Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren says that the use of birth control pills is permissable, but only by mothers who have fulfilled the halachic injunction to “be fruitful and multiply.” That ruling for the observant is contained on a recorded “Ask the Rabbi” tape which can be heard by dialing a telephone number.
The Chief Rabbi stresses, however, that to fulfill her religious duty a mother must have given birth to at least one boy and one girl before she can go on the pill. He adds that from a national viewpoint, no form of contraception can be condoned although halacha does not rule out the pill because it does not introduce artificial barriers between the partners in the sex act.
The rabbi denounced abortion, however, as akin to murder under Jewish law. He said that statistics show that more than 50.000 abortions are performed in Israel each year, amounting to one million “murders” since the State was founded.
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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.
