Florida synagogue sues over state abortion restrictions

Both Conservative and Reform Judaism allow abortion.

That is interesting.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."DeSantis’ office did not respond to a voicemail and an email requesting comment on the lawsuit this week. In an email to Reuters this month about the legal challenge, the governor’s office said it was "confident that this law will ultimately withstand all legal challenges."

Silver, a former Democratic member of the Florida House and a civil rights lawyer, said Tuesday that he has heard from Jewish leaders across the country who are interested in filing lawsuits against anti-abortion measures in their states. He hopes he can start a trend.

"When life begins is a fundamental religious question, and the government now is trying to answer that for everyone, based on fundamentalist Christianity," Silver said.

In the eyes of many Jewish leaders, anti-abortion laws are particularly distressing because they contradict Jewish halakha — the laws drawn from the Torah, the Mishnah and the Talmud, the most sacred and authoritative texts in the tradition — according to Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Los Angeles.

The American Jewish community has likewise traditionally supported abortion access in overwhelming numbers.

In a 2014 survey, Pew Research Center found that 83% of more than 800 Jews surveyed said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Seventy-five percent of Jews polled by the 2022 National Survey of Jewish Voters said they were concerned the Supreme Court would toss out Roe.

In general, Judaism’s Reform and Conservative movements tend to take more liberal positions on social issues in American life. But the picture is more complex among those who practice Orthodox Judaism, whose adherents tend to be more politically conservative and Republican-leaning than other Jews, according to Pew."