How best to love one’s neighbor

I thank Rabbi Sarah Marion for her thoughtful May 5 forum article, explaining how anti-abortion laws prohibit Jewish individuals from practicing their faith and upholding their religious values. I write to respond to Mat Moycik’s letter “Different truths” (May 13), challenging Rabbi Marian’s interpretation of scripture and praying she “would see the truth.”

Moycik engages in proof texting to support his “truth,” without addressing the questions Rabbi Marian raises or the Jewish faith’s understanding of what it means to be “prolife.” In interpreting what Christians call the Old Testament, the Rabbi quotes “the Mishnah, the collection of first and second century rabbinic writings” as saying “If a woman is in hard (physical) labor that threatens her life … her life comes before its life.” The rabbi adds, Jews “consistently prioritize a pregnant person’s life, health and well-being above the life and well-being of the fetus she is carrying.”

Moycik’s truth is that a fetus is life. Rabbi Marian agrees with Moycik. Unlike Moycik’s understanding of his Christian faith, Rabbi Marian’s Jewish faith tells her to prioritize the life of the pregnant mother over the life of the fetus. I think Jesus, a first century rabbi, would agree. At the core of both the Christian and Jewish faiths are the love of God and the love of neighbor. As a Christian, when I ponder what it means to love my neighbor, my thoughts go first to the live pregnant woman next door, not the live fetus in her womb.

Charlie Pillsbury

New Haven

The writer is a Quinnipiac University law professor.