(Jewish Group) More than 1,000 Jews rally outside the US Capitol in support of abortion rights
As it was originally conceived over the last year, the Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice was meant to be a powerful closing ceremony for the National Council of Jewish Women’s annual Washington Institute conference. A few hundred attendees were expected.
That all changed earlier this month, when Politico leaked a draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that protected and federally legalized access to abortion.
Instead of a standard end-of-conference gathering, the crowd Tuesday morning on the National Mall, near the Capitol, swelled to more than a thousand Jews from New York, Washington, Chicago and across the country, and even Israel, who used the rally as an outlet to express their outrage and find intersectional solidarity in their Jewish community.
“Fighting for women’s rights has been a part of my Jewish activism my whole life,” said Laura Weil, a member of the crowd who came to the rally with her Virginia synagogue. “I came to guarantee rights for my 1-year old granddaughter and for her mother, my daughter, to be able to decide if and when she’ll continue to grow her family.”
Polls show that American Jews favor abortion rights more than any other religious group, although Orthodox groups tend to favor more restrictions on abortion than the liberal Jewish majority.
more...
= new reply since forum marked as read
