Synagogue challenges Florida abortion law over religion

[In It to Win It]

AP via Yahoo News

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution's privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law that takes effect July 1 violates Jewish teachings, which state abortion “is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman” and for other reasons.

“As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and this violates their privacy rights and religious freedom,” says the lawsuit, filed last week in Leon County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit adds that people who “do not share the religious views reflected in the act will suffer" and that it “threatens the Jewish people by imposing the laws of other religions upon Jews.”

The lawsuit is the second challenge to the 15-week abortion ban enacted earlier this year by the Legislature and signed into law by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health providers also sued earlier this month to block the law from taking effect.

[Funtatlaguy]

1. Oh yes. Fight them on religious freedom grounds

Love the irony.

[mopinko]

2. i like it.

any others willing to stand up?

[Diamond_Dog]

3. Yay for religious freedom!

Right, Conservatives??

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Thank you Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor!

[ChazII]

5. Kicking back to the top. n/t

[lees1975]

6. Think about it...

The whole idea that life begins at conception is a religious principle. So if someone doesn't believe that, or their religion doesn't accept that premise, isn't their religious freedom being violated by restricting their access to abortion as a medical procedure?

[leftieNanner]

10. The Bible actually says that life begins at first breath

Not that conception nonsense.

[calimary]

15. But that's the moment the bad guys start disregarding it.

All that “pro-life” stuff REALLY applies to the idea of dominating women - especially when they’re most vulnerable.

[NullTuples]

11. even the phrasing, "life begins at conception" is disengenuous.

If you notice, the Right has quietly let drift away their use of "personhood"; now they just argue that life begins at conception. Which is true; a not-alive egg becomes alive with the addition of the chemical signals and genetic material from the sperm. But they've let slide the core part of the argument. They know it's not a person. It is a cell with the potential - if a vast number of things go right - to become a person once there is someone home inside the nervous system. But they've drifted so far from good faith arguing that they no longer feel the need to worry about things like logical consistency or winning by building rational arguments to convince people.

[NotANeocon]

18. The "Life Begins" ploy is actully a deliberate 'non-sequitur' logical fallacy.

The actual question requiring to be answered is the socio-legal one "When does an infant become a member of the tribe with rights and privileges"?

Some clever Jesuit (probably) well tutored in sophistry decided to answer the socio-legal question by using biology - which is about the same as telling the officer you were not speeding because you had a normal heartbeat at the time of the supposed infraction.

The ovum is ALIVE and the sperm is ALIVE, They are both a part of the continuum of life - which started in the primordial swamp eons ago.

Judaism has had a perfect answer to the original question. The tribe has a new member when the neonate has been delivered through the vagina past the umbilicus. At that point if a difficulty arises the deliverer must make every effort to preserve the life of the woman and the neonate. Before that point every effort must be aimed at preserving the woman who is already a member of the tribe.

[Beaverhausen]

16. PSSST...its not about the fetus or the baby

its about keeping women in their place.

[Sgent]

21. The Jewish position

for at least 1200 years is that life begins when the head crowns during birth. Before that the baby is a potential life, with the mother / father owed monetary compensation if the mother is injured causing fetal demise. Until 40 days, the embryo is as water and has no status at all.

Orthodox Judaism doesn't allow for abortion as a form of birth control but requires it in some circumstances if there are potential health consequences to the mother -- both physical and depending on the Rabbi mental.

[NotANeocon]

23. "Crowning" only covers a 'head primus' delivery.

Delivery in breach position must be accounted for also.

This is the reason "umbilicus past end of vagina" (i.e. belly button outside) is the definitive point for normal/usual/common births.

[gratuitous]

7. Oh, you sillies!

The only people who get to disobey the law because of deeply held religious convictions are folks indulging their own reading and interpretation of selected Bible passages coupled with their own bad theology. Otherwise, you'd see Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren folks exempted from paying the portion of their taxes that goes to fund the war machine, and we're sure as shootin' not going to do THAT anytime soon.

[Bev54]

8. I really wish they would change the name of the city.

[lindysalsagal]

9. Challenge them all! Awesome! The judge's docketts are already overloaded.

We can't spend our lives in courtrooms for some lunatic evangelicals.

[70sEraVet]

12. Is this where Evangelicals go back to teaching that Jews have horns?

I never did trust their professed 'love for the children of Israel'.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Probably.

Funny, most don't even know about the "Jews have horns" thing. When I lived in NOLA, I had someone ask if they could see my horns. They weren't being nasty or anything, they literally thought it was a genetic feature of Jews that we had skull protrusions that resemble kid (goat) horns.

They also don't love Jews or Israel, they only love what they represent, their end of the world fantasies, which weren't even a thing until about 100 years ago or so.

[Pepsidog]

13. This entire "History and Tradition" BS that SCOTUS loves to refer in deciding cases

is outrageous. I started listening to the SCOTUS oral argument in the Bruen case and Thomas is first up with a question about the history and tradition of the 2nd Amendment. It will be interesting to see how they handle this religious based challenge to the expected abortion ban.

[sop]

17. DeSantis has been making a lot of powerful enemies in Florida.

His politics of subtraction and division will blow up in his face.

[LeftInTX]

19. Why hasn't any Congregation in Texas done this?

[mucifer]

20. Wonderful! I hope they have beefed up security.

[Chalco]

22. This should happen nationwide! eom

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Rabbi Barry Silver's Synagogue is suing the state of Florida over its 15-week abortion ban.

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