Florida Clergy Say State Abortion Bans Violate Religious Freedom in New Lawsuits

Clergy members from five different religions sued the state of Florida on Monday over the new law criminalizing most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, saying the ban violates Constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom rights.

The five separate lawsuits were filed in Miami-Dade County and claim the state’s ban “curtails the clergy members’ ability to counsel congregants about abortion in accordance with their faiths.” Florida law prohibits counseling or encouraging a crime, which abortion has become statewide after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the new restrictive bill into law. The law was temporarily blocked and then unblocked on the same day in a confusing sequence of events that left both clinics and patients frustrated and angry, with many of the latter left without options once the laws went into effect.

The plaintiffs–three rabbis, a United Church of Christ reverend, a Unitarian Universalist minister, an Episcopal Church priest, and a Buddhist lama.–asked the court to declare that the state’s abortion law violates Florida and U.S. constitutional protections for freedom of speech and religion.

This should be big news for Pro-Choice. Christian or person of faith does not always mean they drink the Trump/Desantis kool-Aid. Seven Florida clergy members of different faiths link up for spate of lawsuits against post-Roe abortion bills https://t.co/MYPNM1HpqT

— Bluewave (@heidilwarren) August 2, 2022

A Florida synagogue has also filed a lawsuit challenging the abortion law in a pending case in a different state court.

By my count, this makes eight religious freedom challenges to Florida's abortion law.

It appears all of them are filed not just by people of faith, but specifically *clergy.*

It has echoes of how a lawsuit filed by clergy helped bring same-sex marriage to North Carolina. https://t.co/cm2Q3Sy05p

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) August 1, 2022

The seven plaintiffs also claim the abortion ban violates a Florida religious freedom law that prohibits the government from “substantially burdening” the exercise of religion unless there is a “compelling state interest that cannot be met with fewer restrictions.”

I am beyond honored to be one of 3 rabbis who filed suit against the State of Florida today, opposing the recently passed ban on abortions after 15 weeks.https://t.co/cqU1HblQed

— Jason Rosenberg (@RabbiRosenberg) August 1, 2022

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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a statement that her office will continue to defend the statute. An appeal is now pending over a judge’s ruling last month that the state ban violates the Florida constitution’s privacy rights guarantees. The state’s high court previously said those guarantees protect the right to abortion.

Florida’s unconstitutional 15-week abortion ban is not only an attack on women’s rights, but an attack on religious freedom.

Thank you Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor and Rabbi Barry Silver – we are united in fighting for religious freedom in Florida. pic.twitter.com/voTlGmps5H

— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) August 1, 2022