Monday, August 1, multiple Jewish Rabbis filed suit against the State of Florida, claiming legislation signed into law on July 1 by Gov. Ron DeSantis criminalizing the participation in abortion violates their religious liberty. According to the plaintiffs, the law can be construed as anyone who counsels a woman for an abortion is aiding and abetting a crime, and this is a violation of a Rabbi’s religious liberty. The Rabbis lead off their legal claim by declaring that a core belief of Judaism is the unequivocable sacredness of all human life. This immediately invalidates their claim on the face. Joining us in this discussion is Jim Harden, founder of CompassCare (or Daniel Tomlinson, development director).
Q&A:
- Why are multiple Jewish Rabbis suing the State of Florida?
Answer: Monday, August 1, multiple Jewish Rabbis filed suit against the State of Florida claiming legislation signed into law on July 1 by Gov. DeSantis, criminalizing the participation in abortion, violates their religious liberty. According to the plaintiffs, the law can be construed as anyone who counsels a woman for an abortion is aiding and abetting a crime and this is a violation of a Rabbi’s religious liberty.
- What should the Florida Attorney General be considered relative to this lawsuit?
Answer: When other claims of the violation of religious liberty have arisen in other contexts such as mandatory vaccinations as a condition of employment in health care facilities, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission established legal precedent in supporting religious liberty defining religion as that which “typically concerns ‘ultimate ideas’ about ‘life, purpose, and death,’” excluding “social, political, or economic philosophies, as well as mere personal preferences.”
- Is there a legitimate case to be made by the Rabbis that restricting abortion violates their religious freedom?
Answer: Here the Rabbis lead off their legal claim declaring that a core belief of Judaism is the unequivocable sacredness of all human life. Then they oddly assert that counseling women for abortion are key to expressing their religion. But if the sacredness of all human life is a core tenant of Judaism, then all human life is equally valuable, invalidating the concept of different levels of legal rights.
- Is abortion a core tenant of the Jewish faith?
Answer: Undermining their own religious argument to counsel women to end the life of their child, the Rabbis use scriptures from the Old Testament—one of which is Exodus 21:22-25. Exodus states that if two men are fighting and they accidentally hit a pregnant woman, and she miscarries, then the law requires life for life. What the plaintiffs fail to appreciate is that the scriptural context is consistent with the Florida law rather than the plaintiff’s assertion.
- How can we expect the judiciary to respond to this lawsuit?
Answer: This lawsuit ought to be dismissed as frivolous, and the plaintiffs fined for tying up the judicial system by this conniving attempt to conflate Judaism with their personal opinions about abortion.
- Where may we get more information on this or your organization?
Answer: CompassCareCommunity.com
Rev. James R. Harden, M.Div. is the CEO of CompassCare Pregnancy Services and lives outside of Rochester, NY, with his wife and ten children. Rev. Harden pioneered the first measurable and repeatable medical model in the pregnancy center movement, helping hundreds of centers nationwide become more effective at reaching more women and saving more babies from abortion. He has written extensively on medical ethics, executive leadership, and pro-life strategy. Recently CompassCare’s pro-life medical office in Buffalo, NY was firebombed.
Contact: Jerry McGlothlin 919-437-0001 jerry@specialguests.com
