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A Trump-appointed Texas federal judge, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, just halted FDA approval of abortion pill mifepristone. Then, almost instantaneously, a federal judge in Washington state said in a dueling ruling that the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available. Legal AF host Karen Friedman Agnifilo reports.
madaboutharry
(42,033 posts)😕
Rhiannon12866
(255,159 posts)The choice of the people.
madaboutharry
(42,033 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(179,548 posts)The premise of this asshole's ruling is that a fetus is human life.

Under Jewish religious law, it is clear that life begins at birth and there is no prohibition in the Torah on abortion. According to my Rabbi, the life of a fetus is only potential life and the life of the mother is more important than the life of a fetus. Alito's proposed opinion elevates Christian beliefs over Judaism.
Link to tweet
https://jezebel.com/jewish-leaders-banning-abortion-is-absolutely-a-violat-1848885645
Coalitions of Rabbis across different sects of Judaism and a contingent of Jewish abortion activists are defending Jewish pregnant peoples right to abortion access, raising what they claim is a valid legal challenge: A national abortion ban would violate their right to religious freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment. And as the right to bodily autonomy for women and pregnant people is threatenedlargely impacting low-income Black and brown peopleby conservative justices arguments that we should simply rewind to the good old years when women didnt have any rights because, you know, some 17th century witch-hunter said so, Jewish communities are putting their foot down to say, Not in my religion.......
For evidence, Rabbi Ruttenberg points to the Book of Exodus in the Torah, which discusses a case where two men accidentally knock over a pregnant person and cause them to miscarry:
When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other harm ensues, the one responsible shall be fined when the womans husband demands compensation; the payment will be determined by judges. But if other harm ensues, the penalty shall be life for life.
The Hebrew Bible, she says, does not regard the fetus as a person, for the Torah doesnt specify how long the woman has been pregnant when the miscarriage happens. Another annotated text states, If she is found pregnant, until the fortieth day it is mere fluid, meaning the fetus does not have agency for at least forty days of pregnancy. For that reason, some interpretations of Jewish law say that personhood begins with the first breath. Its not murder, basically, and the Talmud lays that out really explicitly, she says.
I like the idea of a lawsuit filed on the basis of the First Amendment. Alito's draft opinion favors conservative christian theology over the faith all all or most Jews.
Rhiannon12866
(255,159 posts)And I was just listening to both the attorney and the physician on The Last Word - who not only disagreed with the opinion that this medication is unsafe, but the doctor was very disturbed that someone with no medical training is making medical decisions that could harm so many women. And, of course, we have to go back to the original argument, that it is totally unacceptable for one individual to make such personal decisions for an entire population of people - and families - who he will never know.