TBT Blog

So often, political conversations lose sight of what abortion really is: healthcare. Abortion, or the termination of a pregnancy, is the treatment for an ectopic pregnancy. It is the same treatment for a miscarriage that the body won’t release. Without abortion as an option, the pregnant person will die. The discussion of abortion should be in the context of healthcare.

A few years ago, my oldest daughter, Lucy, attended the RAC L’Taken Social Justice Seminar in DC. There she and other teens from TBT wrote lobbying speeches on topics that were important to them. Lucy’s topic was reproductive justice. While she was in DC, she called me to ask about my experiences working at a health center that provided abortion services. She has heard me tell stories about my abortion work as a clinic defender, an abortion doula, and eventually as a nurse practitioner. And I guess she was listening! She wanted to include my stories in her speech. She was using my experience to shape her experience in standing up for her values. Lucy’s speech talked about how reproductive justice wasn’t just a healthcare issue or an equity issue, but how it is also a Jewish issue. 

Abortion is a Jewish issue. Jewish law supports abortion when the pregnant person’s life is in danger. More modern interpretations have included emotional and mental well-being in addition to physical well-being as valid reasons for an abortion. Reform Judaism holds that pregnant people should have complete responsibility and autonomy over whether to terminate a pregnancy. From this perspective, anti-abortion laws violate Jewish religious freedom.

Without realizing it, Lucy and I embodied L’dor Vador, “generation to generation.”  I passed on my values to Lucy, and she continues to live this value in a Jewish context. I see the concept of L’dor Vador exemplified in many ways at TBT. Our upcoming Repro Shabbat service is just one way that we are living and passing on our Jewish values to the next generation.

I am a proud pro-choice Jew and I’m grateful Judaism and TBT support the right to keep abortion an accessible part of healthcare.