Is it good or bad for...abortion rights!

Pillage idiot looks back fondly on the days when the first question on everyone's lips--Jewish lips, I mean, was, Is it good or bad for the Jews?

Well, we can all exhale now that we're starting to hear what the Jews think about Alito. ... Is it good or bad for the Jews?

Actually, that used to be the issue for Jews. Now, for some Jews at least, the question is: Is it good or bad for abortion rights? I kid you not.
.... The orthodox are not taking a position on the nomination, though a spokesman said that Alito is "clearly someone who is sensitive to religious minorities." And an orthodox former Alito clerk speaks highly of the judge:

Title VII, the applicable civil rights law, "does not permit an employer to manipulate job requirements for the purpose of putting an employee to the 'cruel choice' between religion and employment," Alito wrote.

Such insights are typical of Alito, his former law clerk, Jeffrey Wasserstein, told JTA.

"He is a Catholic, but his sensitivity to nonmajority religions was quite interesting to watch, not what one would expect from someone being tarred by the press as extraordinarily conservative," said Wasserstein, an observant Jew who served with Alito from 1997-98 and now is a health care attorney....

Reform Jews probably will take a position, and you know what that will be:

...[H]e was on the opposite side of much of the Jewish community," said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center.

* * * * *
Pelavin suggested the Reform movement also would have a role to play ‹ probably not one particularly sympathetic to Alito.Reform Jews probably will take a position, and you know what that will be:

In the opinion in the creche cases, "he was on the opposite side of much of the Jewish community," said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Reform movement's Religious Action Center.

* * * * *
Pelavin suggested the Reform movement also would have a role to play ‹ probably not one particularly sympathetic to Alito.

"It's not just about competence, it's about the court shifting on fundamental issues, including reproductive rights and religious liberty," he said....

The National Council of Jewish Women, which usually takes the lead in abortion-related announcements, was the first Jewish group to formally oppose Alito.

"Judge Alito has ruled to severely restrict a woman's constitutional right to abortion and against civil rights protections for both women and minorities," NCJW said in a statement Monday.

Yeah, Alito's going to bring back back-alley abortions and segregated lunch counters. Did Teddy Kennedy write their press release (or did they write his)? Don't answer that.

This reaction saddens me. The enthusiasm! Hadassah chartered a bus to take them to Washington, to demonstrate how much they loved abortion.

I am (sort of reluctantly) for abortion, but I don't consider the issue vital to my well-being. Nor do I believe Jews should be so vehemently in favor of "the right to choose" as if it were the right to choose chocolate or oatmeal cookies. People who were almost wiped out by Hitler should not consider abortion an unmitigated good.

Quotes courtesy of Washington Jewish Week.