Rabbi & Community: Abortion and Mental Health

Rabbi & Community: Abortion and Mental Health: Since this post may be controversial by its very nature, I want to make my position concerning abortion clear from the outset. I don’t favo...

Abortion and Mental Health

Since this post may be controversial by its very nature, I want to make my position concerning abortion clear from the outset. I don’t favor abortion as a method of birth control. However, I do support a woman’s right to choice. “Tea Party” supported changes to State laws for the purpose of preventing abortion rights and generally, a woman’s right to health care exams and birth control assistance is extremely disturbing. But most disturbing are recent stories having to with woman who have taken their own lives because of postpartum depression and it moved me to write this blog post.

In early October, Miriam Carey, tried to crash the White House gates. A a high speed chase followed and Miriam Carey was killed in a hail of gunfire when Capital Police finally trapped her.  Police found a child about a year old in the back of the car but no weapons.

A search of Ms. Carey’s home revealed that she was taking prescription medications for postpartum depression with delusion. Interviews with family and friends revealed that Ms. Carey believed that President Obama had her “under electronic surveillance” according to the New York Times.

Recently, Governor John Kasich of Ohio signed an anti abortion law attached to the State budget that required a 24 hour wait between counseling and the actual abortion itself. As a part of the counseling, counselors are required to show the patient an ultrasound displaying the beating heart of the fetus.

In a story reported from Ohio a 24 year old woman who had become pregnant for the third time requested an abortion. She and her family reported that she had suffered from postpartum depression and they were not prepared to risk another child given the extent of her disability with the first two children.  Under the laws governing abortion in Ohio she was counseled and made to watch an ultrasound of the beating heart. Then she was forced to wait 24 hours before the procedure could take place.

How is it that ‘pro-lifers' are pro-life prior to birth but postpartum the child or children born, may suffer by having basic needs denied them. The ‘Tea Partiers’ are perfectly comfortable allowing children to go hungry and without medical care, housing, or schools to balance the Nation's budget. They consider a safe place for supervised play frivolous and would rather children wander gang riddled community parks in unsafe neighborhoods. 

Their policies are down right hypocritical. They want to prevent abortion but they are willing to allow starvation for our Nations children, they are willing to allow pain and suffering rather then provide medical care. Pro-lifers are comfortable denying our children schooling, thereby causing ignorance and driving them into a life of disabling poverty, ill health and starvation. 

If ‘Tea Partiers‘ are going to force live birth, let them also provide assistance for the care of these children. We are a Country that declares a mission of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as "unalienable rights” for all members of society. 

‘Tea Party’ public policy are inhumane, cruel and beyond human understanding for those who have never known these indignities.

When life begins is also beyond human understanding, and another life event perplexing to most humans'. What causes a perfectly healthy woman to suddenly suffer delusions, postpartum also escapes our understanding. Mental illness is a human experience that is beyond our comprehension, . Why are people suddenly robbed  of their sanity? No one really knows. The loss of one’s common sense and mental health is a torment that no one should endure. 

There Harvard University stars like Senator Ted Cruz who support  policies that demand live birth but deny children basic rights in the name of God. 

Personally, I think God would be ashamed. After all, are we not our brothers keeper!

The Tea Party, Guns and Abortion

Abortion is a controversial topic that is why I want to begin this post by making my personal belief clear from the start. Abortion should not be a method engaged for family planning. Abortion is the last choice when there are no other options and when a pregnancy will bring harm to the mother.  It is not a reasonable method of birth control but I firmly believe that a mother’s health transcends that of the fetus. This is a very personal question between a mother, her immediate family, her spiritual counselor and her physician. This is not a societal decision and should not be subjected to public debate by the varying religious ideologies of the community.  Religious communities have differing views about abortion and while some consider it a mortal sin, others believe that there are times when abortion is a sacred method for avoiding potential harm to a mother.  Judaism, for one, does not recognize an unborn fetus as human life but assigns the fetus a sacredness that would prohibit casual disposal of a pregnancy.

I support a woman’s right to choice and this article is written in response to recent “Tea Party” activism that has changed State laws in order to hinder access to safe abortions. This kind of activism endangers American women by obstructing the path to good health care with personal religious ideology not universally shared by all Americans’. In addition, while ‘Planned Parenthood’ offers abortion it is the smallest part of their work. Planned Parenthood primarily provides birth control counseling and healthy mother and baby exams. Tea Party activist propose closing woman’s health care clinics’ to prevent abortion at the expense of indigent woman in our community needing inexpensive health care acquired at these same organizations. In other words,  Tea Partiers’ want clinics shut to satisfy their personal religious ideology.

