WASHINGTON — Weeks before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, a rabbi and lawyer in Boynton Beach was preparing to take action against Florida. The state’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks, he said, directly targets Jews.
“Judaism is in conflict with this law,” Rabbi Barry Silver of Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor said in an interview, explaining that Judaism supports abortions if necessary to protect the health and well-being of the mother. “We’d have to choose between practicing Judaism and this law — and if we go with Judaism, we risk criminal prosecution. I, as a rabbi, if I counsel someone to have an abortion, can be tossed in to jail.”
Across the country, Jewish organizations had watched Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, sign the abortion restriction into law in April with alarm. He chose to hold the signing ceremony at Nacion de Fe, an evangelical church in Kissimmee.
