Religious & Civil Rights Groups Urge Indiana Appeals Court To Protect Religious Freedom By Blocking Abortion Ban

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today was joined by 14 religious and civil-rights organizations in urging the Indiana Court of Appeals to protect religious freedom by affirming an injunction against a state abortion ban that imposes legislators’ religious views on all Hoosiers, in violation of the religious-freedom protections in the Indiana Constitution.

“Abortion Bans A Direct Attack On Separation Of Church And State”

“This abortion ban violates the promise of religious freedom in Indiana’s Constitution,” said Rachel Laser, President and CEO of Americans United. “Religious freedom prohibits legislators from enshrining their religious beliefs into law. Abortion bans undermine religious freedom by imposing one religious viewpoint on all of us. Abortion bans are a direct attack on the separation of church and state.”

In an amicus brief filed today in Individual Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Anonymous Plaintiff 1, AU and its allies explain: “Indiana legislators sought to impose their religious beliefs about when life begins on all Hoosiers by enacting S.E.A. 1. The abortion ban thus threatens the state’s healthy religious pluralism, compounds the threat of religiously based strife, and increases the already substantial mistrust of our political institutions by miring them in theological matters that they are not empowered to resolve.”

Fourteen Religious & Civil-Rights Organizations Join AU’s Amicus Brief

Joining Americans United on the brief are ADL (Anti-Defamation League); Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice; Central Conference of American Rabbis; Global Justice Institute, Metropolitan Community Churches; Hindu American Foundation; Interfaith Alliance Foundation; Men of Reform Judaism; Methodist Federation for Social Action; Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association; Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; Sikh Coalition; Union for Reform Judaism; Unitarian Universalist Association; and Women of Reform Judaism.