JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There are several lawsuits being filed around the country trying to restore abortion rights after Roe V. Wade was overturned last month.
One includes a lawsuit filed June 10 by a synagogue out of South Florida said the Supreme Court decision violates Jewish beliefs. Florida’s 15-week ban on abortions was supposed to go into effect Friday but is facing an injunction from a Leon County judge, and other lawsuits. The lawsuit isn’t looking for an exception for religion; it is looking to throw the law out completely.
The lawsuit was filed in early June on behalf of the Jewish community, and others said Florida’s law wishes to impose their religious views upon all others who they consider morally inferior.
News4JAX spoke to an OBGYN out of Miami who was familiar with the lawsuit and said its purpose is for religious freedom.
“They’re basically discriminating against people who are now they might not be religious, or they might be from another religion,” Dr. Cecilia Grande said.
The basis of Roe V. Wade and its majority ruling was the right of a person and their doctor to choose an abortion.
After Florida changed the former 24-week abortion ban down to 15 weeks, doctors have faced a challenging position: people are fighting while some doctors feel stuck in the middle. Grande believes this decision will cause more harm than good.
“This was a very tragic day for doctors,” Grande said. “Until that fetus can be alive outside the womb, the rights are the rights of the mother. So what kind of state, what kind of country tells women you have no rights, you cannot make decisions about what your future is.”
The lawsuit said in Jewish law abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman. Under traditional Jewish law, life begins at birth. If a fetus poses a threat to the health or emotional well-being of the mother, the law requires the mother to abort the pregnancy.
Some doctors feel they’ve been eliminated from a decision that was once centered around their perspective because the Roe V. Wade filing states that “the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician. Grande said doctors will be faced with tough decisions.
“Doctors in Texas are turning patients away and telling them to come back when they’re bleeding very heavy or when they have a fever. That’s not good medicine. We were not taught to do that. Patients are coming in, they’re 18 weeks, they have ruptured membranes, and you have to give them Pitocin. And if somebody doesn’t like that, they can report you to the state,” Grande said.
Grande said the difference between mortality rates before and after Roe V. Wade is staggering.
“In 1965, before, the numbers were that 17% of all deaths due to pregnancy occur from illegal abortions. Now, because abortions are legal only point 3% of patients who get a legal abortion will have a complication, go to a hospital, and most of the time, they don’t die, we just deal with the complication. So it’s very unnerving, that our patients are going to wait to seek help,” Grande said.
Florida law said a woman can get an abortion after 15 weeks if it’s necessary to save the woman’s life or if two physicians said the fetus has a fetal abnormality. However, the lawsuit said not allowing Jews to make their own decisions regarding abortions threatens the lives, equality and dignity of Jewish women.
The lawsuit also mentioned how the new law effective July 1 violates all Floridians who don’t share the religious views reflected in the lawsuit.
Groups like the American Medical Association may be stepping in to help doctors navigate new laws. The American Medical Association even adopted a resolution saying abortion is a human right, and they plan to fight against the criminalization of medical care.