![fetus in womb](https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fetus-in-womb.jpg)
The unprecedented leak of an initial draft majority opinion by the Supreme Court in the challenge of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—Mississippi’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy—has caused a firestorm of opinions on both sides of the abortion debate. Reform and Conservative “rabbis” and leaders who do not follow the Torah or halacha are for the most part opposed to the court’s likely decision, which was due to be officially announced in June.
First published on Monday night by Politico, the leak contained parts of a draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization by Justice Samuel Alito that was being circulated in the court.
Alito said that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed federal protection of abortion rights, was “egregiously wrong from the start,” as well as a 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that affirmed that right.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote in the draft. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leaked document and said that federal marshals had been called to investigate how it happened.
As soon as the news was published, crowds on both sides of the abortion issue gathered in front of the Supreme Court to either protest or support the potential decision.
National Reform and Conservative Jewish organizations weighed in on, sending out numerous news releases.
“The draft majority Supreme Court opinion … is an attack on women’s autonomy, freedom and health. When a woman’s right to choose is limited, we also limit her right to safe, informed medical decisions and procedures,” said Rhoda Smolow, president of Hadassah the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and CEO Naomi Adler in a joint statement. “If enacted, this decision will have disproportionate impacts for the empowerment, economic equity and security of women in underserved communities.”
The Rabbinical Assembly (RA), which represents the Conservative movement in the United States, said it fiercely opposes the attempt to end the precedent that had been in place for more than 50 years, calling the Supreme Court’s likely decision an attack on abortion accessibility.
“The RA is deeply troubled by reports that the Supreme Court will soon nullify the constitutional right to abortion. Reproductive freedom is again under assault, this time from the highest court in our nation,” it wrote in a news release. “The RA supports full access for all those who need abortions to the entire spectrum of reproductive health care and opposes all efforts by governmental, private entities or individuals to limit or dismantle such access.”
The RA claimed that while Jewish law cherishes the sanctity of life or potential life during pregnancy, it does not believe that personhood and human rights begin with conception, but rather with birth, which it wrote “is indicated by Exodus 21:22-23.” The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly has previously affirmed the right of a person to choose abortion in cases where “continuation of a pregnancy might cause severe physical or psychological harm, or where the fetus is judged by competent medical opinion as severely defective.”
“Denying individuals access to the complete spectrum of reproductive health care, including contraception, abortion-inducing devices and abortions, among others, on religious grounds deprives those who need medical care of their constitutional right to religious freedom,” wrote the RA.
It also noted that it opposes the “heartbeat bills” that have been proposed in some states, which make abortions illegal as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. It called on its members to contact their members of Congress to demand abortion rights in every state.
‘This decision would have disastrous consequences’
“Rabbi” Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center, an organization affiliated with the Reform movement, said that the draft ruling would roll back fundamental rights and human dignity throughout the United States, allowing more abortion restrictions like the law in Mississippi to proliferate. He called these laws rooted in “anti-black racism, white supremacy and other systems of oppression.”
“This decision would not only decimate abortion access but also explicitly threaten other fundamental rights we hold dear, including the [toeivah] rights affirmed by Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges,” Pesner wrote in a release. “It is clear we must continue to pursue actions outside the courts to protect each person’s fundamental rights to provide and receive abortion care, to marry whom we love, and to have full bodily autonomy through laws and federal protections, including the Women’s Health Protection Act, the EACH ACT and the Equality Act.”
“Rabbi” Marla Feldman, executive director of Women of Reform Judaism, said the draft opinion was an affront to women’s fundamental right to make decisions for their own bodies.
“If agreed to by a majority of justices, this decision would have disastrous consequences, leaving tens of millions of people across the country without abortion care,” she wrote in a release. “People will be forced to travel across state lines to seek the care they need, and many who cannot—due to a lack of adequate financial resources, time off from work or child care, for example—will be forced to carry their pregnancies against their will, putting their mental and physical health at risk.”
Feldman wrote that she believes that striking down the federal guarantee to abortion will have a disproportionate impact on populations already facing discrimination and obstacles to health care, including people of color, indigenous people, people with disabilities, undocumented individuals, and rural and low-income people.
“Rabbi” Hara Person, CEO of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, a Reform rabbinic leadership organization, said the decision adversely affects broader women’s health issues such as access to high-quality health care.
“We are proud that Jewish tradition regards abortion as essential health care—not only permitting the termination of pregnancy but even requiring it when the life of the pregnant person is in danger. Restricting access to reproductive health care impedes the freedom of religion granted by the First Amendment, including a Jewish person’s ability to make decisions in accordance with their religious beliefs,” she said in a statement. “As people lose access to abortion across the country, and our fundamental rights and moral agency are targeted, we will continue to provide support to our communities and broader U.S. community, and continue the fight for all people to determine their own futures and lives.” JNS
Reform is not Judaism. Conservative doesn’t know what it is.
Conservative is Reform with a guilt complex
No no no. We must bend over backwards, twist ourselves into pretzels, and use creative imagination to be dan licaf zchus. We are never allowed to criticize those that spit at our creator and step on his Torah r”l. We are only allowed to criticize those that are ehrliche Yidden.
The emperors new clothes.
Now we’re back to people have a choice what to do with their own body. While we’re there, let’s talk about forced vaccinations again. Funny how rights change depending on whether the Democrats believe you should have the right.
Avital chizzik goldshmit also weighed in on this. Perhaps you can Google her tweet to see how “open orthodox feminists” can reconstruct the Torah.
Rabbis are to help us. These family proctors are tradition killers.
The very sense they could talk to a training helping girl is embarrassing. Nerve grade animals.