We’re back!
Housekeeping notes: Next Monday, paid subscribers will get July’s ET Ask Home, a monthly questionnaire.
Paid subscribers also get the premium version of The Election Tricycle, a weekly podcast I co-host on this year’s elections in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
With that! Onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For the Forward, I wrote about the Supreme Court, patience, suffering, and reproductive rights.
This week on The Election Tricycle, guest Art Goldhammer joined us to discuss the upcoming French elections.
I thought this was a good write-up of last night’s US presidential debate.
From the Times of Israel: “A US woman has been charged with the attempted murder of a 3-year-old girl who she allegedly tried to drown in a swimming pool after questioning the girl’s Palestinian mother about her origins.”
From STAT News: “Since Texas’ ban on abortion went into effect, infant deaths in the state increased by nearly 13%, according to a new analysis published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. In the rest of the country, infant mortality increased less than 2% over the same period.”
From CNN: “People applying for naturalization in Germany will now be required to affirm Israel’s right to exist, under changes to the country’s citizenship law.”
Oh, you know, just Trump allies reportedly compiling a list of federal workers who could block Trump’s plans.
Two of my favorite things in the world are elephants and Beyoncé, so I really enjoyed this video (and part two, which is here) of New York Liberty’s Ellie the Elephant dancing to a Beyoncé medley.
MY VIEWS ON…
…reproductive choice and the debate!
In last night’s presidential debate, former and perhaps future US President Donald Trump said that the Founding Fathers, had they known about Roe versus Wade, would have supported it being overturned, and that every legal scholar supported it.
Biden was then asked if he supports any restrictions on abortion and, in one of a series of disastrous moments, said,
I supported Roe v. Wade, which had three trimesters. First time is between a woman and a doctor. Second time is between the doctor and an extreme situation. And a third time is between the doctor – I mean, it’d be between the woman and the state.
The idea that the politicians – that the founders wanted the politicians to be the ones making decisions about women’s health is ridiculous. That’s the last – no politician should be making that decision.
Forgive me, but this is not how you answer a question on abortion post-Roe if you are a Democrat who expects people to come out to vote on this issue.
We are not talking about what the Founders wanted. The constitution, as a document that has evolved to support the full humanity of all citizens of this country, supports Roe. Whether the Founders could have envisioned that is not what we are talking about. Nor are we talking about whether to restrict abortion in states where it is still legal.
What we are talking about is that, since Dobbs, OBGYNs believe that maternal deaths have increased. Infant deaths have, too, particularly in Texas. OBGYNs have moved out of states with abortion bans, which makes it not only more difficult for pregnant people to have abortions, but for anyone with, oh, say, a uterus to get healthcare, period. And since this is an attack not only on abortion, but on reproductive choice, we have seen that IVF is at risk (some women in Alabama had their fertility treatments interrupted) and contraception is, too: birth control prescriptions fell post-Dobbs in states with abortion bans both because clinics closed and because there’s a chilling effect and confusion as to what is and is not legal. This is all happening despite the fact that most Americans support abortion rights and because of a decision that Trump is happy to take credit for. While I understand that Trump, accused as he’s been by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault, may not understand entrusting a woman with personal choice and control over her own body, most Americans do. (That Trump suggested support for “post-birth abortion,” which is not a thing, further suggests that he does not understand what he is talking about.)
That is what is under discussion here. The presidential candidate should, at minimum, be able to articulate the stakes. Reproductive choice is not something to count on to get people to come to the polls; it is a matter of life and death. Politicians need to be able to speak about it as such.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
From the Washington Post: "Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students must be conscripted into the Israeli military and are no longer eligible for substantial government benefits, which could result in the collapse of the government’s ruling coalition."
Israeli hostage families wrote an op-Ed in the Forward begging American Jews to help put pressure on the Netanyahu government to make a deal.
Samira Mehta has an op-Ed, also in the, Forward about Hebrew Union College’s decision to admit and ordain rabbis in interfaith relationships that I think is worth reading.
From HuffPost: “The former vice president for the Trump Organization recalled her one-time boss once making a truly repulsive joke about Nazi war crimes while in the company of several Jewish executives.”
Etan Nechin wrote about the possible future of an anti-war movement in Israel.
-ET
"Joe Biden and Donald Trump" by Joe Biden: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (source: Joe Biden); User:TDKR Chicago 101 (clipping) Donald Trump: Shealah Craighead (source: White House) Сombination: krassotkin is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.