Abortion of a Non-Viable Pregnancy
This week’s guest is Rabbi Jaclyn Cohen. A native of Los Angeles, California, she was ordained a Reform rabbi in 2014 by HUC-JIR, the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. She’s been fortunate to serve communities all along the West Coast and today she is a proud member of the clergy team of Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles. She’s a writer and a musician, visual artist, fierce advocate for maternal & mental health and Epilepsy awareness, certified yoga instructor, reproductive health and paid family leave activist, competitive reader and amateur cook.
Visit her website at: https://www.rabbijaclyncohen.com/
You can also listen to her bonus podcast this coming Thursday!
Listen to her reading on Bonus Episode 5: I am a Rabbi and a Mom. And I had an Abortion.
Show Notes:
0:59 Bonus Reading of ‘I’m a Rabbi and a Mom. And I had an Abortion.’
1:30 Jaclyn’s introduction
7:20 “Growing up we all have our own narrative that we tell ourselves about having a baby”
7:40 “We don’t really understand pregnancy in it’s fullness until we get there.”
9:00 “We are all a collection of our own life experiences”
10:04 “When you’ve made it to twelve weeks and they tell you this pregnancy isn’t going to last… it sucks!”
11:20 “The enormity of it all does sometimes feel like you are the only people in the world experiencing this kind of pain.”
11:49 “When you share a powerful piece of your story that feels like an offering”
13:35 “I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me”
14:55 “That helped me surrender a little bit faster”
15:00 “But as a human being you think you’re in a nightmare and you want to just wake up from you and there’s that piece of your that thinks maybe I’m imagining this, maybe this isn’t really happening”
15:50 Liminal state
16:30 “We sometimes feel that we have to rush to a conclusion; sometimes it okay to take a pause”
17:43 “I choose to believe I made the best decision possible with the information given to me”
18:05 “Everyone needs someone in their life that can help them because this has such a huge impact on mental health”
19:49 “The older we get, the more we learn about ourselves”
20:27 “How many people did not have the access we did… that changed us”
21:26 “Privilege, access, agency play a huge role in all of this”
22:26 “God willing it creates space for other stories to be told”
23:16 Maternal Mental Health Now
25:47 “That sermon really changed the course of my career”
27:33 “I see very clearly that my faith has given me the roots to speak out against this”
27:57 When texts aren’t clear and can give conflicting perspective
28:58 “The health of the mother takes precedence”
29:33 “The things each generation considers to be the most important, it changes”
30:10 “I’m proud to be a Reform Rabbi”
30:24 “The saving of a life is the most important thing that any Jew can do”
31:09 “Where we get into trouble as religious people is whose life exactly are we trying to save”
32:32 “I have for a very long time been deeply immersed in the world of interfaith dialog. I firmly believe that I learn more about myself as a Jew when learning about an engaging with people who are different than me”
37:44 “When it comes to anything difficult in our lives, the most important thing anyone of us can share with each other is that ‘you are not alone’”
39:28 “It’s that small acting of companionship, walking beside someone”
41:52 “beautiful explosion of opportunities to connect”
42:41 The Motherhood Center
43:14 “Acknowledge the suck, and then pivot”
