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The Religious Argument FOR Abortion May Have Its Day In Court

'This was the belief of the Stoics. It appears to be the predominant, though not the unanimous, attitude of the Jewish faith.' - Justice Blackmun

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MoveOn And Abortion Access Activists Rally Outside SCOTUS To Demand Keep The #BansOffOurBodies

(Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MoveOn)

Last month, I wrote about the strong whiffs of Christianity emanating from these forced birth laws. And it looks like the concern is shared by a couple of Floridians.

A Complaint filed in a 2nd Circuit court by L’Dor Va-Dor, a Jewish congregation in Palm Beach County, is suing on grounds that the state’s new abortion ban violates Florida’s Constitution, and privacy protections, as well as infringing on the religious expressions of Floridians.

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“Plaintiff and its members, congregants and supporters rely on Jewish law and understanding regarding abortion, which differs from the requirements of the Act, and thus, if the members, congregants and supporters of Plaintiff practice their religion regarding decisions related to abortion, they will be penalized by the state in violation of the Constitution,”

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“Plaintiff, its members, congregants, and supporters and their families do not require others to impose their religious views about when life begins and the sanctity of life in order to supplant and replace by judicial fiat and the power of the State, the Jewish view of when life begins and the sanctity of life,” the lawsuit says.

Jewish law is specific in how it views abortion, and prioritizes the life of the mother over the life of the fetus.

The jurisprudence surrounding the current precarity of abortion access is a strange one, given that about 50 years of stare decisis and no real historically American basis for affirming that life begins at conception is being trumped by a series of argumentation that just happens to look very Catholic. Cases like these are an interesting litmus test to determine if freedom of religion is really just a nice way of saying freedom to be some flavor of Christian. Jewish folks haven’t been the only religious group to oppose abortion bans on freedom of religion grounds — Pastafarians, Satanists, The United Church of Christ, and others have done the same.

Whatever the legal outcome, I’m sure that the decision will be detailed and its reasoning will be clear for all to see.

Florida Synagogue Sues State Over 15-Week Abortion Ban, Saying It Infringes On Their Faith, Beliefs [WFLA]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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