Recent Lawsuits over Abortion Bans Don’t Help the Cause of Religious Freedom

Jewish attitudes toward abortion vary quite significantly, and even within Orthodoxy there is a spectrum of halakhic opinions about the circumstance under which it is allowed. But there is a general consensus across denominations—based on the Talmud—that when pregnancy threatens a woman’s life, abortion is not only permitted but required. This fact is the basis of a lawsuit in Indiana filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a group called Hoosier Jews for Choice. According to the plaintiffs, the state’s abortion ban threatens Jews’ religious liberty in a way that violates Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). Similar lawsuits have been filed in several other states.