This is a critical time for women and men in the Jewish community to stay informed, to speak out and to mobilize in support of reproductive rights.
At the federal level, just last month, we saw the first president since the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade decide to criminalize safe abortion procedures. With a razor thin 5-4 pro-choice majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, anti-choice control of the White House and Congress, and a record number of judicial appointments being made by President Bush, a woman’s constitutional right to abortion hangs in the balance.
Interference in private and personal medical decisions is not limited to abortion alone.
Here in Wisconsin, as well as in Washington, we see ongoing efforts to restrict access to birth control, family planning services, prenatal testing and choices about end of life care.
Last week, on Oct. 28, the National Council of Jewish Women joined with 14 other local Jewish community groups and synagogues to sponsor a panel discussion about the growing threat to reproductive freedom in Wisconsin. Speakers included State Senator Gwen Moore; Assembly Representative Lena Taylor; Dr. Seth Foldy, Commissioner of Health for the city of Milwaukee; and Chris Taylor, legislative director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
The message we heard is one that should seriously concern our community. Access to reproductive healthcare is under attack in Wisconsin. Despite its reputation as a “progressive” state, Wisconsin’s stance on reproductive rights is not progressive. Both houses of the Wisconsin state legislature now have an anti-choice and an anti-birth control majority. They are advancing extreme legislation, which, if passed, will have far-reaching consequences for us, for our children and for future generations. Consider some of the following bills that have broad support in the state legislature:
• Senate Bill 27 would allow health care providers to withhold information from patients about important prenatal tests and/or their results. This bill would provide legal immunity to health care professionals who choose to withhold information from their patients because they believe a patient might use such information to decide to have an abortion.
• Assembly Bill 67 would allow health care providers, based on their own religious beliefs, to refuse to provide essential services to patients, and to refuse to provide a referral. This bill targets reproductive healthcare and end of life care — for example, healthcare providers could choose to ignore a patient’s Living Will.
• Assembly Bill 634 would significantly restrict the Medicaid Family Waiver, which provides reproductive healthcare to low-income women and is funded by millions in federal Medicaid dollars. Justification for this waiver in Wisconsin is our high rate of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases — Milwaukee has among the highest rates in the nation. The bill would exclude teenagers — the primary target population which this funding is intended to serve.
None of these bills has the support of the health care community — they are authored and advanced by extremists who oppose reproductive rights and want to impose their personal religious and moral beliefs on all Wisconsinites.
‘Jewish issue’
The National Council of Jewish Women and our co-sponsors share a deep belief that access to reproductive healthcare is a “Jewish issue.” We believe that reproductive freedom is intrinsically tied to religious liberty.
In keeping with our nation’s constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, we oppose laws that would impose specific religious views about abortion, birth control and other reproductive options on all Americans. We believe that reproductive choice must be recognized as a matter of individual conscience outside the realm of government intrusion.
We oppose attempts — whether by Constitutional amendment, legislation, judicial review or government regulation — to restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortion, to bar financial assistance to women seeking reproductive healthcare services or to restrict access to birth control and family planning services.
Because of the range of religious beliefs on these sensitive issues, we believe that women should be free to make their own decisions within the context of their own religious convictions and conscience, without interference from the state.
If you share our concern about these issues, now is the time to take action. As we heard last week, the future of reproductive rights hangs in the balance. Our united efforts are needed to protect these rights. Without our action, our children and grandchildren will not have access to the choices we have come to take for granted.
Legislators who do not support a women’s right to choose represent many of our community members. They are hearing regularly from anti-choice extremists — we need to make sure they hear from constituents who support reproductive rights. Please join me in making a promise to take action. Make a commitment to contacting your legislators often to urge their support for reproductive healthcare. NCJW will continue to work with other Jewish community groups to inform and mobilize our community.
For more information and to get involved, contact NCJW section spokesperson Ruth Wallace at 414-332-1118.
Susan Friebert is a past president of the National Council of Jewish Women and the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations.
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