INDIANAPOLIS – Cara Berg watched Raunick in amazement Indiana Republican lawmakers took less than two weeks to debate and pass an abortion ban that the governor quickly made into law.
The Indianapolis women’s naturopath was amazed at how often faith was used in the arguments to ban the practice. But Berg Raunick, who is Jewish, said these views contradicted her beliefs.
For her, a pregnant woman’s health and life is of paramount importance, and she contradicted the legislature’s claim that life begins at conception, calling it a “Christian definition”.
“This is a religious and value-based comment,” said Berg Raunick. “A fetus is potential life, and that deserves great respect and is not to be taken lightly, but it does not replace the life and health of the mother, period.”
Arguments like these were central on a lawsuit filed in Indiana in September against the state’s abortion ban, which is suspended amid multiple legal challenges. On December 2, a judge ruled the ban violates that of the state Religious Freedom Act signed into law by then-Republican Gov. Mike Pence in 2015.
Critics of religious liberty laws often argue they are used to it Discriminate against LGBTQ people and only protect a conservative Christian world view. But after that The annulment of the judgment in Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court in June, Religious abortion advocates use these laws to protect access to abortion and defend their faith.
The Dobbs v. Jackson verdict left abortion rights to the states. As a result, lower courts in at least five states, including Indiana, have issued judgments in abortion-related religious freedom lawsuits.
In these cases, there is a “great variety of types of claims,” said Elizabeth Reiner Platt, who studies religion and abortion rights as director of Columbia University’s Law, Rights and Religion Project. The religious freedom complaints are among 34 post-Roe lawsuits filed against abortion bans by 19 states. according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
For some, access to abortion can be a way to practice their religion, Platt said. Other lawsuits challenge prohibitions under constitutional clauses that say the government “establishes” a religion and imposes a law on residents who do not share that belief.
In the Indiana case, attorneys for five anonymous women — who are Jewish, Muslim and spiritual — and advocacy group Hoosier Jews for Choice have argued the state ban goes against their beliefs. Her lawsuit particularly highlights the Jewish teaching that a fetus becomes a living person at birth and that Jewish law gives priority to the life and health of the mother.
The Indiana Attorney General’s office this month appealed a ruling that sided with women and asked the state Supreme Court to review the case. In January, the Indiana judge can already be heard another challenge to the abortion ban on the grounds that it violates the protection of individual rights in the state constitution.
There are now three Jewish women in Kentucky argue that the state ban violates their religious rights according to the state constitution and the Religious Freedom Act. They say in a lawsuit brought in federal court that Kentucky’s Republican-dominated legislature “imposed sectarian theology” by outlawing nearly all abortions. The ban remains in place while the Kentucky Supreme Court is considering a separate case challenging the law.
For those who want to end abortion bans, lawsuits arguing that state governments establish a religion through the bans could be more effective than those arguing for free practice of religion, said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the university of Texas at Austin. The former would apply to more people, she said.
“If an abortion ban violates either a state facility clause or the federal facility clause, then the entire law falls,” Sepper said.
Some state lawsuits use both arguments, such as a case filed by Planned Parenthood which successfully blocked Utah’s ban in July. The law is on hold pending a decision by the Supreme Court.
That same month, a lawsuit based in part on Wyoming’s freedom of religion clause blocked the state’s ban on abortion. The Wyoming Supreme Court said Dec. 21 it would not interfere with the state’s new abortion ban for now.
Elsewhere, Florida religious leaders quoted in June in several lawsuits challenging her state’s 15-week abortion ban, the State’s Religious Rights and Privacy Protection Act. A motion to hear an appeal against the ban, which remains in effect, is pending with the Florida Supreme Court.
Amid the legal machinations, access to abortion remains a divisive issue among the nation’s believers. In June, Ministers across the US reflected this divide and its nuances as they rearranged worship schedules to provide religious context – and competing messages – after Roe was overthrown.
According to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive poll of midterm voters, few voters in religious groups in the US say abortion should always be illegal. But religious groups vary in their level of support for abortion.
While Protestants in general are very divided on whether abortion should be legal in general, most white evangelical Protestants – about 7 in 10 – say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Similarly, about 7 in 10 Mormon voters say abortion should be illegal in general.
In comparison, 6 in 10 Catholic voters, about 8 in 10 Jewish voters, and almost 9 in 10 religious unaffiliated voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
During the summer’s parliamentary debate in Indiana, a number of religious beliefs were showcased that ultimately led to the state becoming the first in the United States to enact stricter abortion restrictions after Dobbs. The state law displeased both abortion advocates, who say it goes too far, and anti-abortion activists, who said it doesn’t go far enough.
Rep. Ann Vermilion, who opposed the ban, condemned her fellow Republicans, who called women “murderers” for having an abortion.
“The promise of the Lord is mercy and kindness,” Vermilion said. “He would not step forward to judge these women.”
dr Kay Eigenbrod, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who attended Indiana Right to Life’s “Love Them Both” rally during the debate, said in a July interview that because of her Catholic upbringing, she supports a total abortion ban with no exceptions.
“Women just don’t need to have an abortion for any reason,” she said. “We as a society just have to be better at supporting them both.”
Months later, Berg Raunick, a member of Hoosier Jews for Choice but not involved in the lawsuit, is hoping lawmakers will continue to value religious freedom.
“That has to mean protecting all religions, not just Christianity, and not just the majority,” she said. “Now we’re kind of waiting to see how true that is.”
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AP writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Washington, DC. Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that brings journalists into local newsrooms to cover undercover topics. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers
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