Friend:

First and foremost, how are you? It’s tough having to deal with this pandemic for 1.5 years now on top of the rest of life’s challenges—and tough is if you’re lucky and you haven’t had to suffer devastating losses. Holding all of you in my heart during this very hard period in history.

Though we may wish that we could will it away, the reality is that the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant warrants the return of mask requirements in many of our locations. We are also now seeing the first wave of vaccine mandates in some of the nation’s biggest workplaces, as well as in New York City. More companies and communities are expected to follow. 

From the standpoint of public and personal morale, this Delta variant setback feels especially cruel after a tantalizing interlude when many of us believed the end of the COVID tunnel was in sight. 

But from a public health standpoint, the measures that are being put in place are welcome—especially those that don’t grant special, harmful exceptions to religion. Throughout the pandemic, AU has been at the forefront—in courts, statehouses and the public square—making clear that religious freedom does not give anyone the right to put other people's health and lives at risk.

We were back in court just this week: AU filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Thursday in support of a new Connecticut law that phases out religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements. The brief points out that, during the 2019-20 school year, Connecticut families requested 10 times more religious exemptions than medical exemptions from vaccine requirements—leading to 120 schools in the state failing to meet vaccination levels needed to maintain herd immunity against measles.

Clearly, these religious exemptions put schoolchildren at risk. And yet, an organization that opposes public health orders sued the state and is seeking to restore the exemptions.

The irony and hypocrisy embedded in this type of religious extremism are incredible. Many of those who argue that “freedom” means that people don’t have to follow public-health laws affecting their bodily integrity (even if the laws protect them and others from illness and death) also contend that the government should be able to force pregnant people to give birth.

That leads us to last week’s deadline for anti-abortion groups supporting Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban to file friend-of-the-court briefs with the Supreme Court, which will rule on that law in the next year, potentially overturning Roe v. Wade. At least two dozen of the briefs were submitted by Christian nationalist and other religious extremist groups citing religion as a check on public law. 

These include groups that urge courts and lawmakers to force everyone else to live by their beliefs, like the Family Research Council, Becket, Jay Sekulow's American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Christian Legal Society, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty. 

They prove the point AU has been making, with your steadfast support, all along: Abortion is a church-state separation issue, and religious freedom can be a matter of life or death. 

Until next week, stay safe and engaged.

With hope and determination,