Friend:

An organization is only as good as its people and its allies. That’s especially true for advocacy organizations working to strengthen our democracy. Americans United has and collaborates with some of the best people. That lesson was brought home to me—again—in very clear terms this week when AU led a group of 16 other religious and religious freedom organizations in filing an important brief before the Kentucky Supreme Court, which convincingly argued that abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. 

The Kentucky Constitution promises “no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious sect, society or denomination.” Abortion bans violate that promise by, as a state appeals court noted, “impermissibly establishing a distinctly Christian doctrine of the beginning of life, and by unduly interfering with the free exercise of other religions that do not share that same belief.” Amen! 

The brief we filed in Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center argues that “Kentucky legislators sought to impose their religious beliefs about life and abortion on all Kentuckians” and that this “threatens a healthy religious pluralism and compounds the threat of religiously based strife. ”Abortion bans undermine religious freedom by imposing one religious viewpoint on all of us. They are a direct attack on the separation of church and state.

That’s why a broad and diverse coalition joined Americans United on this brief, from across the spectrum of belief and experience, including: humanists, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Unitarians, and strong allies like People For the American Way and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Nothing makes it clear that these bans impose one narrow religious viewpoint quite like seeing the diverse array of beliefs against them. 

Our in-house team argued persuasively, but so did one our board members. At our board meeting this July, Shelly Henry learned that she had won this same case and that the trial court had voluntarily (or, sua sponte as we lawyers like to say) held that the abortion ban violated the separation of church and state. Shelly wasn’t involved with writing our brief, but she helped litigate the case from the beginning. AU’s good people are on every front line of this fight. 

Some of you may remember that after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I said, “Americans United has been arguing for decades that reproductive freedom is religious freedom and preparing litigation along those lines for some time.” I hope you haven’t forgotten. We certainly haven’t. And we’ll never stop fighting . . . as you’ll see in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

P.S. In case you missed it, Andrew Seidel, AU’s VP of Strategic Communications, released his new book last week—you can order your copy of “American Crusade: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing Religious Freedom” from Andrew’s local bookstore, or wherever you like to buy books.