In early October, Miriam Carey, tried to crash the White House gates and in doing so died in a hail of gunfire following a high speed chase by Capital Police.  In the back of the car, police found a one year old child secured in car seat but no weapons. By some miracle the child was physically unharmed. However, with the mother dead, DC social services was forced to take guardianship of the infant and assigned her to foster care while police searched for more immediate family members.

A search of Ms. Carey’s home revealed that she was taking prescription medications for postpartum depression with delusions. Interviews with her family and friends revealed that Ms. Carey believed that President Obama ordered that she be monitored by “electronic surveillance” according to the New York Times.

Recently, Tea Party Governor, John Kasich of Ohio, signed an anti-abortion measure attached to the Ohio State budget that required a 24 hour wait between counseling and the abortion procedure. In Ohio, counselors are required to show the patient an ultrasound displaying the beating heart of the fetus.

A pregnant 24 year old woman from Ohio was about to carry for the third time when she requested an abortion. The family reported that the pregnant woman had suffered from postpartum depression and with each live birth the condition grew worse. The decision to terminate this pregnancy was made after she became delusional and they were advised that psychotropic therapy should be stopped if the pregnancy was to be carried to term.  The family concluded that her sanity took precedence over the pregnancy and therefore the abortion was requested.

Under the laws governing abortion in Ohio she was counseled and made to watch an ultrasound of the beating heart. Then she was made to wait 24 hours before the procedure could take place.

How are the ‘pro-lifers', ‘pro-life’ up to birth but once the child or children are born, ‘pro-lifers’ will ignore basic human needs. The ‘Tea Partiers’ are comfortable allowing children to go hungry and without medical care or housing and without schools but heaven forbid abortion. They consider a safe place for supervised play frivolous and would rather they wander community parks in unsafe neighborhoods. Their policies are hypocritical. They are anti- abortion but they are willing to allow starvation for our Nations children, or for children to suffer pain and illness for lack of medical care, or, incapacitate them with ignorance and destine them to a life of disabling poverty, ill health and starvation. At least, if ‘Tea Partiers‘ are going to force live birth, let them also provide assistance for the care of these children. 

We are a Country that declares our mission as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as "unalienable rights” for all members of society.  The ‘Tea Party’ public policies are cruel and inhumane beyond description for those who have never known these indignities.

There are some things that are beyond human comprehension. One of them is when life begins, another is what snaps inside the mind that suddenly and often without warning, causes otherwise healthy people to be insane.  Loss of one’s common sense and mental health is a torment that no one should endure.

Tea Partiers want their way and are unwilling to negotiate. They are the American version of Taliban. They want to deny abortions regardless of the reason and they want to proliferate guns by inhibiting gun laws regardless of the casualties. America needs to stand up to this lunatic fringe. 

Rabbi & Community: Diversity is the Birthplace of Innovation, Uniform...

Rabbi & Community: Diversity is the Birthplace of Innovation, Uniform...: In the last half of the 20 th Century Jews who survived the Holocaust wrote books to record the death of brothers, sisters, parents and fr...

Diversity is the Birthplace of Innovation, Uniformity the Demise of Freedom

In the last half of the 20^th Century Jews who survived the Holocaust wrote books to record the death of brothers, sisters, parents and friends. Unlike Elie Wiesel, many of them had to hire ghost writers to tell their stories. My appetite for these stories is insatiable.

There was a reunion of survivors in Washington DC prior to the Holocaust Museum and I was fortunate to have been there. I witnessed the reunions of survivors who found friends and family they thought were murdered at the hands of the Nazis’. It was an amazing sight and one I will never forget.

Many Survivors came with books in hand to tell their individual stories. Recently, I read “Witness to the Truth” by Nathan Shapell. He tells the story of his family many who survived because they were employed by the Nazis’ to clean the streets of Kultusgemeinde. Nathan was able to use his position to find jobs for family and friends delaying imprisonment and execution. In ‘Witness to the Truth’ Nathan Shapell records for posterity the brutality of the Nazis regime. Ultimately, he made his way to America and became a successful business man. Throughout his life time the scars of the brutality experienced under the Nazi regime and in Concentration around Europe tormented him but did not prevent his success.

In most cases, individual members of the Nazi Party were self-centered and made decisions in a self serving way. During WWII the lunacy of Hitler drove people to self-preservation, in America, the opposite has been true, and concern for every human being drives our conduct. 

