Be a Voice for Reproductive Rights
October 18, 2012 
4 Comments
I’ll never forget Sarah. Sarah was a young woman who sought me out for guidance and support during a very troubling time. She had had sexual intercourse for the first time. Not only was she devastated that afterward the guy revealed that he didn’t really like her as much as she liked him, but also she was nervous about being pregnant. They had had unprotected sex.
As her rabbi, I held Sarah’s hand as she waited for the at-home pregnancy test to reveal its results. (Thankfully, it was negative.) As her rabbi, I counseled her about opening up to her mother. As her rabbi, I urged her to learn more about contraception and make an appointment either with her gynecologist or at the local Planned Parenthood. Thankfully, those services were available to her.
As a woman and a Jew I am committed to protecting the rights of women everywhere to make their own decisions about their bodies. As a woman and a Jew I am committed to protecting the rights of women everywhere to make their own reproductive choices. This is why I have endorsed the Religious Institute’s new Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Family Planning.
I am deeply honored to have been amongst the dozen Christian (mainline, Evangelical and Roman Catholic), Jewish and Muslim theologians that created the Open Letter. In a day of dialog and discussion, together we affirmed that, “in a just world, all people would have equal access to contraception. The denial of family planning services effectively translates into coercive childbearing is an insult to human dignity.” Together we called on hospitals and health services, regardless of religious affiliation, to provide or refer to contraceptive services. And together we urged religious leaders to “advocate for increased U.S. financial support for domestic and global family planning services.”
Our Reform Movement has long been at the forefront of supporting family planning and women’s reproductive rights. As far back as 1935 the Women of Reform Judaism passed a resolution expressing support for the lifting of bans on the dissemination of birth control literature. Each of the major advocacy voices of our Movement (the URJ, the CCAR, and WRJ) have regularly reaffirmed their support of women’s reproductive rights and commitment to women’s reproductive health every time the issue has arisen in political debate. We have not backed away from our Movement’s support of this critical issue.
Once again, we are debating about a woman’s access to accurate reproductive health services and contraception. We must let our nation’s leaders know how we feel. As Reform Jews, we must resist those who would deny individuals the ability to make their own personal decisions about their families and reproductive lives. As the Open Letter states, we must “oppose any attempt to make specific religious doctrine concerning pregnancy, childbirth, or contraception the law of any country in the world. Religious groups themselves must respect the beliefs and values of other faiths, since no single faith can claim final moral authority in domestic or international discourse.”
If you are a Jewish professional, please add your name to the list of endorsers by clicking here. If you are a member of a congregation, please ask your congregational professionals to add their name and express your own support by joining the Faithful Voices Network. Let us demonstrate to all who would once again limit contraception that people of faith understand that “contraception saves lives, promotes human flourishing, and advances the common good.”
Image courtesy of Getty Images.
Rabbi Laura Novak Winer, RJE is an expert in educating and engaging teens and young adults within institutions of Jewish learning. She is the editor of the URJ’s Sacred Choices: Adolescent Relationships and Sexual Ethics curricula.
Where is the equal cry for
Reproductive Responsibility? Why is this critical factor always left out of the argument. Wouldn’t some Rep.Respon. solve a
lot of the problems?
I should begin by pointing out that while the phrase “reproductive rights” appears numerous times, the word “abortion” never appears. That is somewhat deceptive on the part of Rabbi Laura. Everyone knows that that “reproductive rights” is a code that includes abortion. If you are advocating the right to an abortion, be clear and say so.
Second, the Reform movement makes much of the notion that people are created ‘b’tzelem Elomim’ in the image of God. If that is the case, should we not be protective of God’s image as it evolve through the natural process of pregnancy and child birth? How can we justify killing that which is either already God’s image or that which in the process of becoming God’s image?
We have to consider whether women have no limitations to their reproductive rights.
Thank you for your comment on my post. I respectfully disagree with you that this conversation is about abortion. This is a conversation about family planning – planning to have a family or planning to not have a family. Planning when and how to have that family.
Yes, the right to make the deeply personal and difficult decision about whether or not to seek an abortion is part of the conversation, but it is not the core of it.
Even before abortion is at issue, is the question of pregnancy itself. Around the world – including here in the US- women are prevented from making their own decisions about whether or not to get pregnant. Women in a variety of situations are either denied access to birth control or forced into using birth control against their will. Women are coerced into either getting pregnant or are forced into abortions against their will.
Reproductive rights is about making sure women are not denied the ability to choose how, when, and whether or not to even get pregnant. All of us – whether we support the right to abortion or not – should support the right of women to make these decisions about their bodies.