'A really good day': Arizona faith leaders celebrate Supreme Court ruling on abortion

Phoenix-area clergy expressed concern, optimism and rejoicing, among other feelings, in response to this week’s court ruling to uphold Arizona’s pre-statehood abortion ban.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in a 4-to-2 decision on Tuesday that the state's 1864 law banning abortion will remain in place. Some leaders within the Valley’s diverse faith communities shared their varying thoughts on abortion rights and a law that makes no exception for victims of rape or incest and threatens to imprison abortion providers and women who undergo the procedure.

"It’s extremely cruel and faulty legislation," Congregation Kehillah Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman said about the ban in an interview with The Arizona Republic.

Not unlike Sharfman, faith leaders willing to speak with The Republic on the issue were in favor of reproductive freedoms. Those who were outright in favor of the ban either declined to speak directly with The Republic or did not respond to interview requests.

These clergy members' views reflected what the nonpartisan Institute for Social Policy and Understanding's March 2022 poll found on the opinion of abortion legality by religion.

According to the poll, the leading religious group favoring abortion being legal in all or most cases was Jews, with 75% holding this opinion. The leading group opposing abortion being legal in all or most cases was white Evangelicals, with 80% holding this opinion, along with 43% favoring the procedure to be illegal in all cases. The poll also found a slight majority of Catholics and Muslims favored abortion being legal in all or most cases, and a slight majority of Protestants favored abortion being illegal in all or most cases.

'An infringement'

Sharfman has previously spoken in favor of abortion rights at the Arizona Legislature. She spoke with The Republic on how the Jewish law recognizes birth as the beginning of life, adding the Supreme Court’s decision endorses a religious belief that life starts at conception.

"No one personal belief system should be enshrined into thought in our state or any other state for that matter," Sharfman said. “To do so is an infringement on the rights that different religious groups have to freely practice that religion.”

Meanwhile, the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona Bishop Jennifer Reddall told The Republic she will be praying for women and abortion providers, as well as for state legislators to take action against the ban.

"The 19th-century law, from our perspective, does not value (women’s) lives or their integrity in decision-making," Reddall said.

In a Tuesday afternoon Facebook post, Reddall wrote her "heart was heavy" for "a culture that does not value and protect so many lives, choosing to prioritize the lives of embryos over the safety of children, people of color, the incarcerated, LGBTQ+ people and I could go on and on."

'Relevant and necessary'

Imam Omar Tawil of the Islamic Community Center of Tempe argued to The Republic that the law is unfair to Muslims as their faith does not prohibit abortion in health matters. Abortion for circumstances dealing with rape and incest could be permissible in the Islamic faith, according to Tawil.

He forwarded a scenario where terminating a pregnancy would be permissible if a woman carrying twins and a fetus had a disease or deformity risking her health or life or the health or life of the other fetus.

"There are some of these dispensations within Islamic law that become very relevant and necessary for many Muslims. And it just seems that this is a(n) exclusively Christian ethic that was considered over 100 years ago, and it does not reflect the religious diversity of Arizona today or of America today," Tawil said.

However, Tawil added that Islam does not allow for "lifestyle choices" to be the cause of a pregnancy’s termination. He noted that the faith instead promotes pregnancy within marriage and chasteness ahead of wedlock.

"This is where we do fall in kind of the middle path," Tawil said.

'From the moment of conception'

The Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference, which includes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix Bishop John Dolan, issued a lengthy statement upon the ban being upheld.

The bishops on Tuesday wrote about serving "preborn children and their mothers" and about the "law protecting unborn human life from the moment of conception, with a life of a mother exception" remaining "valid."

The statement referenced a forthcoming ballot measure to make abortion a constitutional right in the state as a "pro-abortion" and "extreme initiative." The bishops contended that the ballot’s success among voters would "remove most safeguards" for girls and women and "allow for painful late-term abortions of viable preborn children."

A spokesman for the Phoenix diocese told The Republic on Thursday evening that Dolan did not have anything to add beyond the joint statement to which the bishop signed his name.

'Good day for Christians'

The mood was celebratory on Wednesday evening at Dream City Church in north Phoenix as the nondenominational Christian congregation’s leader praised the state Supreme Court’s decision.

"We have a lot to celebrate as Christians this week — some things that happened yesterday, things we were praying for for a long, long time," Pastor Luke Barnett said, grinning, before the megachurch's congregants.

Barnett’s words came before right-wing personality Charlie Kirk took the stage. Kirk is the founder and executive director of the Phoenix-based and youth-focused Turning Point USA nonprofit.

The pastor asserted to his congregants that "the left" and "the secular side" were going to "use" the events from the day before against them.

"But if you love the Lord, and you believe in life — and yesterday was a really good day for Christians all across America. So, we're grateful for that," Barnett said.

The church did not respond to a Thursday afternoon request for elaboration on Barnett’s comments.

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Reach breaking news reporter Jose R. Gonzalez at jose.gonzalez@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @jrgzztx.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona abortion ruling: Faith leaders celebrate near-total ban