Not all religions oppose abortion
For decades, the Christian religious right’s opposition to abortion has dominated the reproductive rights debate in the United States. Activists spent years pushing states and the federal government toward more restrictive policies; those efforts culminated in the Supreme Court’s
decision overturning the constitutionally protected right to an abortion.
But Christians aren’t the only people of faith with deeply held religious convictions regarding reproductive rights. Judaism not only teaches that abortion is permitted, but compels Jewish faith leaders
to fight for reproductive rights, says
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, an author, scholar in residence for the
National Council of Jewish Women, and creator of
Rabbis for Repro, a national network of Jewish clergy working to support reproductive rights in their communities and on a national level.
The argument Ruttenberg and other rabbis are making has important implications for the law. If Judaism teaches that abortions are necessary, then laws denying the right to an abortion infringe upon the religious freedoms of Jewish people to have them. In Florida, one rabbi, Barry Silver of L’Dor Va-Dor in Palm Beach County, is
suing the state to block a new 15-week abortion ban from going into effect, arguing that the proposed rule restricts religious freedom and amounts to “theocratic tyranny.” (A judge announced he would
temporarily block the new law, one day before it was set to take effect, in response to a separate lawsuit.) In Israel, officials announced new policies
meant to ease abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.
The fetus is an extension of the pregnant person until birth. It’s like that old slogan “my body, my choice”: it is literally her body!
The religious right led the opposition to abortion. Other faith leaders feel differently.
www.vox.com