Missouri.- A Missouri judge says lawmakers who passed a restrictive abortion ban were not trying to impose their religious beliefs on everyone in the state, rejecting a lawsuit brought by more than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders who They support the right to abortion.
The groups last year sought a permanent injunction preventing Missouri from enforcing its abortion law and a declaration that the provisions violate the state Constitution.
One of the sections of the law in question reads as follows: “In recognition that Almighty God is the author of life, that all men and women are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights’, and that among them There is Life.”
Judge Jason Sengheiser said in his ruling Friday that there is similar language in the preamble of the Missouri Constitution, which expresses “deep reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.” The rest of the challenged provisions do not contain explicit religious language, he said.
“Although the determination that life begins at conception may run counter to some religious beliefs, it is not itself necessarily a religious belief,” Sengheiser wrote. “As such, it does not prevent all men and women from worshiping Almighty God or not according to the dictates of their own consciences.”
Americans United for Church-State Separation and the National Women’s Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the religious leaders, responded in a joint statement that they were considering their legal options.
“Missouri’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and reproductive freedom,” the statement states.
Lawyers for the state have countered that just because some supporters of the law oppose abortion on religious grounds does not mean the law imposes their beliefs on others.
Sengheiser added that the state has historically attempted to restrict and criminalize abortion, citing statutes that are more than a century old.
“Essentially, the only thing that changed is that Roe was overturned, opening the door to this new regulation,” he said.
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