbe, has spoken out staunchly against “another chance” if the amendment was not passed. Some observers believe the Rebbe, a powerful figure in the Council of Sages, wants Aguda to leave the government not only because of the abortion issue but because he does not identity with Begin’s foreign policy which he feels is too hardline.

During the summer the Rebbe held a long conversation at his Jerusalem home with Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. Neither side has revealed the contents of that conversation.