Liz Moore
Vice Chair, Placer DCC Communications Committee
There are days in our lives when we know, for better or worse, our lives have been changed – not by our actions but by “others”. Pearl Harbor, the Twin Towers, Sandy Hook…events that shocked us to the core. Our U.S. Supreme Court has also changed lives…“Obergefell”, a decision that changed the lives of our gay population, Brown v Board of Education, that advanced the climb from blatant segregation, and Roe v Wade, that freed women from back alley abortions.
But today a bomb exploded in broad daylight when American women/girls were told they don’t matter. The “old men” of the court decided their high moral principles are more important than the lives of women and girls of this country – that we are no longer “equal” citizens. Our lives don’t matter. Michelle Obama stated “ Girls (women’s) bodies now belong to the state.
One physician interviewed on TV said our country is headed for a massive “public health crisis” as women try to find solutions for a pregnancy they don’t want or was forced on them. Back alley, at home or “suicidal” efforts to end a pregnancy can turn into Sepsis – an ugly, painful and unnecessary death.
Today I’m outraged, heartbroken, fearful of where this will lead our country. It’s clear the questioning of Supreme Court justice candidates is worthless – they lie. They all claimed Roe was protected by stare decisus…until it wasn’t. Right wing politicians are back-slapping and promising instant and draconian action to “protect” lives. For those of us who view this decision as a blatant statement that women, and our lives, aren’t really “equal”…which path do we choose? Anger, protesting, donating to candidates who believe in the right to choose?? I say all of the above and more, including the most important…VOTE!!!
Additional thoughts on Reproductive Rights…..
A South Florida Jewish congregation filed a lawsuit challenging the 15-week abortion ban signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fl) set to take effect on July 1, on the grounds that it violates rights to religious freedom.
Attempting to get more details, I pursued some background and found the following excerpt: “Abortion and Reproductive Justice: A Jewish Perspective” from ‘The Social Justice Torah Commentary,’ by Rabbis Joshua R. S. Fixler and Emily Langowitz to provide a Jewish perspective on abortion, originally posted to ravblog and CCARpress.org.
“The Mishnah (the oral Tohrah) states that if a woman’s life is threatened in childbirth, the fetus inside her can be destroyed, even to the point of “taking it out limb from limb, for her life comes before the fetus’s life.” Through the graphic language of this text, the Mishnaic author leaves no ambiguity as to whose life takes precedence. This text sets the standard from which all other halachah (Jewish law) on abortion flows. They point out that later writing discusses knowing a time would come when an abortion could even be required.
For American Jews, the protection of access to abortion could also be understood under the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause. Because Jewish law permits abortion under certain circumstances as a morally acceptable choice, or even in some cases a halachic requirement, any law that limits a woman’s right to choose might limit a Jewish woman’s ability to make a decision in accordance with her religious beliefs.
And…”The American Medical Association, at its’ recent annual meeting, discussed initiatives to address new and looming restrictions to reproductive-health services. The AMA announced it would work to expand legal protection for patients and physicians against government systems of control that criminalize reproductive health services, taking direct aim at several states including Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho and Mississippi, which have enacted the strictest abortion bans in the country. The association described government intrusion in medicine as “a violation of human rights,” and AMA President, Dr. Jack Resneck, pledged to seek legal protections for patients crossing state lines to receive reproductive health care and for physicians alike. The AMA…also urged the Food and Drug Administration to approve over-the-counter birth control pills.” By Julia Claire & Crooked Media