opinion
Curtailing abortion rights undermines
religious freedom
FATIMA ARGUN AND WALTER RUBY | SPECIAL TO JE
sdominick / iStock / Getty
A s adherents of the two largest minority faith
groups in the United States, Judaism and
Islam, we strongly protest the Supreme Court’s
overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark SCOTUS
decision guaranteeing the right to abortion.

This regressive decision not only tramples on
the fundamental right of women to control their
own bodies but is a transgression on the religious
freedom and values of members of our respec-
tive faiths. While the decision does not expressly
endorse Christian theological beliefs, its honor-
ing only those constitutional liberty rights that
are “deeply rooted in our history and tradition”
implicitly does so by disregarding the diverse
beliefs and values long not found to be sufficiently
“rooted.” As such, it represents a deeply worrying
precedent in which the highest court in the land
has adopted the dictates of Christian theology
to justify a ruling that will now compel women in
states that abolish abortion — including members
of our own faiths — to carry a fetus to term.

In addition to its troubling adoption of only
those historical values held by a limited segment
of our Christian population, a result at least
implicitly violative of the separation of church
and state guaranteed by the First Amendment of
the Constitution, the decision known as Dobbs
v. Jackson Women’s Health disregards serious
issues of the right to privacy inherent to both our
faith traditions. The decision also raises deeply
worrying questions as to how comfortable or
safe American Muslims and Jews will be in a
nation ever more overtly defined by the most
inflexible and doctrinaire segments of the larger
and more diverse Christian community.

According to a May 2022 Pew Research Center
poll, 83 percent of American Jews believe abor-
tion should be legal in all or most cases. Among
Muslims, a poll by the authoritative Institute for
Policy and Understanding (ISPU) found a substan-
tial majority of 56-37 in support of legal abortion
in all or most cases.

In that context, it is dismaying to hear some voices
referring to the Court’s permitting states to ban
abortion as “Christian Sharia.” Sharia (Islamic law)
does not demand the banning of abortion either
in the Muslim world or here in the United States;
the Dobbs decision is far more akin to an expres-
sion of Christian fundamentalism pure and simple.

While there are important Muslim theological voices
on both sides of the issue, just as there are in the
Jewish community, the fact remains that for both our
faith traditions, the life of the mother always takes
precedence over that of the unborn child.

As for the all-important question of when life
begins, Muslim scholars point to different opin-
ions ranging from 40 days, at which time the
Prophet Muhammad said human beings are “con-
stituted in the womb,” to 120 days, when the soul
is believed to enter the fetus. In Judaism, the
Torah, the Mishnah and the Talmud all consider
a fetus to be a part of its mother’s body until
delivery. It is not coincidental that the Hebrew
word for soul is neshamah, meaning “breath.”
The predominant opinion in both our faiths is that
forcing a woman to carry to term a pregnancy that
she does not want or that may endanger her life
is morally wrong.

For these reasons, the Court’s striking down
of Roe v. Wade appears as nothing less than a
Christianization of American law, which is per-
ceived by our minority faith communities as a peril
to the principles of religious pluralism and govern-
mental neutrality. The majority opinion’s new rule in
Dobbs that the relevant constitutional rights be lim-
ited to those “deeply rooted in our history and tra-
dition” carries us back 200 years to a more overtly
“Christian” America in which women could not
vote or own property, and African Americans were
slaves — and clearly dismisses the present reality
of a diverse and pluralistic 21st century America.

Jews and Muslims are prepared to rigorously
challenge the Court’s overt institutionalization
of Evangelical and Catholic doctrine into U.S.

law. Even before the striking down of Roe v.

Wade, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, a synagogue in
Boynton Beach, sued Florida over its ban on abor-
tions after 15 weeks, arguing that it imposes “the
laws of other religions upon Jews.” Muslim experts
on sharia and constitutional law argue that Muslim
Americans similarly have standing to sue against
abortion bans that interfere with their religious
exercise. Similar challenges based on the same
principles are expected to ensue in the near future.

We strongly urge those spearheading this bat-
tle in our respective communities to join forces in
challenging this state-imposed diminution of our
religious freedoms. In so doing, American Muslims
and Jews across America will show in one more
way how they can stand together in support of
pluralism, enhanced interfaith understanding and
democracy — societal values that make Muslim
and Jewish life sustainable in America. JE
Walter Ruby and Fatima Argun are leaders of
JAMAAT (Jews and Muslims and Allies Acting
Together), a Washington-area grassroots inter-
faith organization.

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