Discussions about abortion are invariably fraught.  In the United States, it can seem almost impossible to broach this topic without becoming enmeshed in deeply felt beliefs related to sexuality, bodily autonomy, the degree to which a person should be held accountable for bad luck or bad choices, the boundaries of life itself and the value assigned to different lives.  

But are the premises under which American society has chosen to engage with the topic of abortion the only terms in which to frame this discussion?  Are specific clinical markers of fetal development or viability the correct criteria on which to base a decision as to whether a pregnancy should – or must –be required to progress towards completion?  Are terms such as the “right to life” and the “right to choose” the most useful paradigms within which to frame the interests and beliefs of individual women, concerned observers and the society at large?

Already by the fourth century of the Common Era (the time in which the Talmud was being drafted), the Jewish people were conducting their own philosophical and legal conversations about how the potential life that a pregnancy represents should be viewed relative to competing interests and circumstantial demands. The framing of these debates in a halachic (Jewish legal) context applies a distinctly non-American, non-Christian lens to the questions and contradictory values that any discussion of abortion raises.

Please join us on Wed, May 25 at 7:30 p.m.

for a special Scientists and Synagogues presentation on:

Abortion as Framed in Halacha: How Jewish and American

Legal Perspectives Diverge

Our presenters will be Haley Fuller (Planned Parenthood), Jane Powers (Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Cornell U., ) and Rabbi Rachel Safman.  The discussion will take place via Zoom and can be joined using this link .

(Meeting ID: 892 5207 3948,  PW: Science).