Reproductive Justice, Rights & Health

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a shadow docket refusing to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks. This new law violates the 1973 landmark decision Roe v. Wade, which declared a pregnant person has a constitutional right to an abortion.

Since the Supreme Court grounded the right to an abortion in a constitutional right to privacy, legal and societal debate has continued around the status of a fetus in utero, a woman’s countervailing claims, and the interests of states and society as a whole. As American courts have faced an issue that intertwines legal, moral, and philosophical questions, so too the halakhic process confronts analogous complexities. The main line of Jewish tradition makes a much-needed contribution to the discussion of abortion. Without sharing the view that the fetus is from conception fully a person, it stops short of a complete dismissal of the value problem in destroying a fetus. However, whatever value attaches to “potential life,” the primary concern lies with the woman. She exists. Her voice and her needs must be heard. And her life, (no matter how slim her chances of survival), health, and mental well-being come first.

Jewish Studies at Rutgers University: Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life and Department of Jewish Studies

In overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court thrust abortion into the headlines, reigniting with new intensity one of the most painful battles of the culture wars in this country. Abortion is a complex legal question, a divisive social issue, and—for many Americans—a deeply religious matter. Too often,

As Israel’s Orthodox Jews struggle to live up to high fertility norms rooted in religious and Zionist ideals, an obscured model of stratified critique has emerged. Based on an ethnography of Israel...

Drawing on an ethnographic study of reproduction in Israel, in this article I demonstrate how Orthodox Jews delineate borders between the godly and the human in their daily reproductive practices. ...

A federal judge in Texas is expected to rule soon in a lawsuit that aims to block access to one of the two drugs typically used in medication abortions. Plaintiffs in the case are seeking a nationwide injunction, meaning the drug would become unavailable across the country.

The New York Times is tracking the status of abortion laws in each state following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.