Oh really?
{WASHINGTON Thousands of years of Jewish scripture make it clear that access to abortion care is a requirement of Jewish law and practice, according to Rabbi Karen Bogard.
"We preserve life at all costs," she said in an interview with States Newsroom. "But there is a difference between that which is living, and that which is not yet living."
Bogard is a rabbi at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, which is in the progressive tradition of Reform Judaism. She said that whether it's the Torah the first five books of the Old Testament in the Hebrew Bible or the Talmud the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and theology those pieces of Jewish literature "really draw the difference between life and potential life."
But with the fall of Roe v. Wade in late June, some members of the Jewish faith as well as other religious groups find their beliefs in deep conflict with state laws that ban or greatly restrict abortion especially if a pregnant patient's life is in danger.
Since the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, states now are permitted to craft their own laws regarding abortion, and in Bogard's home state of Missouri, the procedure is banned.
"Our congregants are heartbroken," she said. "It's really violating to be told what you can and can't do with your own self."
Legal challenges are resulting. The enactment of state laws that ban or restrict access to abortion has already sparked a lawsuit in Florida from a liberal Jewish congregation in the Sunshine State. In Ohio, another liberal Jewish congregation is joining the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the state's six-week abortion ban.
A coalition of three dozen rabbis also filed a brief on a separate lawsuit in the Buckeye State, where physicians are challenging the new abortion law in the Supreme Court of Ohio.
Similar lawsuits are anticipated, not only from liberal Jewish congregations, but other religious groups as well.
According to Jewish law, a fetus is not considered a full human being and the biblical foundation for this is found in Exodus 21:22 of the Torah, a St. Louis rabbi pointed out in an interview. In fact, there are several passages in Jewish literature that make the distinction that the life of the person who is pregnant is prioritized.
There's currently a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division filed by the Satanic Temple not to be confused with the Church of Satan on behalf of a member who argues the state's abortion ban violates that temple member's religious beliefs allowing access to an abortion ritual.
The ritual involves members repeating verses in a mirror to affirm body autonomy and repel any guilt, shame or discomfort that can surface when undergoing an abortion.
"There's going to be a wave of religious freedom lawsuits," Rabbi Daniel Bogard, who's married to Rabbi Karen Bogard, said. "We're going to find out if this country really believes in religious freedom, or whether this country believes in the freedom of a small minority to impose its will on the rest of us."
But it's unclear if these religious-based lawsuits challenging state abortion laws can win in court.
"We're very much in the wild, wild west of abortion law and religious law," said Candace Bond-Theriault, the director of racial justice policy and strategy at Columbia Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.
Jewish law
According to Jewish law, a fetus is not considered a full human being and the biblical foundation for this is found in Exodus 21:22 of the Torah, Rabbi Daniel Bogard said.
The translation reads: "When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman's husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.…"
Rabbi Daniel Bogard said that the Jewish legal interpretation of these passages states that a fetus is not a person, because the miscarriage results in only monetary compensation, rather than the "life for life" punishment.
There are several other passages in Jewish literature that make the distinction that the life of the person who is pregnant is prioritized.
"If we're going to live in a religiously free society, we are each allowed to interpret these verses on our own for our own traditions and a minority in this country can't impose their conservative white Christian religiosity on the rest of us," Rabbi Daniel Bogard said.
The lawsuits challenging abortion laws are predominately filed by congregations that practice Reform Judaism, but Conservative Judaism also supports access to abortion.
The question of access to abortion gets more restrictive when it comes to Orthodox Judaism, but access to the medical procedure isn't barred, says Yedida Eisenstat, a fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta.
"Abortion in Judaism absolutely does have a place, and within Jewish law, there absolutely is a place for abortion," she said. "Judaism is not anti-abortion, like Christianity is, so it absolutely does make sense for Jewish congregations to be saying, 'Hey, this is a violation of our religious rights.'"
Eisenstat specializes in Jewish biblical interpretation and also works as an editorial associate at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization.
"Judaism doesn't have one voice or one opinion or one ruling about everything," she said, adding that every situation is different and "there's all this other gray area," when it comes to theoretical cases in Jewish law pertaining to abortion.
And interpretations on abortion in Jewish law, or Halacha, vary across American Jewish denominations.
"We use the theoretical cases to illuminate other cases just like in American law so there isn't one blanket answer for every situation, every situation has its own nuances," she said. "And again, that's why this is a decision, a very personal decision, not one that the government should be making."
The Rabbinical Assembly, a major institution of Conservative Judaism, condemned the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs.
"Denying individuals access to the complete spectrum of reproductive healthcare, including contraception, abortion-inducing devices and medications, and abortions, among others, on religious grounds, deprives those who need medical care of their Constitutional right to religious freedom," the organization said in a statement.
Orthodox Judaism is typically more aligned with Christian conservative views on religious liberty issues, Eisenstat said, but differs on the belief that life begins at conception.
Following the Dobbs decision, the Rabbinical Council of America and Agudath Israel, large organizations that represent Orthodox Jewish communities, urged states to consider exceptions to expand abortion access.
"As the debate over abortion rights enters this new phase, we encourage states to craft policies that will simultaneously express the great value we place on life as well as protecting the rights to abortion when warranted by Jewish law," the Rabbinical Council of America said in a statement.}
https://tennesseelookout.com/2022/08/26/jewish-congregations-mount-legal-challenges-to-state-abortion-bans/ 