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President Trump’s Birth Control Mandate
Is An Attack On Religious Liberty
O
We have made progress by leaps and
ne hundred years ago, in order
bounds since those days: today, abor-
to support the four children she
tion rates are their lowest since the
already had, my great-grand-
historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court
mother Lena gave herself abortions
decision and rates of unintended preg-
on her kitchen table with a knitting
nancies in the U.S. are at their
needle.
lowest level in 30 years. For
Her story is typical of so
that, we can likely thank the
many: an immigrant from the
wide availability and afford-
Poland/Austria region, she
ability of birth control.
arrived in the U.S. alone at 16
Today, we stand at a cross-
and set out to find work and a
roads. Since the Affordable
new life in a new country. She
Care Act’s birth control man-
married my great-grandfather
date required insurers to pro-
and lived with him and their
Rabbi Hara E.
vide contraceptive methods at
four children in a Lower East
Person
no cost, women have saved an
Side tenement. They scraped
estimated $1.4 billion per year
by, just barely.
on birth control. Women, who
Quarters were cramped in
make up an integral part of our
their apartment. The three
brothers shared the only bedroom. The economy and society, are better able to
plan their families and their financial
parents slept in the front room. My
futures, participate in education and in
grandmother, the family’s only daugh-
the workforce.
ter, slept on a bedroll in the kitchen.
But this progress just came to a
But twice, she was asked to go and
grinding halt. Earlier this month, the
sleep with her brothers. Curious, and
Trump administration issued a rule
probably disturbed by what she must
that would cut off women’s access to
have been hearing, she peeked into the
economic and physical safety — all in
kitchen and saw her mother on the
the name of religious liberty.
kitchen table, having an abortion with
This rollback of a key Affordable
a knitting needle at the hands of a local
Care Act provision would allow prac-
“expert.”
tically every employer — not just
These were acts of desperation at
religious institutions or “closely held”
a time before birth control was legal,
private businesses — to request an
safe and widely available. My great-
grandmother had to make painful deci- exemption from the ACA birth control
mandate based on moral or religious
sions made in order to feed four grow-
objections. Now, more than 55 million
ing children and ensure their futures.
Contributing Writers:
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women who currently use no-pay con-
traceptives could be at financial and
physical risk.
To claim that this legislation pre-
serves and protects religious liberty
misses the forest for the trees and
ignores the founding principles of this
country. Religious liberty is the free-
dom of and the freedom from religion.
As a rabbi, I understand this distinc-
tion. One would hope that President
Trump and his administration would
as well. The 55.7 percent of Americans
who are insured through their employ-
ers should not have their health deci-
sions determined by their employers’
religious beliefs. The United States of
America is ruled not by theologians,
but by the Constitution.
We know — my great-grandmother
certainly knew — what not having
access to affordable, easily available
birth control can do, especially consid-
ering that Congress and state legisla-
tures are pushing for more restrictions
on abortion. All this legislation will do
is imperil more women’s lives, threaten-
ing the same American families that the
administration has sworn to put first.
Reform rabbis lead an American
Jewish community that cherishes the
separation of church and state. We will
not stand idly by while the religious
convictions of some are incorporated
into state or federal law and restrict
the reproductive freedom and physical
safety of American women.
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Throughout history, desperate
women have gone to dangerous lengths
to end pregnancies that threaten their
lives, whether physically or emotion-
ally or their ability to properly care
for the children they already have.
Nearly half of the abortions performed
today around the world are consid-
ered unsafe, and the countries with
the most unsafe abortions had the
most restrictive laws on the proce-
dure, according to a report released
earlier this year by the World Health
Organization. My great-grandmother
is only one of many, and she was lucky
— she survived. Thousands of women
have died because they had to make
the same heartbreaking, desperate
decision that she did.
She would be outraged today to see
how women’s basic rights to determine
their life choices are being eroded by
elected officials, and we should be, too.
The limitations on birth control access
and women’s health that federal law-
makers are proposing and voting into
law today will set us back decades, if
not centuries.
Whether women should have access
to birth control is not a question of
religious liberty. It is a question of knit-
ting needles. It is a question of life and
death, and we must choose life. •
Rabbi Hara E. Person, chief strategy officer for the
Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR),
was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Je wish
Institute of Religion.
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October 19 • 2017
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