Commentary: Religious rights under threat by Florida abortion proposals
The Florida legislature is considering criminalizing the termination of a pregnancy after six weeks. This proposal not only threatens the lives of women in Florida but would rob them of their religious liberty, as well.
Jewish tradition has considered the question of abortion for millennia. As far back as the book of Exodus, our tradition did not see a fetus as having equal status with an extant human being. Throughout the centuries, our sages have consistently taught that the health and safety of the mother is the paramount concern until the moment of childbirth.
At the same time, our tradition also teaches that the question of “when does life begin?” is not easily answered. Some sages taught that a soul enters the fetus at the moment of birth, others after 40 days, and some even at the moment of conception. Jewish tradition leaves the question of when does life begin open to interpretation, and relies on the conscience of individual Jews to answer that question for themselves.
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Jewish tradition, however, is very clear that if carrying a fetus threatens the health of the mother, then it is our obligation to terminate that pregnancy to save the mother’s life. And that threat is not necessarily limited to the physical health of the mother but also concerns her mental health.
Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, the foremost scholar on bio-ethical issues in Israel in the 20th century, wrote that “indeed, we may permit an abortion … because of 'a great need' and because of pain and suffering. And it is irrelevant in what way the pain and suffering is expressed, whether it is physical or psychological. Indeed, psychological suffering is in many ways much greater than the suffering of the flesh.”
We need to be clear. State laws that prohibit the right to terminate a pregnancy with no regard to the health and safety of the mother violate Jewish law. A Jewish person who is denied the right to an abortion to preserve her health is kept from what Florida’s constitution guarantees as the free exercise of her religious conscience.
More importantly, the moral arguments surrounding a ban on terminating a pregnancy at six weeks establish a particular religious ideology as the law of our state.
The Florida Constitution in Article I, Section 3 - Religious freedom: “There shall be no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting or penalizing the free exercise thereof.”
The proposed law criminalizing the termination of a pregnancy after six weeks would be a direct violation of the constitutional rights of Jewish women in Florida.
A woman in our congregation is pregnant with a fetus that has extraordinary genetic deformities. She is 13 weeks along and is deeply grieved – this is a pregnancy she sought and the thought of terminating that pregnancy is extremely painful. But in consultation with her doctor and her rabbi, she decided that she needs to terminate this pregnancy. It is her right to exercise her religious conscience and to make the decision she believes is in her best interests.
For the sake of religious freedom and the health and safety of women, we cannot allow this proposal to become law in Florida.
Rabbi Dan Levin serves as Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida abortion restrictions would violate religious rights of Jews
