This Repro Shabbat, Our Tradition Demands Action

As a member of Jews for Abortion Access, Women of Reform Judaism is proud to co-sponsor NCJW’s Repro Shabbat this weekend (Parashat Mishpatim), when the Reform Jewish Movement will join with the wider Jewish community to recommit ourselves to reproductive rights and health. In this moment, we must educate ourselves on reproductive health access in our own states and work to ensure that all individuals have access to reproductive healthcare. You can find a Repro Shabbat in your community on the Jews for Abortion Access website.  

It is crucial to recognize the importance of reproductive rights in Judaism and reshape the narrative around abortion access and religion. In June 2025, WRJ joined the Faithful Majority for Reproductive Freedom Coalition to reclaim the narrative around reproductive and religious freedom. Across religions, the majority of people of faith believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A 2025 Pew Research Study found that 84% of American Jews believe the same.  

On this Repro Shabbat, in a post-Roe world, our tradition demands action.

We say without apology: Jewish tradition supports reproductive freedom because Jewish tradition centers human dignity. We believe in the sanctity of life—and that includes the lives, bodies, and moral agency of those who can become pregnant.

Access to abortion and reproductive care are a necessary part of health care, and individuals should have the autonomy to decide what care is best for them regardless of location, economic status, or religion. In 2025, WRJ released a new advocacy plan to outline our three priority issues including reaffirming our dedication to advocating for reproductive rights and health. WRJ continues to fight to protect reproductive rights and firmly believes that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as it is correlated with lower crime rates, decreased rates of childhood neglect and abuse, and is life-changing for those who seek out the procedure. Repro Shabbat is just one of the many times throughout the year where we have the opportunity to recommit ourselves to the fight for reproductive justice.  

Abortion is on the ballot in eight states in 2026, and it is crucial we mobilize for these rights. Through post-carding parties, organizing events, text and phone banks, action alerts, and programming, we can continue to make a positive change in reproductive rights and health! One upcoming opportunity to bring people together to advocate for reproductive rights is by participating in WRJ’s 2026 Day of Action.

Join WRJ on April 12 for a coordinated day of community action and advocacy across North America. This will be a powerful day where sisterhoods and individuals can come together and choose a project of interest to turn our shared values into meaningful change. WRJ has a collection of replicable “programs in a box” for individuals and small groups on important advocacy issues like reproductive rights and health, voting rights, gender-based violence, antisemitism, and climate change.  If you’re looking for something new, you can always reach out to one of the authors of this article for assistance in creating a new program for you and/or your community!  

This time is also crucial for educating ourselves on this issue and the Jewish basis for action, especially as we head into ballot initiative season.

Reproductive freedom means trusting people to make the best decisions for themselves in the fullness of their lives. It means recognizing individuals are the only ones that can possibly know the medical realities, emotional complexities, financial pressures, or spiritual truths that factor into a decision of this magnitude, not a court or legislature.

To be Jewish today means refusing to allow our sacred texts to be weaponized against bodily autonomy. It means advocating for laws that protect access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. It means supporting clinics, abortion funds, and organizations that help people receive the care they need, and it means speaking out unapologetically when reproductive freedom is under attack. We must work toward a world where our systems of power grant freedom and autonomy to every person made B'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. May we be part of bending the arc of the world toward justice.