Developing Orthodox Jewish Viewpoints of Abortion in a post-Roe World: An Examination of Shifting Rabbinic Engagement

This paper will pay particular attention to the debates within the Orthodox world on abortion access since the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in May 2022. This focus will offer a deeper understanding and contextualization of the conflicting Orthodox positions, wherein some Orthodox Jews, including prominent rabbis, have welcomed the overturning of Roe v. Wade as preserving human life and not restricting Jewish practice, while others, again including prominent rabbis, have protested that the decision endangers human life and restricts the free practice of Judaism.The paper will do this by identifying and analyzing public writings and pronouncements that may reflect how leading rabbis and rabbinic bodies across various camps within the Halachic Jewish world from Open Orthodoxy through Hareidi Judaism have modified their positions in recent years.

As such, and if presentation time allows, this paper will trace the tapestry of Halachic Jewish thought on abortion, beginning with foundational biblical texts, particularly Exodus 21 and relevant verses in Genesis 2 and 7, and their reception from late antiquity through to the enduring 20th century debate between the Tzitz Eliezer and Reb Moshe regarding abortion permissibility and on to how contemporary decisors have carried this discourse into the present post-Roe era. Regardless of time constraints, this paper will include analysis of Jewish thought from recent years to shed light on the diverse reactions to the overturning of Roe v. Wade within the various Orthodox Jewish sub-denominations.  It is these shifts in halachic or rabbinic opinions, advocacy, and attitudes that are of particular interest to this paper. This paper explores and explains present day positions of Orthodox Jewish leaders across various orthodox sub-denominations (open orthodoxy, centrist orthodoxy, hareidi, etc)by comparing their present engagement with their positions from a few years ago. For example, the paper analyzes the changing positions of Yeshiva University’s Rabbi David Bleich, contrasting his earlier writings which included an array of positions with his post-Dobbs writings which highlight restrictive stances and omit lenient positions. 

As part of an attempt to contextualise these shifts and see how the diverging positions may coincide with other political and cultural elements at play, the paper will also examine positions stated by various rabbis and rabbinic bodies as to how women’s religious freedoms are upheld by various state laws in the current states’ rights abortion era; how they have related to efforts to enable women to seek abortions or efforts to further ban abortions, and the extent to which their work appears to be in tandem with religious, political, and cultural leaders and activists from outside of the orthodox Jewish sphere as reported in rabbinic statements, as recorded in (the limited) survey data on various orthodox Jewish sub-groups, and as noted by other scholars.

The selection of 2020 as a pivotal starting point is deliberate. That year witnessed the launch of Rabbis for Repro by the National Council for Jewish Women, coinciding with the Supreme Court's consideration of June Medical Services LLC v. Russo. While the latter case upheld abortion access, the subsequent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett signaled a potential reversal in future decisions. The passage of Texas Senate Bill 8 in 2021, and the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which effectively turned abortion rights into a state-level issue, further heightened the urgency and relevance of this research. For those in the New York area, that state’s 2019 Reproductive Health Act is also relevant, though it is not until 2020 and even more so 2022 that there is more noted activism by parties on various sides of the abortion debates and that national and even international rabbis and rabbinic groups start to more fully engage.

This research is essential for understanding the dynamic interplay of Halachic tradition and contemporary socio-political realities. By tracing the evolution of rabbinic thought and activity, this paper offers valuable insights into the complexities of religious decision-making in a rapidly changing world. Further, this paper highlights that Orthodoxy is not monolithic, and that the Aguda’s response welcoming an overturning of Roe is not any more or less representative of Orthodox Judaism than Torat Chayim calling it ‘catastrophic’, but rather they represent divergent Orthodoxies tied into different sides of America’s culture wider wars. 

This paper builds upon the work of scholars such as Helfand, Irshai, Raucher, and others