Abortion and Jewish Law

In the wake of the Dobbs decision, Jewish plaintiffs in multiple U.S. states have brought religious liberty-based legal challenges to restrictive state-wide bans on abortion. Plaintiffs argue that these bans violate their religious rights as Jews because they are grounded in the belief that life begins at conception, a belief informed by a particular reading of Christian doctrine, not a Jewish one.

Jewish law contains multiple interpretations of when life begins. Many argue it permits or even requires access to abortion depending on the circumstances and that any attempt to infringe on their Jewish religious beliefs is a violation of the right to freedom of religion.

In this colloquium, we gather a range of religious and legal experts to look at the history of Jewish involvement in abortion legal matters, delve into traditional Talmudic understandings of fetal personhood and consider them in the context of the post-Dobbs era and contemporary Supreme Court trends.