Fighting for Freedom: Abortion Access & Religious Freedom in Missouri

The overturn of Roe v. Wade has had significant impacts across the country. Recently, a Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state’s near-total ban on abortion last summer. The man alleges that his now ex-wife learned she was pregnant the month after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and conspired with two friends to illegally obtain abortion-inducing medication and terminate the pregnancy. Another suit is attempting to make the widely-used abortion drug mifepristone illegal after 20 years of providing safe reproductive health care to countless. One judge could change access to health care by targeting the decades long FDA-approval of this drug.

But another lawsuit was filed right here in Missouri, by clergy 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. Rabbi Susan Talve, the founder of the Ashrei Foundation, and a dozen other Missouri clergy who are plaintiffs in the the lawsuit, Rev. Traci Blackmon v. State of Missouri, challenge Missouri’s abortion bans and several related abortion restrictions as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on all Missouri residents, and violating the separation of church and state.

Please join Rabbi Susan Talve, Rev. Krista Taves, and Rev. Darryl Gray, plaintiffs, accompanied by Denise Lieberman, local counsel in this case, to discuss this lawsuit and invite us all into deeper action to protect religious freedom and abortion access in Missouri.

This event will be held in person at the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis on Thursday, April 27 at 6:30pm.

Click the button below to register now!