One Year Later: Reflections on the Dobbs Decision and What Remains at Stake

As we near the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision – which overturned federal constitutional protections of privacy and abortion rights that have stood since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – I am taking stock of the many experiences that women have shared regarding trying to access medical health care, including abortion access. I’m also reflecting on my own childbirth story, which could have ended tragically. As the Executive Director of Jofa, I see it as part of my role – and our role as an organization – to encourage Orthodox women, and all women, to share our stories and experiences, so that we can all learn from them, reflect upon them, and reduce their stigma.

I almost didn’t become a mother, despite the fact that my spouse and I very much wanted to have children. My pregnancies were planned, welcomed, and healthy. I was in peak physical shape, took all my vitamins, and eagerly attended birthing classes.

My life almost ended there; hers before it ever had a chance to begin. But for modern medicine, we almost didn’t survive.

If you have experienced a full-term pregnancy, you may remember that the ninth month feels as long as the first eight, and those last days feel endlessly exhausting. So when the due date for my first pregnancy came and went, I despaired. But the next day, much to my relief, I began to feel steady contractions. I ended up laboring for 25 hours, pushing for three and a half hours more, and then was finally rushed into an emergency C-section, because both the baby I was trying to deliver, and I, were in major distress.

My life almost ended there; hers before it ever had a chance to begin. But for modern medicine, we almost didn’t survive.

That was on June 23, 2004. We have celebrated the story’s happy ending every year since, marking birthdays and rites of passage with friends and family, cakes and parties. In the lead-up to my daughter’s 18th birthday last year, my spouse and I began to have a series of conversations with her about the responsibilities – legal and otherwise – that come with adulthood.

And then, a day after she turned 18, the United States Supreme Court delivered its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and with it, a powerful blow to her bodily autonomy (along with that of countless girls and women in their child-bearing years).

My family is lucky to be living in a state that has no restrictions on abortion access.

My family is lucky to be living in a state that has no restrictions on abortion access. But the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling devastated the lives of women across the United States, because they lost personal agency over their lives and bodies. The Dobbs decision also violates the religious liberty of the Jewish community by undermining women’s ability to follow halakha (traditional Jewish law), which permits and even requires, abortion in certain circumstances, particularly when the life or health of the woman is at stake.

Over the past year, Jofa has participated in numerous legal efforts to protect medical care and abortion access for women in need. Jofa signed on as amici in court cases in states that seek to restrict or eliminate women’s access to health care. Lawyers and organizations sought out our expertise to identify plaintiffs for some of these cases. Jofa was the only Orthodox organization to issue a statement decrying the Dobbs decision, and was a consistent Orthodox voice in the media in support of women’s access to health care, particularly from the religious freedom perspective. As a matter of principle, Jofa supports every woman’s legal right to make decisions about, and have control over, her own body, without the involvement of the government or any other entity. Every woman should have the right to make her own decisions about religious and medical matters including abortion, free from stigma and while retaining human dignity.

Ultimately, even as we continue to advocate for women to make their own decisions about their own bodies, this moment is also about destigmatizing women’s experiences in a restrictive Texas, as much as those in an unrestricted Teaneck.

We also launched the Rivka Isaacs SAFE (Support Advocacy Funding Education) Plan Abortion Access Network, to provide culturally congruent abortion care, support and information for Orthodox Jewish women — and anyone who needs it. The SAFE Plan is named for Jofa board member and award-winning filmmaker Paula Eiselt’s great-grandmother, Rivka Isaacs, a loving wife and mother who almost lost her life after a desperate and traumatic back-alley abortion in the 1930s – decades before Roe v. Wade became the law of the land, and nearly a century before the Dobbs decision overturned it. Rivka’s horrific experience is a painful reminder – and just one of countless examples – of the need for legal and safe abortions for all people.

Ultimately, even as we continue to advocate for women to make their own decisions about their own bodies, this moment is also about destigmatizing women’s experiences in a restrictive Texas, as much as those in an unrestricted Teaneck. By sharing my own story, and continuing Jofa’s efforts, I hope to keep chipping away at the powerful social barriers that prevent so many women from speaking out and sharing their own stories. This, too, is vital to undoing the Supreme Court’s harm.