From activist rabbis to the Temple of Satan: Surprising tactics in the fight to preserve abortion rights

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “They were very visible and they were unambiguous in the moral justifications and the moral rights of women to choose abortions no matter what their circumstances.” He describes how in the decades before the Roe decision, a determined group of clergy people, composed of Protestant ministers and rabbis hailing from certain sects of Judaism, relied on their religious respectability and authority to tap in to their widespread connections to help women who found themselves unwillingly pregnant find doctors who would provide “sterile safe abortions”, both inside and outside the borders of their own country. We have been asking ourselves, how can people of faith show up in the ways that are the most helpful and that fill a need that only they can address?” One of the ways the group has been preparing for this fraught moment, which Ms Zeh admits does not come as a surprise and is one they’ve been strategising ahead of for “a long time”, is equipping faith leaders and activists with resources through the Religion and Repro Learning Center and directing folks to their Abortions Welcome site, which offers people seeking the procedure the practical and spiritual companionship they need before, during, and after abortion. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, who leads the National Council of Jewish Women’s “Rabbis for Repro”, is a fierce advocate for reproductive rights people and she, alongside several hundred others who have RSVP’d, intends to take that fight to the steps of the Supreme Court on 17 May with the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice. “In some states, that would mean not being able to practice my religion.” Because of this, she notes, she and advocates are “exploring” options to take their case of religious freedom to a higher court in an effort to challenge some of the country’s restrictive abortion laws but warns that those plans are not something that should be pursued “casually”.