This week we observe Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. It is the beginning of a ten day period of penitence that culminates in Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It is customary to contemplate one’s missteps and symbolically throw them away with pebbles or breadcrumbs into a body of running water.

It is psychologically astute for religions to provide these points of renewal. Miserable behavior can only be changed if it is acknowledged in the first place, and the promise of forgiveness or some other form of clean slate enables contemplation rather than avoidance. I’ll leave it open as to what constitutes a sin (or why sins have been defined by those in power to regulate) but there is no doubt in my mind that we can all work on being better human beings. Well, I should and will work on it.

I wish the same could be said for nations, our’s in particular. So for this week’s blog I chose topics that warrant New Year’s resolutions of society at large to search for better solutions. I will start with one that is hyper-controversial: abortion.

Everyone agrees in the ideal there should be none.

Those who scream the loudest against them are also those who are the least willing to provide educational and financial resources to prevent pregnancies in the first place. For the time being, however, abortions are legal under certain conditions, although many factions in this country are doing everything they can to change that.

http://www.refinery29.com/2017/06/158903/abortion-laws-by-state

This includes pulling funding for the clinics that offer safe procedures, harassing the providers and patients to the point of maiming and killing them. On the legal end, we see this:” As long as Roe v. Wade stands, states can regulate abortion (before the point of fetal viability) as they see fit. It has allowed anti-abortion politicians to go on the offensive: In the first six months of 2017 alone, a total of 431 provisions restricting abortion access were introduced at the state level. Out of these, 41 had become law by June.” (Citation from attached link above.)

 

The working environment in women’s clinics reflects both the threat abortion providers are under and their indomitable spirit to fight for the rights of women with humor, bravery and remembrance.

They know that they offer a host of services that are invaluable for reproductive justice and healthcare for the poor, abortion being just one of them.

Today’s photographs, taken in the kitchens and hallways of women’s clinics, are witness to the conditions and determination described above. I wish we as a society would find a solution that protects women’s choices in ways that go beyond the letter of the law.