Selected Reform Responsa 203

ad shelo hevi-a shetei se-arot--hi uvenah metim.| In case of a pregnant woman, this precaution is necessary, lest, if another conception takes place, the embryo becomes a foetus papyraceus (comp. Julius Preuss , Biblisch-Talmudische Medizin, Berlin, 1921, pp. 486-487). In the case of a nursing mother, this precaution is necessary, for if she should become pregnant, she will have to wean her child before the proper time[which was considered to extend for twenty-four months], and the child may die as a result of such an early weaning. So far the baraita apparently represents a unanimous state­ment. It then proceeds to discuss the age up to which a woman is considered a minor in this respect. R. Meir says that the minor in this case is a girl between the age of eleven years and one day and twelve years and one day, and that during that period only must she take this precaution. Before or after this age she need not take any precaution, but may have natural intercourse(meshameshet kedarkah veholechet). The other teachers, however, say that even during the period when she is a ketana(i.e., between the age of eleven and twelve), she may have natural intercourse and is not obliged to take any precautions; for the heavenly powers will have mercy and protect her from all danger, as it is said,“The Lord preserveth the simple”(Ps. 116:6). The other teachers evidently did not consider the danger of a minor dying asa result of childbirth so probable. They must have believed that a girl even before the age of puberty could give birth to a living child and survive(comp. Preuss , op. cit., p. 441). But as regards the nursing or the pregnant woman, even the other teachers do not say that she may dispense with this precaution, for we notice that they do not say, “Kulan meshameshot veholechot.”

The rules of law laid down in this baraita according to our interpretation are, therefore, the following: When there is a danger of harm resulting to the unborn child or the child already born, all teachers agree that it is obligatory to take the precaution of using a contraceptive. According to R. Meir, however, this obligation holds good also in the case when conception might result in danger or harm