
Recently, U.S. House Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez stated, “For people who say, ‘I believe it’s a life,’ some people don’t. Our Jewish brothers and sisters, they are able to have an abortion according to their faith!” The central point AOC attempts to make in the video is that because not all religions agree on when life begins, the pro-life movement intends to impose Christian morality on everyone else.
It’s not at all surprising that various religions hold differing views on matters of moral significance. After all, religions don’t agree about whether God exists, who God is. Even so, the consistent reference to Judaism as the counter to “fundamentalist Christianity” led me to wonder whether it is really the case that Judaism supports a woman’s right to abort her child.