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location. I also asked her to write a letter to her mother that we would
ensure was promptly delivered to her parents’ home. The gist of the
letter would be a suicide threat on the part of the daughter, should
she be forced to abort her fetus.

The letter was dispatched to its destination and the young people
parted forthwith – the girl went to the hiding place and the boy re-
turned home. Less than two days later the boy called to tell me that
the girl’s parents were under intense pressure and were terribly wor-
2 ried and were placing all the blame on his shoulders. I advised him to
tell the girl’s parents that if anything happened to her they would bear
responsibility. Three days later I received the news that the plan had
worked and that the abortion had been prevented.

My questions are:

1. In a case where there is serious concern that if the girl doesn’t
abort her fetus the mother will carry out her suicide threat, should
she be enabled to have the abortion?

2. Was it permitted for me to seriously scare the parents in
order to get them to agree to the continuation of their daughter’s
pregnancy?

Dr. Eli Schussheim, Director, Efrat
Association, Jerusalem

Before answering these questions I shall present another similar case
about which I was asked in the past:

It happened that a simple girl was seduced by a rascal and became
pregnant from him. When she learned of her shame she demanded
that he keep his word and marry her, threatening that she would
otherwise abort their joint child. Despite her pleas the rascal refused.
In her distress she approached me, asking me to help her and should
these efforts fail, she wanted me to perform an abortion.

I spoke to the knave and tried to convince him to marry her but he
refused. However, in order to save the fetus’ life he wickedly proposed
staging a deceitful marriage by making a declaration before witnesses
that he was contracting marriage with her unwillingly and just for

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