Jewish women should test religious freedom | News, Sports, Jobs – Altoona Mirror
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Attention Jewish women: Assert your religious rights.
In Jewish law, the fetus is regarded as a physical part of the mother’s body, not separate from the mother, and not yet having life of its own or independent rights.
Looking at abortion as viewed in the Old Testament, abortion is permitted, even required should the pregnancy endanger the physical or psychological life of the mother.
Judaism values life and affirms that protecting existing life is paramount — and supersedes that of the fetus.
The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was pushed through by the court’s self-avowed “originalists” who believe that because abortion wasn’t specifically mentioned in our 236-year-old constitution, there is no constitutional right to one.
When the Supreme Court narrowly ruled in 2018 that a Christian baker, opposed to gay marriage for religious reasons, could not be forced to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, the ruling was considered a victory for religious freedom.
Religious freedom?
What about the religious freedom of Jewish women?
That life begins at conception is a Christian notion.
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is, therefore, a de facto declaration that this is a Christian nation.
The signers of the U.S. Constitution sanctioned a secular republic, not a Christian nation.
And according to our First Amendment, individual citizens are free to bring their religious convictions into the public arena, but the government is prohibited from favoring one religious view over another.
Let’s test religious freedom regarding abortion.