Judge rejects religious leaders’ challenge to Missouri’s abortion ban

HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, Associated Press

31 minutes ago

A Missouri judge has rejected the argument that lawmakers intended to “impose their religious beliefs on everyone” in the state when they passed a restrictive abortion ban.

Judge Jason Sengheiser issued his ruling Friday in a case filed by more than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders who support abortion rights. Last year, they sought a permanent injunction barring Missouri from enforcing its abortion law and a declaration that the provisions violated the Missouri Constitution.

A section of the law at issue reads: “In recognition that God Almighty is the author of life, that all men and women are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,’ among which is life. »

Sengheiser noted that there is similar language in the preamble to the Missouri Constitution, which expresses “deep respect for the supreme ruler of the universe.” And he added that the rest of the remaining challenged provisions contain no explicit religious language.

“Although the determination that life begins at conception may run counter to some religious beliefs, it is not necessarily a religious belief in itself,” Sengheiser wrote. “As such, this does not prevent all men and women from worshiping God Almighty or from worshiping Him according to the dictates of their own conscience. »

Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the National Women’s Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of religious leaders, responded in a joint statement that they were exploring their legal options.

“Missouri’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious liberty, and reproductive freedom,” the statement said.

The state’s lawyers countered that just because some supporters of the law oppose abortion on religious grounds does not mean the law imposes their beliefs on anyone.

Sengheiser added that the state has historically sought to restrict and criminalize abortion, citing laws that are more than a century old. “Essentially the only thing that has changed is that Roe has been reversed, opening the door to this additional regulation,” he said.

Minutes after last year’s Supreme Court ruling, then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson, both Republicans, filed papers to immediately enact a 2019 law banning abortions “except in cases of medical emergency”. This law contained a provision making it effective only if Roe v. Wade was canceled.

The law makes it a crime punishable by five to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion. Medical professionals who do so could also lose their license. The law states that women who have abortions cannot be prosecuted.

Missouri already had some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country and had seen a significant decline in the number of abortions performed, with residents instead going to clinics just across the state line. Illinois and Kansas.