It is not within the Jewish perspective to legislate for others, the Chief Rabbi in Ireland, Rabbi Gavin Broder, told the Oireachtas Committee.
Rabbi Broder said the Jewish community would have a law "which we would be strict about but we would not impose it on anybody else". Replying to the committee chairman, Mr Brian Lenihan TD of Fianna Fail, he said "an individual is entitled to be strict on himself without imposing it on somebody else".
Rabbi Broder said there were "certain circumstances" in which abortion could be allowed and he told Mr Jim O'Keeffe of Fine Gael he would be concerned about a blanket ban on abortion. It "could take away certain mandatory rights that a woman might have in certain circumstances for abortion".
The Talmud indicated that while abortion was not murder, "it remains a grave offence" unless it was hazardous to the mother. "If a woman's life cannot be otherwise saved, then abortion is allowed," he said.
Rabbi Broder, a member of the Jewish Representative Council, added that there was a "certain tendency to be more lenient" if the abortion was within the first 40 days. He said something could be an offence even though there was no statutory punishment. "It is wrong to abort unless in the definitive case of being hazardous to the mother; otherwise it remains a moral offence."
The danger of suicide was something most authorities would consider hazardous to the mother's health, as would extreme pain or deafness and serious illness, but this would have to be proven and there would have to be a previous history. Rabbi Broder said if there was a great possibility that an illness was life-threatening, even if it were not proven, there could be an abortion.
However, rape would not be a reason for abortion, unless it led to serious psychological problems, he said.
"It would be the burden of the assailant and society to look after the mother and child as best as possible. The same would apply in certain incest, adultery and illegitimacy cases."
