RELIGIOUS FREEDOM MUST DO NO HARM

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services released a disturbing new plan that redefines life as beginning at conception and removes all references to LGBTQ people and their health needs – while heavily emphasizing the role of religiously affiliated organizations.

This is yet another case of this administration treating religion as a license to discriminate against women and LGBTQ people.

Religious freedom is a fundamental American value and a basic tenant of our Constitution, but it can’t be used as a weapon to cause harm to others.

This is why the ACLU is throwing it's full support behind the Do No Harm Act. This bill – currently in front of Congress – amends the too-frequently-misused Religious Freedom Restoration Act to ensure that protections for religious freedom can’t be used as an excuse to harm others.

Contact your representative today and tell them to co-sponsor the Do No Harm Act.

This bill would clarify that the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act can’t be used to exempt any business or individual from laws that:

*Prohibit discrimination
*Require equal pay
*Protect child welfare
*Guarantee access to health care

This latest news out of HHS follows a pattern of attacks on women’s health and LGBTQ equality under the guise of religious liberty. Most recently, the notorious “birth control rules” authorize employers and universities to deny employees and students contraceptive coverage based on religious or moral objections.

And the Justice Department’s sweeping new guidance to federal agencies encourages a dangerously broad reading of religious freedom laws that could endanger women, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities.

The Do No Harm Act furthers true religious freedom. It clarifies that we’re all free to practice our faith, but not to use religion as an excuse to cause harm to others

The Do No Harm Act would limit the dangerous ways we have been seeing the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) used to justify discriminatory acts in this country over the past two decades.

Specifically, the Do No Harm Act would clarify that the RFRA can’t be used to exempt anyone from laws that prohibit discrimination, require equal pay, protect child welfare, or guarantee access to health care.

The Do No Harm Act furthers true religious freedom.

We’re all free to believe – or not – as we see fit, and to practice our faith. What we can’t do is use religion as an excuse to discriminate against or harm others.

Tell your members of Congress you want them to co-sponsor the Do No Harm Act today.

- Louise Melling
ACLU Deputy Legal Director

Tell Congress: Pass the Do No Harm Act

The petition to Congress reads:  “Pass the Do No Harm Act to ensure that no one can use the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act to justify discrimination.” Add your name:

When right-wing, anti-LGBTQ extremists want to discriminate against LGBTQ people across the country, they often use religion as an excuse. Unfortunately, there is a federal law that helps protect their bigotry: The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The federal RFRA was designed to protect the rights of religious minorities. Today, it is mainly used to justify discrimination, and state legislators and governors have used it to justify enacting similar legislation on a state level across the country. We have a chance to fix that. Progressive champion Rep. Joe Kennedy III, along with Rep. Bobby Scott and 50 other co-sponsors, has introduced the Do No Harm Act – long-overdue legislation to reaffirm that one person’s religious freedom can never be used to deny another one’s civil rights.1 Tell Congress: Stand with Rep. Joe Kennedy III. Pass the Do No Harm Act. Click here to sign the petition. RFRAs are helping right-wing bigots and lawmakers across the country refuse medical treatment to women and LGBTQ people, deny women reproductive health care, justify discrimination in hiring, override nondiscrimination laws, and challenge the legitimacy of state laws against child abuse and domestic violence.2 In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court made an extreme interpretation of RFRAs in the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case. It ruled that for-profit businesses could exclude birth control from their employees’ health-care plans even though the Affordable Care Act mandated a birth control benefit.3 In other words, the Supreme Court allowed Hobby Lobby to withhold basic and vital health care services from their employees all across the country based on the owner’s religious beliefs. The Do No Harm Act would explicitly prevent the federal RFRA from being used by agencies and organizations that receive government funding to justify or defend discrimination in cases of wages and collective bargaining, access to health care, public accommodations, child labor and abuse, or social services.4 This legislation would create a clear distinction between religious freedom and a license to discriminate. Under the Do No Harm Act, government clerks would be prohibited from refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples; hospitals that receive government funding would be mandated to provide equal access to appropriate health care to women and transgender people; foster and adoption agencies wouldn’t be able to refuse to work with same-sex couples; and businesses wouldn’t be able to deny reproductive health care to their employees. Our lawmakers never meant for the federal RFRA to become a tool hateful right-wing bigots abuse to justify discrimination. The Do No Harm Act is a chance to fix it. Tell Congress: Stand with Rep. Joe Kennedy III. Pass the Do No Harm Act. Click here to sign the petition. Passing the Do No Harm Act will be an uphill battle, especially with our current bigoted, Republican-held Congress. But now is the moment to build momentum and make sure that all politicians know that the vast majority of Americans support equal protection under the law for LGBTQ people. Standing for equal rights is standing on the right side of history. We have to make sure that Congress feels the pressure to stand with us. Tell Congress: Pass the Do No Harm Act. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/do_no_harm_lgbtq?t=8&akid=25189%2E3130208%2EDHqWp3 -Tessa Levine, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images References: 1. ACLU, “ACLU Statement on Reintroduction of Do No Harm Act,” July 13, 2017. 2. IaN Millhiser,“If You Want To Know The Problem With Indiana’s ‘Religious Freedom’ Law, Just Ask George W. Bush,” Think Progress, March 30, 2015. 3. Jennifer C. Pizer, “Do No Harm Act Re-Introduced in Congress,” Lambda Legal, July 13, 2017. 4. Rep. Bobby Scott, “Scott, Kennedy Introduce Amendment to Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” May 18, 2016.