If you ask some Americans, the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling did more than overturn Roe v. Wade. They believe it also shrunk the distance between church and state. These more liberal religious freedom advocates fear the court has cleared the way for lawmakers to privilege conservative religious teachings on when life begins. But they don’t plan to let that happen without a fight. In tweets, interviews and official statements, they’re calling for religious freedom -focused legal challenges to abortion restrictions. If a policy is built on religious beliefs about abortion, a case could be made that it violates the establishment clause, they say. A synagogue in Florida has already filed a lawsuit to test this approach. It claims the state’s 15-week abortion ban violates the Florida constitution’s religious freedom protections. As they wait for that case to play out and for similar lawsuits to be filed, legal experts are debating whether such claims could succeed. Some believe it’s too hard to prove lawmakers are privileging certain religious teachings, while others say even conservative judges are committed to rooting out government interference in religious affairs. “If these (abortion) bans are shown to be religious laws, that would be unconstitutional even […]
