More than a dozen religious leaders are calling on the Missouri Supreme Court to overturn the state’s near-total ban on abortion as a violation of the separation of church and state.

The plaintiffs in Rev. Traci Blackmon v. State of Missouri recently appealed to the state Supreme Court, challenging St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser’s ruling that the ban did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Missouri Constitution. The decision bars the clergy from suing in circuit court.

Judge Jason Sengheiser

Lawyers for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the National Women’s Law Center argued the ban was unconstitutional because Missouri lawmakers cited religious beliefs when passing it in 2022.

“We are ready to fight to the end before the Missouri Supreme Court to defend the reproductive and religious freedom of all Missourians,” the groups said in a joint statement. “The state’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and reproductive rights. When lawmakers passed these laws, they made it clear that they were imposing their personal religious beliefs on the entire state. We remain committed to restoring abortion access in Missouri.”

The 13 plaintiffs include clergy from the Baptist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, United Methodist, Judaism and Unitarian Universalist churches. Each of them has said that their faith requires them to support access to abortion because it contributes to reproductive health, economic security and equality for women, the statement said.

“The lawsuit alleges that Missouri’s abortion ban and other restrictions violate the state constitution by enshrining legislators’ personal religious beliefs regarding abortion. … Legislators have openly and repeatedly emphasized that they are writing their religious beliefs into the abortion bans, even declaring in one law that ‘Almighty God is the Creator of life’ – a phrase that an opposing legislator called a ‘violation of the separation of church and state.'”

Video clips provided by AU and The National Women’s Law Center shows that numerous Republican lawmakers are using religious arguments to support legislation in 2022.

Adam Schnelting

“The fact is, I know of no better way to affirm the natural rights of man than to declare that they are a gift from our Creator that neither man nor government can limit,” said Rep. Adam Shnelting in response to concerns that the bill could violate church-state principles.

Holly Thompson Rehder

“God gives us no choice in this area. He is the creator of life. And I, who was created in His image and likeness, cannot choose to take it away, no matter how that child came to be. For me, life begins at conception,” said Senator Holly Thompson Rehder.

“As a Catholic, I believe that life begins at conception. That is already written into our legislation,” said Senator Nick Shroer, who sponsored the bill.

But Judge Sengheiser relied on U.S. and Missouri case law to reject the claim that the ban was unconstitutional because religious expression was used in its adoption.

Nick Schroeder

“The Court believes that little to no consideration should be given to individual legislative comments in assessing the constitutionality of the challenged provisions,” he said in his June 14 ruling. “A court will not strike down an otherwise constitutional law based on an allegedly improper legislative motive.”

He added: “What motivates a The motivation of one legislator to make a speech about a bill is not necessarily the motivation of numerous others to pass the same bill. And the stakes are so high that we should refrain from making assumptions.”

In his judgment, Sengheiser also stated Kennedy vs. Bremertona 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Establishment Clause of the Constitution cannot be used by the government to impinge on personal freedoms of speech and religion—in this case, that of a high school football assistant coach who was disciplined for holding prayer sessions with the athletes on the field after a football game that school administrators perceived as coercive. Previous precedents held that governments could permit religious behavior only if it had a secular purpose, did not involve encouraging the behavior, and did not result in excessive government interference in matters of faith.

But the Supreme Court in kennedy concluded that the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution “must be interpreted with reference to historical practices and understandings,” Sengheiser explained the legal basis of his ruling.

“First, the court finds Missouri has had some form of abortion restriction since 1825, even before the Missouri Constitution was passed, long before women could vote on the issue. … There are historic laws that criminalize abortion. When you read those laws, it seems that causing an abortion was a misdemeanor in the first place, but if the woman died in the process, it was second-degree manslaughter.”

But Americans United said the Missouri ban and others like it are unconstitutional by definition. “Laws that prohibit or restrict access to abortion impose narrow religious beliefs on everyone bound by those laws, including those whose religions support access to abortion.”

Missouri is among the 17 states that have enacted the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In 2019, some restrictions on abortion were imposed in the name of “Almighty God” and a trigger ban was introduced that would go into effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned, which made it Dobbs v. Jackson – Women’s Health Center in 2022.

Preventive restrictions adopted In 2014 and 2017, access to abortion in Missouri was severely restricted, including requiring a 72-hour delay in performing abortions.

“The lawmakers also defended these restrictions using religious language, repeatedly invoking the religious belief that life begins at conception, even after hearing the testimony of a rabbi explaining how abortion restrictions violate Jewish understandings of life and health,” the AU statement said.

This attempt to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban comes independently of a referendum scheduled for November that would have the same effect.

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Republican abortion laws are in stark contrast to the beliefs of many evangelicals | Analysis by David Bumgardner