Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials in Florida were sued late last week by a Jewish congregation in south Florida over the 15-week abortion ban with very limited exceptions that DeSantis signed earlier this year and is set to take effect July 1.
Ordinarily, states haven’t been allowed to impose restrictions on abortion that early in pregnancy, but a similar law in Mississippi went up to the U.S. Supreme Court — which has yet to decide on a challenge to it — so one could assume Florida leaders imposed their restrictions in the hope of the Supreme Court upholding those Mississippi rules. It’s the Mississippi case that provided the backdrop for the recently leaked draft majority opinion that would overturn the court’s previous conclusions in Roe v. Wade, which established the national right to an abortion.
The new lawsuit in Florida was filed in Leon County circuit court and was brought by Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, which is in Boynton Beach, a city in Palm Beach County. The lawsuit challenges the abortion restrictions set to soon begin on the basis of arguments about the rights to privacy and religious freedom — with the latter argument dependent on the role of abortion in Jewish thinking and practice surrounding bringing new children into the world.
“For Jews, all life is precious and thus the decision to bring new life into the world is not taken lightly or determined by state fiat… In Jewish law, abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman, or for many other reasons not permitted under [the new law]. As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and thus violates their privacy rights and religious freedom,” as the new lawsuit explains. The case also states that those who “do not share the religious views reflected in the act will suffer… irreparable harm by having their religious freedom under the Florida Constitution violated.” In addition, the lawsuit says: “This failure to maintain the separation of church and state, like so many other laws in other lands throughout history, threatens the Jewish family, and thus also threatens the Jewish people by imposing the laws of other religions upon Jews.”
DeSantis also remains embroiled in court challenges over Florida’s new Congressional district map, although for now, he’s winning on that front, with his plan in force as legal stand-offs continue to play out. The Florida Supreme Court recently declined to take up a challenge to DeSantis’s redistricting plan, which (among other things) spreads areas from a district currently represented by Rep. Al Lawson (D), who is Black, across several new districts. “The state Supreme Court’s decision means an appeals court will decide the current legal challenge,” POLITICO said June 2. DeSantis’s side presented highfalutin arguments about fairness in making the case for the lines, but the governor’s plan is drawn in such a way that Republicans end up looking set to control over 70 percent of the state’s House seats — a much larger portion of the total than the portions of Florida’s vote Trump captured in 2020 and of the state’s registered voters who are Republicans.
