My Jewish values on reproductive care mean I’m voting for Kamala Harris

When Donald Trump ran for President in 2016, he did so on the promise that he would appoint Supreme Court Justices who would abolish Roe v. Wade. It was one of the few promises that the ex-president kept. He appointed three right-wing extremist justices who, despite assuring the Senate in their confirmation hearings that Roe was settled law, went on to strip millions of women of bodily autonomy and access to lifesaving healthcare.

In the ensuing years, we have witnessed the catastrophic fallout of Donald Trump’s callous disregard for a woman’s right to control her own body. Women being forced to develop sepsis before receiving routine medical care, and in the case of Amber Nicole Thurman in Georgia, a 28-year-old single mother, dying due to this neglect. Other women, at the mercy of fearful doctors and murky medical thresholds, have risked future infertility. ​​After Idaho passed its abortion ban, 22% of OBGYNs fled the state, imperiling residents who already have limited access to medical care. In Texas, following the state’s rigid 2021 ban, infant mortality rose by 12.7% according to Jama Pediatrics. 

Because of Trump’s radical Supreme Court appointees, women in 20 states now have fewer rights than their peers in blue states, simply because of geography. And to be sure, the risk to women and families does not stop at abortion care. If Trump is re-elected, couples should be prepared to be stripped of IVF access  – a recent bill introduced in the Senate to protect IVF was voted down by the GOP, and no one should be surprised if the government and judges then turn their sights to birth control. JD Vance would like to rescind the medical privacy rule, gaining access to, among other things, the regularity of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

At the September debate, Trump claimed that restrictive abortion access was something “all Americans” wanted; that we should thank him for this; that the bans are “a beautiful thing.” But as Hadley Duvall, who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather at age twelve, said at the Democratic National Convention, “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”

 As a post-menopausal woman leader, watching younger women become second-class citizens due to Trump’s extremism has been horrifying. As a Jewish American woman, it has been unconscionable. In Judaism, we espouse b’tzelem elhohim, all people are born in the image of God and should be treated with dignity. While Donald Trump seems to lack any values of human decency, in Kamala Harris, the chair of the White House Council on Reproductive Health Care, I have seen great alignment with my Jewish values. When the Vice President speaks of reproductive care, she does so because all women deserve dignity and privacy, and all women deserve control over not just their bodies but their decisions about when and how to start a family. Plainly stated, the Vice President understands that NO ONE should have a politician in the exam room with her. Those discussions and options should be between a woman, her partner and her healthcare provider. Harris trusts and respects women enough to know this. And, as she has repeatedly said, she will be a President for ALL Americans without regard for their gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity or who they voted for. 

My Jewish values also point me toward rachamim, compassion for others who may be suffering in ways that I may or may not understand. As a social worker I do not have to experience adversity to have empathy for those who are in the thick of such hardships. Too often, I hear certain elected officials turn their interest toward an issue only after it has affected them personally. But my Judaism teaches me to be both caring and compassionate toward any person in pain or facing a difficult decision. Here, too, the Vice President, who supports the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, echoes my perspective, rightly recognizing that we do not have to travel in another American’s shoes to walk beside them in allyship. 

There are so many other Jewish values that I see reflected in Kamala Harris: that of hope, respect, justice and mercy; welcoming the stranger and taking care of your neighbors. I also see pikuach nefesh reflected in the Vice President’s platform: our belief that saving a life is among our highest obligations, particularly the health of the mother. We have been taught that in pregnancy, the fetus is considered an extension of the mother, and she is the very one giving it life and her life must come first. 

The Vice President has frequently noted that you do not have to put aside your faith to believe that the government and politicians should not dictate your medical or abortion care. I would argue that in Judaism, embracing your faith leads you to the same conclusions. As Jews, our empathy and concern for our neighbors has always been our guiding principle. In the 2024 election, there is only one candidate who represents such compassion, the same candidate whose sense of justice and dignity intrinsically aligns with my Jewish values. That candidate is Kamala Harris, and the women of this country and their male partners will undeniably be safer on her watch.