The Religion of Reproductive Rights Claims (D&I)

The Religion of Reproductive Rights Claims will explore the Jewish Fight to Legalize Abortion as a contemporary case study. In the months leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe vs. Wade, pro-choice Jewish advocates claimed that “abortion bans are against our religion.” In this talk, Michal Raucher will examine what that statement means, what it’s trying to do, and how it fails to fully capture the Jewish communal conversation around abortion. Drawing on the lived experiences of Jewish women who have had abortions, she offers a new vision of what Jewish pro-choice activism could look like. By centering individual agency and moral values over strict adherence to ancient texts, Jewish activists and other religious groups might mobilize their religious commitments and traditions to better align with the broader principles of reproductive justice and religious freedom in contemporary society.

Open to the public.