Some abortion advocates are so zealous that, I’ve heard people say, it’s as if abortion is their religion. Now, in the latest entry to the truth-can-be-stranger-than-fiction file: Abortion extremists in Indiana claim that the state’s law banning most abortions violates their right to…wait for it…exercise religion. The Indiana Supreme Court is now considering their lawsuit.
This is the legal backstory. The First Amendment protects the fundamental right to freely exercise religion. Because this right is so important, the Supreme Court has long said that government needs a “compelling” purpose to interfere with it. In 1972, some creative law professors argued that a woman exercises religion when she has an abortion allowed by her religious or moral beliefs. Since protecting human beings in the womb is not a “compelling” government purpose, the argument goes, pro-life laws violate the First Amendment.
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