A judge in Missouri ruled that state lawmakers who passed a bill restricting abortion access were not attempting to force their religious beliefs on everyone in the state, despite claims from religious leaders.

The case brought by more than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders who support abortion access was rejected in Judge Jason Sengheiser’s ruling on Friday.

The religious leaders sought a permanent injunction last year to prevent Missouri from enforcing its abortion ban and a declaration that provisions of the law violate the state Constitution.

One section of the statute that was challenged reads: “In recognition that Almighty God is the author of life, that all men and women are ‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life.’”

MISSOURI’S ABORTION LAW FACES CHALLENGE IN COURT OVER CLAIMS OF RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE

Sengheiser wrote in his ruling that there is similar language in the preamble to the Missouri Constitution, which states that there is “profound reverence for the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”

The other challenged provisions do not include any explicit religious language, the judge ruled.

“While the determination that life begins at conception may run counter to some religious beliefs, it is not itself necessarily a religious belief,” Sengheiser wrote. “As such, it does not prevent all men and women from worshipping Almighty God or not worshipping according to the dictates of their own consciences.”

The Americans United for Separation of Church & State and the National Women’s Law Center, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the religious leaders, said in a joint statement that they were considering their legal options following the judge’s ruling.

“Missouri’s abortion ban is a direct attack on the separation of church and state, religious freedom and reproductive freedom,” the statement read.

Attorneys representing the state, however, argued that just because some supporters of the law oppose abortion for religious reasons does not mean that the law imposes their beliefs on other people in the state.

Sengheiser said that the state has historically attempted to restrict and criminalize abortion, pointing to statutes more than 100 years old.

SUPREME COURT RULES IN ABORTION MEDICATION CASE, FINDS GROUP LACKED STANDING TO CHALLENGE FDA APPROVAL

Abortion rights activists rally at the Washington Monument before a march to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, May 14, 2022. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images)

“Essentially, the only thing that changed is that Roe was reversed, opening the door to this further regulation,” he said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, which allowed states to make their own abortion laws.

Shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson, both Republicans, filed paperwork to immediately enact a 2019 law prohibiting abortions except in cases of medical emergency. That law included a provision that made it effective only if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

The law makes it a felony punishable by five to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion, and doctors who violate the law could lose their medical licenses. Women who undergo abortions cannot be prosecuted under the law.

Missouri, which already had some of the more restrictive abortion laws in the U.S., had a significant decline in the number of abortions performed. Residents instead traveled to the neighboring states of Illinois and Kansas to undergo the procedure.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Along with the dignitaries attending President Biden’s star-studded fundraiser at Peacock Theater on Saturday night was the man Biden had urged to resign from the Los Angeles City Council: Kevin de León.

De León, who weathered a scandal that rocked City Hall, was seen in the theater lobby while other elected officials met with Biden and former President Obama.

Outside the theater, De León took the opportunity to speak to reporters about what he characterized as the danger of Donald Trump becoming president again.

He noted the pro-Palestinian protesters who had flanked the theater, saying, “What’s at stake here right now, in the battleground states … is the well-being of immigrants, undocumented immigrants, the poor, the most vulnerable, our senior citizens. That’s what’s at stake here, too — not just global matters.”

In a video posted online by a Pasadena Star-News journalist, De León added, “I’m looking forward to Presidents Biden and Barack Obama really instilling a sense of deep enthusiasm among Democrats. Listen, this is a blue town; this is a blue state. We’re not going anywhere. … I’m hoping that California can have that huge positive impact.”

De León is scraping together a political comeback after the Los Angeles Times revealed in 2022 that he had participated with other councilmembers in a secretly recorded conversation riddled with racist remarks. The audio leak led then-Council President Nury Martinez to step down. Many called for De León to resign too — including Biden.

“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said at the time.

Instead, De León clung to his seat — despite persistent protests in City Hall chambers, the loss of his committee assignments and his physical altercation with a critic that was captured on videotape. He mounted a reelection campaign, scoring second place in March’s primary election. Last month, Council President Paul Krekorian announced he was placing De León on four council committees.

And on Saturday night, the controversial councilmember was spotted at the downtown event, Los Angeles’ highest-dollar Democratic fundraiser on record. But other elected dignitaries from Southern California, including Mayor Karen Bass and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), mingled with Biden and Obama in the VIP section.

Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price was also spotted arriving at the theater, though he was blocked from entering near the JW Marriott hotel when protesters sat down in front of the gates. Some of the demonstrators shouted at him, referencing his pending criminal charges.

Price was charged last year with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest for voting on development projects in which he allegedly had a financial interest. He is also the subject of an L.A. City Ethics Commission review over similar accusations.

Staff writers Liam Dillon and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

After former President Trump’s lucrative, three-day swing through California, President Biden has returned to the West Coast to tap into the Democrat-dominated state’s political ATM.

