Dear Senators,
We write to you as pro-life organizations united in opposition to the Equality Act (H.R.5/S.393). If passed, this legislation would be a severe bludgeon to efforts to protect the unborn by establishing abortion rights under the auspices of addressing pregnancy-related conditions. Despite the bill’s sponsors’ claims that this bill has nothing to do with abortion, the language in both the House and Senate versions of the bill lack critical abortion neutral language. Without such language, the bill will open a pandora’s box of abortion-related policy concerns, from taxpayer funding for abortions to abortion coverage mandates in health plans. Furthermore, under the expanded terms for public accommodation and diminished conscience protections for medical professionals, many doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care providers could be forced to participate in abortions under penalty of law. We call on Senators to oppose this radical bill.
This legislation redefines “sex” as found in the Civil Rights Act. As enacted, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 offered protections by banning discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in areas such as employment, housing, and public accommodations. For decades, the Civil Rights Act has been further protected by the addition of important guardrails1 dictating that such definitions may not be used to construe a right to abortion. However, by prohibiting “less favorable treatment” on the basis of “sex” including provisions related to “pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions,” and erasing the longstanding pro-life protections, the so-called Equality Act creates a path to impose onerous abortion mandates. In Doe v. C.A.R.S., the 3rd Circuit ruled “that the term ‘related medical condition’ includes an abortion.2 Accompanied with the new provisions relating to no “less favorable treatment” to that of the other “medical conditions,” abortion would likely be labeled a protected procedure. The National Partnership for Women and Families has stated that the Equality Act would provide an avenue for women “to challenge denials of reproductive health,” which is of course a misleading euphemism for abortion.3
The Equality Act’s expansive language requiring “any establishment that offers … health … care services or any federally-funded programs to follow the same definitions of “sex,” again including “pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions” would place public and private health facilities under the provisions of this act thereby endangering state and local pro-life protections.
Not only the facilities, but also each and every medical professional would be under the threat of discrimination charges for withholding services. The Equality Act explicitly blocks the use of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) claims for conscientious objection. Without RFRA protection there would be little recourse for medical professionals being forced to choose between following their consciences and being subjected to lawsuits, fines, and other penalties. This would be in direct conflict with conscience rights provisions already in law such as the longstanding Weldon and Church amendments and could set up a significant legal dilemma that will be litigated for years to come.
Without one explicit mention of abortion in its text, this legislation could be the biggest setback to the pro-life movement since Roe v. Wade. The Equality Act would present an open door for legal challenges to reasonable, widely supported restrictions on abortion and abortion funding across public and private entities.4 It would punish religious believers and treat them as second-class citizens who must violate their fundamental moral convictions to serve the goals of the pro-abortion movement. We call on the Senate to stand opposed to this manipulation of the Civil Rights Act that would strip away the rights of countless unborn children and the conscience rights of pro-life Americans.
Sincerely,
Marjorie Dannenfelser President Susan B. Anthony List Lila Rose Founder & President Live Action Penny Young Nance CEO & President Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee Ryan T. Anderson, PhD President Ethics and Public Policy Center Russell Moore President Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Fr. Frank Pavone National Director Priests for Life Colleen Holcomb President Eagle Forum Craig DeRoche President & CEO Family Policy Alliance Garrett Bess Vice President of Government Relations and Communications Heritage Action for America Rev. Dean Nelson Executive Director Human Coalition Action Alexandra Snyder CEO Life Legal Defense Foundation Robin Pierucci, MD, MA. Pro-Life Committee Chair The American College of Pediatricians Janet Morana Co-Founder of The Silent No More Awareness Campaign Silent No More Larry Cirignano DC Representative Children First Foundation Cathie Humbarger CEO Reprotection, Inc. Astrid Bennett Gutierrez Director and Founder The VIDA Initiative Marie Tasy Executive Director New Jersey Right to Life Gene Mills President Louisiana Family Forum Joseph Brinck President Sanctity of Life Foundation Nathan Winters Executive Director Family Policy Alliance of Wyoming Bob Vander Plaats President & CEO The FAMiLY Leader Aaron Baer President Center for Christian Virtue Michael Gonidakis President Ohio Right to Life Allan E. Parker, Jr. President The Justice Foundation Julaine K. Appling President Wisconsin Family Action Peggy Nienaber Vice President Faith & Liberty Joel Brind President & CEO Natural Food Science, LLC Jo Ann Gerling Director Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer Samuel H. Lee Director Campaign Life Missouri Eva Andrade President & CEO Hawaii Family Forum Sheila L. Harper Founder & President SaveOne |
Carol Tobias
President National Right to Life Committee Kristan Hawkins President Students for Life of America/SFLAction Star Parker President Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) Tom McClusky President March for Life Action Catherine Glenn Foster, M.A., J.D. President & CEO Americans United for Life Andrew M. Bath Executive Vice President & General Counsel Thomas More Society Bradley Mattes President Life Issues Institute Roland Warren President & CEO Care Net Thomas A. Glessner President National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) Day Gardner President National Black Pro-Life Union Mary Vought Executive Director Senate Conservatives Fund Hon. Joel D. Grewe Executive Director Generation Joshua
Deborah Tilden Co-Founder S.M.A.R.T. Women’s Healthcare – Division of LifeVictory Enterprises LLC
Sister Jane Abeln SMIC Missionary Sisters of Immaculate Conception Christopher Bell President Good Counsel Cole Muzio President Family Policy Alliance of Georgia Esther Ripplinger, MBA Executive Director Human Life of Washington Cynthia Collins Founder SpeakHope Andrew Shirvell, J.D. Founder & Executive Director Florida Voice for the Unborn Joshua Edmonds Executive Director Georgia Life Alliance Amber S. Haskew Director of Public Policy Liberty Counsel Action C. Preston Noell III President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc. John Helmberger Chief Executive Officer Minnesota Family Council David Nammo Executive Director & CEO Christian Legal Society Kimberlee Wood Colby Director Center for Law & Religious Freedom Joe Langfeld Executive Director Human Life Alliance Dorothy Wallis President & CEO Caring to Love Ministries Lois Anderson Executive Director Oregon Right to Life Tami Fitzgerald Executive Director NC Values Coalition Connie Eller, BSSW Founder Missouri Blacks for Life Jim Minnery President Alaska Family Action |