Event Description

In the wake of the Dobbs decision, Jewish plaintiffs in multiple U.S. states have brought religious liberty-based legal challenges to restrictive state-wide bans on abortion. Plaintiffs argue that these bans violate their religious rights as Jews because they are grounded in the belief that life begins at conception, a belief informed by a particular reading of Christian doctrine, not a Jewish one.   

Jewish law contains multiple interpretations of when life begins. Many argue it permits or even requires access to abortion depending on the circumstances and that any attempt to infringe on their Jewish religious beliefs is a violation of the right to freedom of religion. 

In this colloquium, we gathered a range of religious and legal experts to look at the history of Jewish involvement in abortion legal matters, delve into traditional Talmudic understandings of fetal personhood and consider them in the context of the post-Dobbs era and contemporary Supreme Court trends. 

Panelists

• Moderator: I. Glenn Cohen, Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean, Harvard Law School
• Michael Helfand, Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law; Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor, Yale Law School
• Sara Ronis, Associate Professor of Theology, St. Mary’s University
• Michal Raucher, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University
• Michael Broyde, Rabbi; and Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
• Jonathan Zasloff, Rabbi; and Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
• Conclusion: Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Director, Law Rights, and Religion Project, Columbia Law School

Event Resources 

Click here for optional reading materials for Abortion and Jewish Law.

This event is co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law at Harvard Law School with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.