Friend,
You and I are among the 26 percent of Americans who recognize the connection between church-state separation and reproductive freedom. I’m struck by that statistic today, as the Supreme Court hears arguments relating to Texas’ latest attempt to outlaw abortion.
Despite decades of overtly religious justification for legislating abortion, 74 percent of the people we surveyed do not immediately understand that abortion rights are dependent on religious freedom.
The same poll also revealed that 8 in 10 Americans agree that our laws “should not allow people to use their religious beliefs to harm others.” Clearly, there is room to enlarge the understanding that allowing someone’s religious beliefs to dictate another person’s personal medical decisions is the very definition of “harm.”
Just as important as our work in the courts, Congress and state legislatures is AU’s work to educate and turn the tide of public opinion to bolster support for church-state separation across the county. Please make a gift today to support this essential work of Americans United: [link removed]
It’s painful how effective religious extremists have been at creating uncertainty about basic rights in our secular nation. And now, their decades-long crusade to impose their will on personal autonomy appears likely to reach its pinnacle, when the Supreme Court rules soon on both the Texas law and on the constitutionality of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.
If more people understood the connection between religious and reproductive freedoms, even today’s 6-3 conservative Court majority might find it difficult to declare the Mississippi law constitutional, because the First Amendment’s guarantee of separation of church and state would make that unthinkable. But with such a weak public understanding of the connection, the conservative Court has plenty of cover.
Americans United has long recognized that most opposition to reproductive freedom is anchored in specific fundamentalist theology and that people of different belief systems must be allowed to make these decisions for themselves. (In my Jewish faith, for example, many believe that the health and life of the mother take precedence.)
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Recently, AU filed a “friend of the court” brief in the Mississippi abortion case now pending before the Supreme Court—arguing that the government should respect religious pluralism and not favor or impose the views of any particular faith. We explain this adherence to Constitutional church-state separation does more than protect freedom of conscience; it avoids religious division and religiously based strife.
AU is committed to increasing awareness about the connection between church-state separation and reproductive freedom in the months and years ahead. Please affirm your own commitment today with a special gift to Americans United. Your support gives me hope that we can succeed before religious extremists make even more headway in chipping away at individual liberties that far too many of our fellow Americans take for granted.
With hope and determination,
Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO
P.S. Please keep this fact in mind as this issue plays out in the months ahead: 7 in 10 Americans believe in the legal right to abortion, while 74 percent do not understand the link between religion and reproductive rights. AU’s job is to educate the people who fall into both of these two groups. We need your gift today to get that done. Please make a special contribution now: [link removed]. Thank you for being so generously invested in our work.
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