New Legal Threats, Frontline Courage

Join Temple Beth-El and NCJW–San Antonio, in collaboration with Temple Beth-El Sisterhood, for Repro Shabbat, an annual Lunch & Learn program grounded in Jewish values and reproductive justice.

Begin the morning with Torah study at 9:30 AM in the Block Conference Room, followed by Shabbat worship at 10:30 AM in the Wulfe Sanctuary. After services, stay for lunch and an engaging Repro Shabbat program featuring two powerful guest speakers.

Molly Duane, a nationally recognized attorney, will address current and impending restrictions on medical abortion in Texas and across the United States. Ms. Duane has dedicated her career to advocating for women denied critical medical care during pregnancy and served as the senior attorney in Zurawski v. Texas, a case later featured in the award-winning documentary shown at Temple Beth-El last year.

She will be joined by Dr. Alan Braid, a longtime San Antonio OB/GYN who practiced for nearly 50 years, providing comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion services. Following the implementation of SB 8, Dr. Braid made the courageous decision to relocate his practice to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he later opened additional clinics to continue serving patients traveling from states where care is no longer accessible.

A robust Q&A session will follow, offering attendees the opportunity to engage directly with Ms. Duane and Dr. Braid and explore the legal, medical, and moral dimensions of reproductive justice.

There is no cost to attend this event, but reservations are requested. Feel free to invite daughters, granddaughters (age appropriate), and friends for this powerful event. A box lunch is also available for a fee.

Molly Duane:

Molly is a lawyer and public health professional who is an expert on pregnant people’s legal rights and currently serves as Litigation Director at Amplify Legal and Abortion in America. She previously spent more than a decade as a senior attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, including leading the landmark case Zurawski v. Texas, and was named to the TIME 100 Next list for her public-facing legal and media work. Molly holds degrees from Princeton University, Cardozo School of Law, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Dr. Alan Braid:

Alan Braid, M.D., is an OB/GYN who has practiced reproductive healthcare, including abortion services, for more than 50 years and earned his medical degree as part of the first graduating class at UT Health San Antonio. A longtime advocate for reproductive rights, he has been involved in multiple high-profile lawsuits challenging state abortion bans and publicly violated Texas’s SB-8 law in 2021 as a matter of “duty of care.” Due to increasingly restrictive laws, Dr. Braid closed his clinics in Texas and Oklahoma and now operates Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services clinics in New Mexico and Illinois.

This event is free to all attendees. BOX LUNCHES AVAILABLE AS FOLLOWS:

If you’d like to purchase a lunch and the cost is a hardship, please contact Eric Ryniker, Temple Beth-El's Executive Director, at eryniker@beth-elsa.org for a confidential conversation.