09-18-2022, 08:58 PM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-abort...1663343259
As bans on abortion take effect in a number of states, faith leaders with liberal views on the issue are taking a page out of the conservative legal playbook, arguing in new lawsuits that the restrictions infringe on their religious beliefs.
Rabbis, Christian ministers, Buddhists and Quakers are among legal challengers who say the bans are preventing them from exercising their own religious views about when abortions are permissible. They also say the new laws have made clergy afraid that if they counsel their parishioners on abortion, they could face legal risk for aiding and abetting the procedure.
About a dozen states have begun enforcing laws prohibiting many or most abortions since the Supreme Court issued a decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that created federal constitutional protections for abortion. Many lawsuits challenging the bans tend to focus on arguments that state constitutions offer guarantees of equal protection and personal liberty that include the right to an abortion.
The religious-freedom lawsuits are taking a different tack.
In Indiana, the American Civil Liberties Union is representing a group known as Hoosier Jews for Choice and a handful of other religious plaintiffs challenging the state’s newly enacted law banning most abortions, arguing it violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits government action that interferes with a person’s religious exercise absent a compelling objective.
As bans on abortion take effect in a number of states, faith leaders with liberal views on the issue are taking a page out of the conservative legal playbook, arguing in new lawsuits that the restrictions infringe on their religious beliefs.
Rabbis, Christian ministers, Buddhists and Quakers are among legal challengers who say the bans are preventing them from exercising their own religious views about when abortions are permissible. They also say the new laws have made clergy afraid that if they counsel their parishioners on abortion, they could face legal risk for aiding and abetting the procedure.
About a dozen states have begun enforcing laws prohibiting many or most abortions since the Supreme Court issued a decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that created federal constitutional protections for abortion. Many lawsuits challenging the bans tend to focus on arguments that state constitutions offer guarantees of equal protection and personal liberty that include the right to an abortion.
The religious-freedom lawsuits are taking a different tack.
In Indiana, the American Civil Liberties Union is representing a group known as Hoosier Jews for Choice and a handful of other religious plaintiffs challenging the state’s newly enacted law banning most abortions, arguing it violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits government action that interferes with a person’s religious exercise absent a compelling objective.