Agudah Women Blast State Women’s Conference

The Albany conference is a prelude to the National Women’s Conference which will take place from Nov. 18-21 in Houston and is authorized by a $5 million appropriation from Congress. Mrs. Reichel warned that “without the participation of Orthodox Jewish women, the conference automatically spoke without the collective voice of thousands of women in New York State.

Mrs. Reichel continued, ,”The process of electing delegates and forming positions on the major did not represent the views of all the women it purports to represent. One must wonder whether Orthodox Jewish women are not somehow purposely excluded from conference participation because of their differing views on such major issues as the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion legislation.”

BASIS FOR OPPOSITION TO ERA, ABORTION

An Agudah Women position paper emphasized its opposition to the ERA because it feels that “no separate amendment to the constitution is necessary when that doctrine already provides for equal treatment under the law for all citizens of our great land regardless of sex.” The paper continued: “In fact, there is every reason to believe that the ERA would actually negate some of the protection women currently have under the law. It would further seem ludicrous for the conference to adopt a pro-ERA position when in fact New York State voters rejected that amendment at the polls.”

On the issue of abortion, the position paper noted that “the liberalization of abortion laws violates some of the basic moral and religious principles of the value of life itself. The sanctity of life, which begins with conception, is by far a more important issue htan the convenient benefits of such relaxed laws.”

Agudah Women of America is a national organization affiliated with the worldwide movement of Agudath Israel and is also part of the Agudath Israel of America.