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Friend:
It’s been over a week, but I’m still savoring our new lawsuit challenging Missouri’s abortion bans—and still talking about the suit with media every day. This quote from our Orthodox Jewish plaintiff Maharat Rori Picker Neiss perfectly summed up the experience for me:
“It was really empowering to stand alongside so many people of such a diverse range of faith traditions, who all wanted to come together to say that religion doesn’t have any one answer to questions about abortion. There is no one religious view in America. And so I just felt so heartened and inspired to stand arm in arm with religious leaders from across the spectrum.”
Maharat Picker Neiss’ words get at the heart of why AU and the National Women’s Law Center filed this lawsuit with 13 faith leaders. We must restore reproductive and religious freedom in Missouri and across the country. And we must make clear that abortion bans violate our country’s promise of church-state separation. Our plaintiffs, who come from a half-dozen diverse faith traditions, loudly proclaimed that they support abortion rights because of their faith and that these bans favor one set of religious views over theirs and other Missourians’.
I was very pleased at how much press picked up the lawsuit, from local outlets like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis Public Radio to national outlets like The Washington Post, Religion News Service and my own editorial that was syndicated by The Progressive Magazine.
In order to protect and restore the separation of religion and government, religious freedom and all of the rights and freedoms that depend upon them—including abortion rights—we need to win in the court of public opinion just as much as in courts of law. That’s why Americans United is dedicated to campaigning for a national recommitment to the separation of church and state.
In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out a variety of ways you can support this campaign. One way that’s available right now is by committing to join us at the Summit for Religious Freedom (SRF) on April 22-24, either in person in Washington, D.C., or virtually. You’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the threats facing church-state separation and what you can do to protect it—all while being in community with others who, like you, care deeply about church-state separation and our democracy. You can RSVP here. I hope to see you in April!
With hope and determination,
Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO
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