Two religious leaders, one Jewish and one Christian, agreed at a gathering in Scotch Plains last week that women's reproductive rights are being eroded by certain right-wing religious and political groups.

Rabbi George Nudell of Congregation Beth Israel in Scotch Plains, and the Rev. Geoffrey Curtiss, rector of All Saints Episcopal Parish in Hoboken, were the speakers at a forum at Beth Israel on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

The event was sponsored by the Union County Section of National Council of Jewish Women and was one of the first locally organized events in "Plan A," the national campaign launched by NCJW in June to champion access to effective and affordable contraception and sex education.

"We assume that we have these rights, but it's not necessarily that way," said Curtiss, who is a leader in the New Jersey Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. He noted that Roman Catholic hospital corporations have narrowed the range of services offered in the hospitals they have taken over, and their approach is being endorsed by other faith movements and conservative political groups.

Even where state regulations protect some rights, the religious and ethical codes enforced by those hospitals encourage doctors and pharmacists to question why they shouldn't also be able to follow their religious convictions. He said the result was that the most vulnerable women — those with few options — were the ones most likely to find themselves unable to get the services they need.

"It's not Christianity that's the problem," he said; there is a breadth of views held by devout Christians. "It's the social, economic, and political agenda that's going on underneath it. You have to watch out for that agenda."

Turnout for the forum was lower than the organizers had expected — only about 20 were in attendance, and most seemed to share the speakers' general concern about limits on access to services and procedures some groups find morally objectionable. But the discussion was intense, with people expressing anger and frustration and a determination to make their views known.

The two religious leaders and some audience members who spoke out agreed on an urgent need to protect women's access to birth control and abortion, and to ensure that young people get the education they need to make well-informed choices about these issues. They urged the participants to support lobbying efforts, even if simply by going to their computers and with "a tap of the key," signing on to NCJW's on-line letters to legislators.

Quoting Torah sources, Nudell outlined the circumstances in which Judaism condones abortion. While taking a life is prohibited, he said, if a pregnant woman's well-being is endangered, her life takes precedence over that of the fetus right up until the baby is crowning. Only then, he said, do mother and child take on equal status.

When it comes to birth control, the emphasis is generally on men's behavior, he said. While barrier methods might run up against the biblical injunction against "spilling seed," women's methods that prevent ovulation or implantation are accepted by many in the Orthodox community. The seemingly redundant commandment to both be "fruitful and multiply," he said, is interpreted as the goal of having a son and a daughter; once that is accomplished, Nudell said, many believe it's acceptable to prevent further pregnancies.

However, the attitude that "It's my body; I can do what I want with it" is not a Jewish value, Nudell said.

"Judaism teaches that our bodies are on loan to us, and it is our job to take care of them, that it is a mitzva to stay healthy." From that precept follows the belief that a woman should not sustain a pregnancy that might endanger either her physical or psychological health.

With regard to education, Nudell was emphatic. Being taught about sex and contraception does not encourage promiscuity among teenagers, as some believe; safe and correct information might even discourage them from having premarital sex, he said. "The more they know, the better," he added.

Gloria Brown, the section's advocacy chair and the lead organizer of the event, pointed out that in Elizabeth, with Trinitas having taken over three local hospitals, there is no longer a nonsectarian one in the city.

Though disappointed at the relatively low turnout, Brown welcomed the quality of the speeches and the debate. She said afterward that a number of nonmembers had asked to be contacted with action alerts from NCJW. She said the Union County Section plans to organize similar events "to expand awareness to new audiences and share information about hospital policies as they affect the community and the needs of women under medical care."