Rabbi Says, ‘My religion makes me pro-abortion’
The Atlantic, a far-left magazine and multi-platform publisher, recently ran a story by Danya Ruttenberg, a self-proclaimed rabbi and scholar in residence at the National Council of Jewish Women. The piece was titled ”My Religion Makes Me Pro-Abortion,” and proudly trumpets the fact that the NCJW’s “Rabbis for Repro” network “includes more than 1,800 Jewish clergy of every branch committed to supporting abortion access for all.” Ruttenberg is in favor of not only preserving the “right” to abortion but of expanding access to it.
And she (I profess I don’t really know what her preferred pronouns are) cites stories from the Hebrew Bible to support her “beliefs.” She notes that, in the Book of Exodus, “Two people are fighting; one accidentally pushes someone who is pregnant, causing a miscarriage. The text outlines the consequences: If only a miscarriage happens, the harm doer is obligated to pay financial damages. If, however, the pregnant person dies, the case is treated as manslaughter. The meaning is clear: The fetus is regarded as potential life, rather than actual life.”
Um, Rabbi Ruttenberg, if one must pay financial damages for doing something, that obviously doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. The word “damages” should be a clue. How can you possibly get from there to “pro-abortion?!” And the Exodus example was an accidental push, not a deliberate dismembering or taking of life. It simply does not follow that because someone is fined for the inadvertent death of an unborn child God would approve of the intentional killing of an unborn child via abortion. And on a mass scale.
The ridiculous rabbi then cites an ancient one’s statement in the Talmud in which she says that he says the fetus should be regarded as part of the “pregnant person’s” body “until the end of the pregnancy.” You know the Talmud did not use the phrase “pregnant person,” which tells you much about Ruttenberg.
Ruttenberg goes on to say: “I believe that we serve the divine when we care for those created in the divine image.” By killing them? Or by helping them kill their babies?
She cites quotes by other allegedly religious people, including the Reverend Katey Zeh, a Baptist minister (and more importantly the CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice) who she said once told her “Abortion justice is holy work for me because it’s aligned with the most sacred values of my faith: compassion, kindness, and love.”
Tearing a sensate yet defenseless baby limb from limb for your own convenience is “compassionate, kind, and loving?” Only if you are clinically insane.
Even more repulsively, Ruttenberg notes that Jamie Manson, the president of Catholics for Choice, expressed a similar sentiment in a speech she gave last December: “In the Gospel, Jesus tells us the truth shall set us free. Here is the truth: One in four abortion patients in this country is Catholic, and for them, abortion is a blessing.”
It might be true that one in four abortion patients in the U.S. is Catholic, but it is not true that abortion is a “blessing.”
Near the end of the piece, Rabbi Ruttenberg stated that “people of faith like Zeh and Manson serve as crucial reminders: Being Christian doesn’t necessarily equate to holding an anti-abortion position.” She also noted that “other sects of Christianity have changed their stance on abortion over time,” adding that “the reason for the shift” over time “can’t be pinpointed.”
For the love of God, Ms. Ruttenberg, does being Christian no longer equate to holding an anti-murder position? Can Christians now be pro-adultery, too? Pro-theft? Is it okay now to bear false witness against our neighbor?
The reason for the shift in beliefs over time can, in fact, be pinpointed. It is because we have eschewed adherence to Biblical principles and instead decided to worship ourselves and our every weakness and desire.
Progressives/Leftists/Democrats now routinely tell the biggest lies possible and try to force others to believe them -- or risk being shamed, “canceled,” or worse. Is that “compassionate, kind, and loving?” “Pro-choice” groups routinely vandalize the property of pro-life groups and are now declaring “open season” on them. Is that, too, aligned with “the most sacred values” of your faith, Rabbi Ruttenberg?
I will end with these questions: what if Jesus Christ had been aborted, for Mary’s convenience, instead of crucified? Should that have been okay with…Christians?