Jewish Organizations Demonstrate for Patients’ Rights

Religion took center stage as hundreds flocked outside the Supreme Court of the United States to fight for patients’ rights on Wednesday. Participants and speakers alike cited scripture and Jewish and Christian values to defend access to health care.

The rally occurred as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a legal battle that could determine whether states have the right to refuse funding for Planned Parenthood.

If the Supreme Court sides with South Carolina, Medicaid patients in the state would lose the ability to obtain health care from Planned Parenthood, violating their right to access to health care from any qualified provider.

Planned Parenthood is one of the “very few” clinics in the nation that accept Medicaid, according to Mini Timmaraju, the president of Reproductive Freedom for All, who spoke at the event. Removing its Medicaid funding would affect 600 health care centers across the U.S.

Among the protesters fighting for Planned Parenthood were members of the National Council of Jewish Women, Hadassah, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Zioness and Keshet.

Protesters’ signs read, “Loudly, proudly, Jewishly for health care,” “Proud to be pro-choice” and “Thou shalt not steal my health care.” Next to the rally, a smaller group of counterprotesters blared Christian gospel music and gave anti-abortion speeches.

Shira Zemel, NCJW’s abortion access campaign director who mobilized NCJW members to attend the rally, emphasized that Medina is “not about abortion.”

Medicaid funds can’t generally be used for abortions under federal law, according to SCOTUSblog. Planned Parenthood provides other medical services to its patients: gynecological and contraceptive care, family planning, prenatal care, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and screenings for cancer, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

“As a Jewish woman, I know that health care access isn’t just a policy issue; it’s a moral imperative,” Zemel told Washington Jewish Week. “Judaism teaches us so much, including that preserving life — pikuach nefesh — takes precedence over almost anything else. So I feel like my Jewish values, in so many ways, tell me that we can’t stay silent.”

She said she doesn’t want to sit back while access to “essential health care” is stripped away from people who need it. Inspired by her father, Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel of Temple Micah, Shira Zemel expressed the importance of “having a Jewish moral voice” and taking that moral voice onto the streets.

Sheila Katz, NCJW’s CEO, took the podium at the rally to say that Planned Parenthood could be the difference between “early prevention and a funeral,” referring to the clinics’ cancer screenings.

“How morally bankrupt do you have to be to try to make it harder for someone to get a mammogram?” Katz asked the crowd, which spilled out onto First Street. “This case is not about law; it’s about power.”

She connected the case to pikuach nefesh: “There is no higher commandment in Judaism.”

“It is so important that saving a life supersedes nearly all other commandments we have,” Katz said. “Jewish law teaches you can even break Shabbat, one of our most sacred observances, to protect someone’s health. If someone is sick, you drive them to the hospital, you call for help … because the well-being of a person comes before ritual, before tradition, before everything.”

Before the array of speakers at the event, including members of Congress and local leaders, Susan Bandler and Deana Jordan stood on the opposite side of the road toting signs. Bandler, a NCJW donor and member of Temple Micah in Washington, D.C., wore a sticker that read “Reproductive freedom is a Jewish value.”

“We’re standing here on the other side of the street hoping to let people know that there is a resistance [to removing Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood],” Bandler told Washington Jewish Week.

Dr. Monique Gingold, a pediatric neurologist and member of NCJW and Hadassah, joined the rally because of her Jewish values.

“The essence of Judaism is to fix the world — tikkun olam — and get everybody health care,” Gingold said, adding that most of her patients are recipients of Medicaid.

“It’d be devastating,” she said of the effects of ruling against Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

For Jess Lazar, a Chevy Chase resident who attended the rally with the nonprofit organization Zioness, the case hits close to home.

“The biggest hat I’m wearing is that of a woman and that of a woman whose life experience has included being low income when I was younger,” Lazar said. “[I’ve] experienced needing public clinics and needing the kind of support that those clinics offer to so many low-income families for health care and testing.”

She drew parallels between the “self-determination” aspect of Zionism and a person’s right to choose their health care provider.

Judaism wasn’t the only religion represented on and off the stage. Attendees heard from a series of speakers from Repairers of the Breach, a national social justice organization named for a concept from Isaiah 58:12.

Deirdre Schifeling, the chief political and policy officer of the American Civil Liberties Union, is the child of a preacher who spoke at the rally in favor of Planned Parenthood.

“Growing up in the church, I was taught that every single person is a child of God,” Schifeling said. “Every person has inherent dignity. Every person has their own calling and their own sacred life to live and their own path to forge. No politician can decide that path for us.”

Sung Yeon Choimorrow, the executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and an ordained minister, spoke to how her religious beliefs support the freedom to choose a health care provider. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) did as well.

“I’m here as a woman of faith,” Pressley told the crowd. “My faith requires me to be here. … No matter who you are, where you live or who you love, you should be able to get the health care you need when you need it in your home community.”