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October 18, 2002/Cheshvan 12 5763, Vol. 55, No. 8
Call issued to protect Roe v. Wade
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Leaders representing the National Conference of Jewish Women's Benchmark program have issued a call to join the fight to preserve reproductive rights.
"Those of us engaged in the ongoing battle to secure our reproductive rights have come to understand that this ... is a war," said Sammie Moshenberg, panelist and Director of Washington Operations of the National Conference of Jewish Women, to approximately 100 event participants at a Sept. 13 seminar at Har Zion Congregation in Scottsdale.
"It is not an overstatement to say that our rights and freedoms are under attack as never before by the executive, legislative and jud- icial branches of government," Moshenberg said.
President George Bush is attempting to fill the federal courts with "right wing, anti-choice jurists," she explained. Doing so would put at risk the upholding of Roe v. Wade, she added.
The Supreme Court ruled with Roe v. Wade in 1973 that women have a fundamental right to obtain abortions, based in part upon women's right to privacy, as protected by the Constitution.
NCJW established the national Benchmark program in January to preserve Roe v. Wade and defend women's reproductive rights, said Moshenberg.
One of Benchmark's goals is to enable people to learn more about the backgrounds and opinions of Bush's federal judicial nominees and to express their opinions to congressional officials who consider these recommendations, said Debby Finkel, chairperson of the NCJW Valley Section.
Benchmark also is "an ongoing crusade" to enable people to make informed, intelligible decisions about which congressional candidates to support, said Robbie Damesek, president of the NCJW Valley Section.
Subscribers to a growing e-mail list get information about the opinions of judicial nominees and congressmen, said Finkel.
The NCJW Benchmark Web site, www.benchmarkcampaign.org, offers additional information, added Damesek.
Benchmark leaders also are encouraging younger women, particularly those on college campuses, to work to maintain their reproductive rights, said Moshenberg.
"It's very hard to get younger women to identify with this issue. They do not remember a time when they did not have a choice to make regarding their reproductive lives," she explained, referring to when abortion was not legal and birth control not readily available, before the 1973 Supreme Court ruling.
Other Benchmark panelists were Barbara Burk-holder, public health consultant; Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union; and Beth Meyer-Lohse, vice president of external affairs of Planned Parenthood of Central and Northern Arizona.
The NCJW Valley Section and 14 Valley political, professional, business and religious organizations co-sponsored the Benchmark event. Jewish News of Greater Phoenix was media sponsor.
Contact the writer at barry_cohen@jewishaz.com.
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