A group of Missouri clergy who are challenging the state’s abortion ban as a violation of church-state separation announced on July 2 that they will appeal a state court ruling dismissing their lawsuit.
On June 14, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled that Missouri’s abortion laws do not violate the state constitution’s church-state separation provisions. The clergy members in the lawsuit, Rev. Traci Blackmon v. State of Missouri, argue that the laws curbing abortion are based on religious views shared by some, but not all, state lawmakers.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, Missouri’s governor and attorney general signed documents making a near-total abortion ban the law of the state.
Rev. Traci Blackmon v. State of Missouri was filed in January 2023 on behalf of 13 clergy members whose various faiths call them to support abortion access because of the critical importance it holds for the health, autonomy, economic security, and equality of women and all who can become pregnant. Religious traditions represented by the plaintiffs include Baptist, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism and United Methodist. One plaintiff is also a state legislator.
The faith leader plaintiffs are Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rabbi Doug Alpert, Rev. Jan Barnes, Rabbi Jim Bennett, Rev. Cindy Bumb, Rabbi Andrea Goldstein, Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, Rev. Darryl Gray, Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson, Rev. Holly McKissick, Rev. Barbara Phifer, Rabbi Susan Talve and Rev. Krista Taves.
The lawsuit alleges that Missouri’s abortion ban and other restrictions violate the state constitution by enshrining lawmakers’ personal religious beliefs about abortion in House Bill No. 126 and Senate Bill No. 5. One of the provisions of H.B. 126 was a “trigger ban” that prohibited all abortions following the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.
Lawmakers openly and repeatedly emphasized they were writing their religious beliefs into the abortion bans, even declaring in one statute that “Almighty God is the author of life” — a phrase that an opposing lawmaker noted was “in violation of the separation of church and state.”
The legal team representing the clergy plaintiffs in the appeal consists of AU, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and local civil rights lawyer Denise Lieberman.
“We’re ready to fight all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court to restore Missourians’ reproductive and religious freedom,” the groups said in a joint statement. “We respectfully disagree with the circuit court’s decision, which noted that the case ‘presents an extremely difficult question.’ Judge Sengheiser dates the state’s first abortion ban to 1825, and yet acknowledged the ‘historical inequality’ of upholding a total abortion ban based on laws passed when women were still shut out of the electoral and legislative process.
“Unfortunately this Court’s order recognizes, and yet still perpetuates, these historical inequalities,” continued the statement. “Earlier this year, when anti-abortion extremists attempted to enforce Arizona’s similarly antiquated 1864 abortion ban, the legislature there repealed it amid tremendous public backlash.
“Missouri’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious freedom and reproductive freedom. Lawmakers made clear that they were imposing their personal religious beliefs on all Missourians when they enacted these laws. We remain committed to restoring abortion access in Missouri,” the statement concluded.