Religious beliefs led to Roe’s overturn. Other religions suffer because of it.

Despite the religiosity of the Supreme Court (which is predominantly Catholic), the United States is not a Christian nation.

It’s overwhelmingly Christian, sure — the latest Pew Research data (from 2014) estimates that a little more than 70 percent of the nation subscribes to Christianity (and about 46 percent of that population is evangelical or Catholic, the main voices against abortion). This means that about 30 percent of the population, more than a quarter of the country, is not Christian. About two percent of the country is Jewish — and in Judaism, the understanding of “when life begins” can be entirely different from the Christian perspective.

The Supreme Court justices made no mention of their personal religious beliefs in the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade several weeks ago, but it’s impossible to argue it didn’t have an impact on their belief that abortion is not protected by the Constitution. In ruling based on Christian beliefs, they are suppressing Jewish beliefs.

Jewish law sees fetuses as full people once they are born, and its laws prioritize the health of the pregnant person because of this.

A Jewish organization in Florida recently sued the state over its abortion ban, and other Jewish activist groups have been vocal about the way Dobbs v. Jackson interferes with their liberties. Strict abortion bans are in opposition to interpretations of Jewish law that mandate abortions in cases where the mother’s life is threatened. In deciding that abortion is no longer protected by the federal government, Jewish people see a failure to respect their own religious values.

Rabbi Lucy Dinner of Temple Beth Or in Raleigh says that if the fetus is harming the pregnant person, the tradition considers it a “pursuer,” as it would call someone pursuing harm against someone else. What constitutes “harm” also varies: it could just be life-or-death situations, but it could also be the long-term emotional or physical harm of a pregnant person.

“I can’t speak for all of the Jewish community, but I would say a majority of the Jewish community believes that this is a religious issue for many Jews,” says Dinner, “and to be forced by our government to follow a different religious point of view is a breach of the separation between church and state.”

Rabbi Jenny Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh is a mother of three. Before carrying her third child to term, she suffered from two second-semester miscarriages due to what was likely a blood clotting disorder. She says that carrying a high-risk pregnancy was incredibly difficult, and it required her relying on her family and congregation for support.

“I can tell you that I have no doubt that for many, many other people, that fourth pregnancy would have broken them,” Solomon says. “I just feel personally from my own experience, that there’s no separation between the mind the body and the spirit, and if somewhere else, someone else were in those circumstances and found that they could no longer function, that an abortion would be a life saving measure for that mother.”

The word “abortion” does not come up in the Torah; but it isn’t in the Bible either. And yes, the word “abortion” isn’t in the Constitution either, but the freedom of religion is, which includes non-Christian faiths and the lack of religion altogether. Solomon is a rabbi in the Conservative tradition, which seeks to preserve Jewish ritual. She says that even to Orthodox Jews, who trend further to the right, cases where the mother’s life is threatened don’t just permit abortion: it’s encouraged.

Both Solomon’s and Dinner’s congregations are now looking to ways that they can support abortion access in North Carolina. Nationally, organizations like the American Jewish Committee and the National Council of Jewish Women are working to stand up for abortion access.

“The Christian right does not have a monopoly on faith and morality,” Solomon says. ”We have those things too. We have different ways of understanding what value-driven and faith-driven life look like, and now this country that we feel loyal to, and that we feel so much a part of, is actually standing in the way of our religious freedom.”