After leak, religious rift over legal abortion on display

Supreme Court Abortion Faith Perspectives
In this photo provided by Felicity Figueroa, Rabbi Stephen Einstein, left, founding rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Fountain Valley, Calif., stands with the Rev. Sarah Halverson-Cano, senior pastor of Irvine United Congregational Church in Irvine, Calif., at a rally supporting abortion access, in Santa Ana, Calif., May 3, 2022. (Felicity Figueroa via AP)

By DEEPA BHARATH and LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press

America’s faithful are bracing — some with cautionary joy and others with looming dread — for the Supreme Court to potentially overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and end the nationwide right to legal abortion.

A reversal of the 49-year-old ruling has never felt more possible since a draft opinion suggesting justices may do so was leaked this week. While religious believers at the heart of the decades-old fight over abortion are shocked at the breach of high court protocol, they are still as deeply divided and their beliefs on the contentious issue as entrenched as ever.