53 faith-based and civil rights organizations support the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA)

The Honorable Frank Pallone
Chair
Committee on Energy & Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Doug Collins
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy & Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Anna Eshoo
Chair
Committee on Energy & Commerce
Subcommittee on Health
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Michael Burgess
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy & Commerce
Subcommittee on Health
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representatives Pallone, Walden, Eshoo, and Burgess:

As national faith-based, religious, and civil rights organizations that share a commitment to religious freedom and the separation of religion and government, we write to express our strong and unequivocal support for HR 2975, the Women’s Health Protection Act.

We affirm our nation’s founding principle of religious liberty, which is integrally bound to reproductive freedom. Religious liberty includes the right to follow one’s own faith or moral code in making critical, personal reproductive health decisions, without political interference. While we respect the right of every individual, including our lawmakers, to hold their own personal and religious beliefs, our country’s Constitution demands that no one impose a single religious viewpoint on all through civil law or regulation. The Women’s Health Protection Act is essential legislation that embodies these shared ideals.

The Women’s Health Protection Act is urgently needed. State lawmakers introduced a staggering 304 abortion restrictions in the first three months of 2019 alone, escalating attacks that have produced over 450 laws constraining access to reproductive health care since 2011. This egregious trend has resulted in large swaths of the country losing access to safe, timely abortion care. The Women’s Health Protection Act is an important bill that would enact protections on the federal level to safeguard access to high-quality care and to secure constitutional rights by protecting patients and providers from political or religious interference.

Rather than face onerous barriers due to their economic status, employment status, or zip code, this bill would ensure that each person can make a decision about abortion led by their own circumstances, faith, or moral beliefs. It would also protect the religious liberty of individual health care providers seeking to administer quality care to their patients and enable providers to deliver abortion services free from burdensome restrictions designed to impede access rather than improve patient health.

We believe in compassion, justice, and dignity for all, compelling us to speak out for social justice and the right of every person to access comprehensive, affordable, and equitable reproductive health care. We are committed to ensuring equity and justice for the most marginalized members of our society. Laws that limit the availability of abortion disrespect human dignity, erode constitutional rights, exact far-reaching health and economic consequences, and ignore the moral agency of physicians seeking to provide compassionate care. Furthermore, laws that eliminate options for some based on their geographic location are profoundly unjust, pushing care out of reach for those living in poverty and in rural areas, people of color, LGBTQ people, and young people. We cannot remain idle as state laws transform our country into a map of “haves and have-nots” with regard to access to reproductive health services.

Every day, we support equal, fair, and comprehensive access to health care and respect for personal decision-making. We support the Women’s Health Protection Act as a means to this end and urge you and your colleagues to do the same. It is the right thing to do.

Respectfully,
A Critical Mass: Women Celebrating Eucharist
African American Ministers In Action (AAMIA)
ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal
Ameinu
American Atheists
American Humanist Association
Anti-Defamation League
Avodah
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Catholics for Choice
CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Chicago Women-Church
Clergy Advocacy Board of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
CORPUS
Disciples Justice Action Network
Episcopal Women’s Caucus
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Global Justice Institute (MCC)
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.
Human Rights Campaign
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA)
Jewish Women International
Jews United for Justice
Keshet
Methodist Federation for Social Action
Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC)
Muslim Advocates
Muslims for Progressive Values
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Coalition of American Nuns (NCAN)
National Council of Jewish Women
National Organization for Women
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
People For the American Way
Rabbinical Assembly
Reconstructing Judaism
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice of Connecticut, Inc.
Religious Institute
Society for Humanistic Judaism
Tivnu: Building Justice
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Union for Reform Judaism
Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation
United Church of Christ, Justice, and Witness Ministries
Voices for Progress
Women of Reform Judaism
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER)
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism
Women’s Ordination Conference