Israel's Chief Rabbinate Condemns Abortion

I remember during the 2006 abortion ban campaign that we were told that no religion in the world prohibited abortion, that it was just something us fundamentalist Bible-thumpers made up.

I knew that was categorically false and refuted it at the time, but here is fresh proof of this falsehood.

From YnetNews.com, Israel's Chief Rabbinate says abortions are a grave sin, and is working to reduce abortions in Israel:

"The vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and strictly forbidden according to halacha because they are carried out even when the pregnancies do not endanger the mother's health," the rabbis wrote in their decision.

The rabbis believe that these types of abortions are a grave sin which may even delay the coming of the messiah. They base this assumption on an expression uttered by the Jewish sages which can be construed as signifying that the messiah will not arrive until all souls meant to be born to Jewish mothers are in fact born.

The halachic basis for the rabbis anti-abortion position is articulated in Genesis 9:6 which reads: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."

The rabbis see fetuses as constituting a "man" based on a Gemara passage which states that a fetus in its mother's womb should already be considered a human being.

While there have been those religions in the past that have celebrated death (Mayan, Caananite, etc.), the world's major religions have always treasured life, from the womb to the tomb.

The only major religion today that celebrates death is humanism, and you can't be a faithful Christian, Jew, or Muslim and a humanist at the same time.