The sanity of our Government has forced us to consider the plight of our fellow citizens’. The ‘civil rights movement’  is an example of that sanity.  As a Country we forced ourselves to look at the plight of the Black Community and we acted on a principle that “all men are created equal”. We surrendered our self-interest for the greater good. We sacrificed the here and now for a democratic future. 

The Rehabilitation Act (1973) is another example of America creating laws to protect a minority. The Fair Credit Act (2004) enacted to protect those in debt, the Abolition of Slavery (1883) to set people free. These are diverse example of laws enacted to protect the weak.

What has happened? We have elected representatives to our Congress who would rather act out of self-interest than the best interest of our society.

What is exactly is the principle behind todays' Government shutdown, the delay of ‘Obama Care’? Rather than struggle with the implementation of Obama Care our Republican representatives would rather deny 30 million Americans’ health care. Rather than pass a Continuing Resolution to fund our Government, our Republican representatives would rather put more than 2 million people out of work. Where is the sanity in this behavior?

There are twenty three Representative in Congress who are members of the Tea Party and they use their power to coerce an entire Country. They speak as though they are reasonable but nothing that they say or do is reasonable.  These are self-centered people acting much like the Taliban or Al-Shabaab. They may believe that their ideology is blessed by the Creator but they refuse to accept that each of us have our personal view of our relationship with our Maker. They would deny you your beliefs'  rather than admit that there is more than one way to heaven.

These are dangerous times for America. Radicalization is dangerous. Those who believe that their values are the only right standards pose the greatest threat to our democracy. What makes our Country strong is its diversity. In fact, diversity is the birthplace of innovation and uniformity is the demise of freedom. Richard Nixon once said; “when the president does it that means that it is not illegal” and if Richard Nixon had his way this Country would be a dictatorship not a democracy. If the Tea Party has its way, we will live in a Country coerced by the needs of the powerful.

“IN THE BEGINNING” GOD WARNED US, HAVE WE TAKEN HEED?

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD WARNED US.

After the Jewish Community celebrates the High Holy Days we begin again reading the Torah. Last week was the first chapter of Genesis. I believe one of the most important lines in all of Torah is found in Ch:4 Vs:10.

Permit me to set the scene. Cain and Abel each make independent offerings to God as an expression of their loyalty. God accepts the gift offering of Abel with greater enthusiasm and Cain takes Abel’s life.  God ask’s Cain, “Were is your brother Able? (vs: 9)” Cain foolishly responds, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

With contempt for Cain’s behavior, God confronts Cain; “What have you done?  The blood of your brother cries out to me from the earth” This verse speaks volumes to people about people.

In my almost 40 year as a pulpit rabbi, I had opportunities to experience people up close and personal. As a student of Psychology, I was fascinated by human behavior.  A rabbi, as I am sure do all clergy, one gets to see the best and the worst of people. The generosity of people is absolutely amazing especially when someone is challenged with tragedy. The general rule is that human suffering bring out the best in people and contempt brings out the worst.

Couples who begin their relationship with love, passion, affection, joy respect and forgiveness, can, and often do, become so contaminated with revulsion that after a few years of marriage, what was love morphs into contempt. When contempt is the prevailing spirit at home the family notion of love is distorted.  These families teach that deceitfulness, emotional abuse and disrespect is a reasonable negotiating tactic in relationships.

The stories are unending. I knew a man who asked his wife to allow him to have her engagement ring cleaned.  While in his possession, he had the diamond removed and replaced it with Cubic Zirconia.  Their home insurance required updating and the wife took her prized engagement ring to have it appraised and learned of the switch.

In another family, a spouse who suffered from mental illness was regularly insulted publicly while children watched. This coupled tortured one another as they engaged in a code of behavior reminiscent of covert war rather than family.

Rashi (1040-1104), the famous rabbinic scholar points out that when God speaks to Cain, God uses the plural, “the blood of your brother cries out, rather than the singular cry out and he sees this as having a central message. Rashi say's the plural cries is because there were multiple wounds inflicted to cause Abel’s death and each wound cried out. God was therefore bombarded by the cries that came from the wounds on Abel's body and soul. 

Usually when people cause others harm there are multiples of wounds. Each wound cries out to God and each wound demands God's intervention. “In the beginning”, God warned us, treat your neighbor with respect and friendship for in the event of harm “the blood of your brother cries out to God.”