Why American Jews Need Roe Reversed

As a recent guest essay in the New York Times demonstrates, the "Jewish argument" for preserving Roe v. Wade is unpersuasive. Calls to uphold Roe, growing in number and in fervor as the Supreme Court is set to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Wednesday morning, tend to cite the principle that the Jewish tradition allows and possibly requires abortion in exceptional cases such as when a woman’s pregnancy threatens her health. The argument then sweeps broadly to contend that Jews therefore should support the extremely permissive abortion regime that the Supreme Court created in Roe and has maintained by judicial fiat ever since. Such an argument mistakes the exception for the rule and wrongly aligns Jewish Americans with the regime that allows nearly unregulated abortions.