(Originally published in American Thinker.)
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the pro-abortion side of America hastily grope to patch the gaping torpedo hole in their destroyer, and along with the pro-life community, realized that a new theater of battle is opening. No longer is abortion legal by default in all 50 states, as many already moved to regulate or nearly outlaw the practice completely. Like a cornered animal, the abortion industry is baring its four fangs, protecting its precious prey, and one of these fangs is surprisingly religious. We’ve seen the Biden administration dictate that religious people can still be religious while supporting abortion, and now, this kind of equivocation is being attempted.
On August 1 of this year, three rabbis in Florida filed a legal complaint against the state regarding the 15-week abortion ban. The rabbis argue that in Judaism, counseling women for abortion is an integral part of their religious expression. In their complaint, the rabbis point to the Old Testament, calling it the “….primary source of Jewish law and theology” and claim, “the sanctity of all human life is the core tenet of Judaism.”
If a core doctrine of Judaism is the unequivocal sacredness of all human life, then it would seem counseling women for abortion represents the opposite of expressing their religious beliefs. How could one hold that the sacredness of all human life is justification for ending the life of another human? Strangely, it seems like the rabbis are saying that trespassing against their religious core doctrine is a requirement to express their religion.
Furthermore, the rabbis insist Florida law is a “pernicious elevation of the legal rights of fetuses….” Pernicious? Do they mean to say that protecting a child in the womb is wicked? Also, if it is true that these Jewish leaders hold that the “sacredness of all human life is a core tenet of Judaism,” then all human life must be equally sacred, voiding the concept of differing degrees of rights.
The “elevation of the legal rights” of any category of person presumes a prior injustice, the start of which is most certainly found in the devaluation of that category of person. The dehumanization of a category of person was done before in America with Black slaves, and in turn, corrected by the Civil War, It was done under the law to Jews in Germany too, which one would imagine might be lingering in the minds of rabbis. Again, this injustice was also rectified by war — WWII.
Bottom line, if all humans are equally sacred, the reduction or elimination of the rights of any group of people by any other person or group of people is unjust always and everywhere and ought to be resisted.
Perhaps the rabbis are unaware of their unlikely ideological partner making similar arguments, The Satanic Temple. They too are attempting to pick away at a civilized order in states with laws designed to protect their youngest citizens. Yet, the rabbis in Florida may not find comfort recalling that ritual child sacrifice is described in a key text of the law, Leviticus 20:2-5 and elsewhere. But, the practice is only and always described as the cause of great judgment from God. And, inconveniently for the rabbis, the Jewish law requires not only judgment upon those performing the terrible acts but also judgment upon those who know about it and choose to do nothing to stop it.
Why is moral culpability for committing the sin transferred to those who refuse to stop it in scripture? To intentionally destroy a human disrespects God, dehumanizing all people, destabilizing all of society. And while the science of embryology demonstrates that the pre-born baby is fully human and a person distinct from his mother, it is only the fundamental truth informed by sacred scripture that tells us why those boys and girls ought not be violated. That fundamental truth is every human, without qualification, is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
So, these rabbis’ arguments insisting that abortion is essential to freedom of religion is not only an attack on truth of what it means to be human but also an attack on the foundation of society. In the womb where a boy or girl ought to be most protected, recognized as sacred and loved, Satan would have religious mouthpieces denying their dignity and worth — leaving a baby to the compassion of the cruel, under the guise of the freedom of religious expression. Christians must recognize this tragic deception for what it is and speak ever more loudly and lovingly, declaring that all people are made in the image of God from the moment of fertilization, and are worthy of equal protection.
