Upcoming events.
Centre College in Danville, KY
In November I’ll spend a day or two with the lovely people in and around Centre College teaching about religion and abortion. If you’re in the area, reach out for details about a public talk!
People of Faith and Abortion
Join me and my colleagues, Drs. Zahra Ayubi, Toddie Peters, and Monique Moultrie, for a conversation based on our research with Jews, Christians, and Muslims who have had abortions.
Part of the Religion and Reproductive Politics 2024 Public Speaker Series
Scholar in Residence at Kehillat Kesher, Englewood, NJ
I'll be spending the weekend with Kehillat Kesher, speaking about Orthodox women's religious authority, abortion in America, and Ultra-Orthodox women in Jerusalem.
How Jews Talk About Abortion…And How They Don’t
In the months leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning of Roe vs. Wade, pro-choice Jewish advocates claimed that “abortion bans are against our religion.” In this talk, I will examine what that statement means, what it’s trying to do, and how it fails to fully capture the Jewish communal conversation around abortion. Drawing on the lived experiences of Jewish women who have had abortions, I offer a new vision of what Jewish pro-choice activism could look like.
At George Mason University. Register here.
“Under God”
Join me for a viewing of “Under G-d,” a film by Paula Eiselt. After watching the docushort we will have a panel discussion with Christine Ryan from Columbia University’s Law, Rights, and Religion Project.
You can find a trailer for the docushort here.
Event will be in person at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York
This was such a wonderful event. You can find a recording of the whole discussion and a link to screen the documentary here.
From Justification to Justice: Evolving Jewish Attitudes Towards Abortion
In the 1980s, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards—the Conservative Movement’s central authority on Jewish law—ruled on abortion’s permissibility based on a justification framework. This framework assumes that abortion is generally prohibited but permitted in certain circumstances. They based their position on their reading of particular biblical and rabbinic sources. In the decades that followed, many Jewish institutions in the United States supported abortion rights on similar grounds and using the same texts. More recently, we’ve seen a shift in Jewish attitudes towards abortion. As more Jews have shared their own abortion experiences, their narratives have moved to the forefront and shifted the conversation. Jews are now advocating for abortion rights based on their experiences of abortion and a different reading of classical sources. In this session, we’ll explore why and how this change occurred and consider the impact it might have on abortion rights in the United States.
Event was held over Zoom. You can find a recording here.