A Jewish Defense of Planned Parenthood, Reproductive Rights, and Opposition to Imposing Conservative Christianity on America

With regard to Planned Parenthood there is a lot of right wing propaganda out there which ranges from distortion to outright lies. I am one of an admittedly small minority of Republican women who will say, without reservation: I stand with Planned Parenthood. I strongly oppose the efforts to defund the organization. It is already illegal for ANY federal tax money to be used for abortion. In the case of Planned Parenthood federal funds are used for the other 97% of what they do, which is all about women's health. You know, like cancer screening and contraception. Some Christians also object to contraception. The ready availability of contraceptives reduces abortions, something I see as a good thing.

I'm also a Jewish American. In mainstream Judaism life begins at birth. That's why abortion is legal in Israel. There are times when it is simply a medical necessity. In Judaism abortion is NOT murder. That is a Christian religious view. I wrote about this seven years ago, quoting Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, in a piece titled A Religious Argument For Being Pro-Choice .

Christian interpretation about what they believe to be G-d's word isn't likely to convince pro-choice Jews. In a recent debate on a pro-choice Jewish friend's Facebook page I put it just this way: Jews are not Christians. We do not share your beliefs. As Rabbi Telushkin pointed out in his book The Ten Commandments of Character, an unborn fetus is simply not a baby in the Torah. In Judaism the Torah (law) takes precedence over Nevi'im (prophets) in all things. Christians reorder and reinterpret our scripture in utterly unacceptable ways to Jews, holding Nev'im and Ketuvim (writings) as equal to Torah. The verse, Jeremiah 1:5, often quoted by anti-abortion, anti-choice advocates does not override Torah.

My message to those who want to impose Christian views on others, including Jews who believe entirely differently about abortion, is straightforward and entirely secular. In the U.S. we have a country where one of our founders, the principal writer of our Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, called for "a wall of separation between church and state". So long as that wall holds Christian fundamentalist views cannot be imposed on the rest of us, hence Roe v. Wade. Christian religious views on abortion are not supported by science or medicine. You want to deny women a sometimes necessary, sometimes life saying medical procedure based on your religion? Sorry, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its wisdom, says no.

Once again, to my conservative Christian readers: please understand that your religious views are not universal and are not accepted by mainstream Judaism. You most certainly do not speak for G-d in my view. My politics may have turned to the right in other areas, and I may have also returned to the Republican Party, but that doesn't mean I need to give up my own religious beliefs or my belief that America is strongest as a tolerant country accepting people of all faiths and imposing no religion upon its citizens.