With less than five months to go until the November election, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel will interview Biden and former President Obama as they team up with Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts at a star-studded fundraiser the president’s campaign said is already breaking records.

Biden’s campaign boasted “the event has already raised over $28 million and counting — making it the biggest fundraiser in Democratic Party history.”

The haul tops a fundraiser with Biden, Obama and former President Clinton in March at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, which raked in $26 million.

TRUMP HAULS IN PLENTY OF GREEN DURING SWING THROUGH LONGTIME BLUE STATE

But Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, hauled in over $50 million in early April at a fundraiser at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor and hedge fund founder John Paulson. It was the most money ever brought in at a single fundraising event and shattered the record Biden set just a week and a half earlier at Radio City Music Hall.

It’s the latest case of national politicians coming to California to pad their campaign coffers. According to figures from the Federal Election Commission, Biden and Trump have raked in more money in California this cycle than any other state.

“When politicians look to the west, they see a field of green,” veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College told Fox News.

President Biden and former President Trump have both hauled in millions at fundraising events in California as they face off in their 2024 election rematch. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson and Evan Vucci)

Tickets for Saturday’s gala at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, which an invitation describes as a “historic night,” ranged from $250 for a single person to get in the door to half a million dollars for special access, photos with Biden and Obama and invitations to an after-party.

The president arrived in California one week after Trump left the Golden State.

Trump’s team said when all the money is counted, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was expected to haul in roughly $27.5 million from three fundraisers in California and one in Las Vegas, a senior campaign official told Fox News.

WHY TRUMP’S SAN FRANCISCO FUNDRAISER WAS FRUITFUL IN MORE THAN ONE WAY

And the Trump campaign said an additional $6 million was raised for outside groups supporting his 2024 election rematch with Biden.

Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden. In April, his campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) for the first time raised more than the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee. 

Trump’s campaign announced a week ago it and the RNC hauled in a stunning $141 million in May, fueled in part by the former president’s guilty verdicts in his recently concluded criminal trial.

Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court May 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.

The former president’s campaign noted that, in the first 24 hours following the verdict, it and the RNC brought in nearly $53 million, which counted toward May’s total. 

The Biden campaign has also been raising money from the Trump verdict, and a source told Fox News “the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch.”

While Trump’s California fundraising haul was fueled by top-dollar GOP donors, including tech industry investors and hedge fund giants, Saturday’s fundraising for Biden is being orchestrated by the Democratic Hollywood machine.

It’s no surprise. The entertainment industry, which showered presidents Clinton and Obama with campaign cash, has long been known for its Democratic leanings.

And while the 81-year-old Biden doesn’t have the tight relationships with Hollywood that his Democratic predecessors enjoyed, he can still draw a crowd.

“Any Democratic presidential candidate is going to be able to raise a lot of money in California, and an incumbent president has a big advantage. When the president enters a room, it fills up with cash,” Pitney said.

President Biden waves as he arrives on Air Force One June 15, 2024, in Los Angeles. Biden will attend a campaign event Saturday night. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Major strikes by two Hollywood labor unions representing film and television writers and actors from May through November of last year delayed Biden from raising money in Los Angeles entertainment circles.

But the president started making up for lost time in December with a major fundraiser hosted by famed directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner. Saturday’s mega-fundraiser was orchestrated by media mogul and Democratic rainmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s a Biden campaign co-chair. Katzenberg also put together the Radio City Music Hall fundraiser.

The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have enlisted the help of plenty of stars and well-known performers from the entertainment world as the president runs for a second term.

Among those lending a hand is famed actor Robert De Niro, who headlined a Biden campaign news conference outside the New York City courthouse during the final days of Trump’s trial. 

The news conference went viral after De Niro, who portrayed mobsters in such cinematic masterpieces as “The Godfather Part II” and “Goodfellas,” screamed at nearby Trump supporters that “You are gangsters” as they yelled obscenities at the actor.

Actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, made a recent unannounced appearance at the White House briefing room to praise the president and called Biden “Joe-Bi-Wan-Kenobi.”

Spielberg has helped the DNC with its storytelling efforts, and Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris on a recent swing through battleground Michigan.

Trump, whose final California fundraiser took place last weekend at a tony gated community in upscale Newport Beach, California, and included veteran actor Jon Voight, will spend this weekend in Michigan, holding multiple events, including a roundtable discussion at a northwest Detroit church.

Supporters of former President Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, react to his motorcade on the day he visits to raise money in Newport Beach, Calif., June 8, 2024. (REUTERS/David Swanson)

The Trump campaign argued the former president will be meeting with “everyday Americans” while “Biden will be at a glitzy fundraiser in Hollywood with his elitist, out-of-touch celebrity benefactors that own him.”

The Trump campaign and Republican allies also criticized the president for skipping a peace conference on Ukraine being held this weekend in Switzerland to appear at the California fundraiser. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the U.S. at the peace talks.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.