Religious Coalition for Conscience Protection to Address HHS Mandate

A group of national religious leaders and scholars, including Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Russell D. Moore of the Ethical and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, will release an open letter calling for religious freedom in light of the finalized Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, July 2, during a 2 p.m. EST media conference.

The leaders will call HHS to expand conscience protections to cover any organization or individual that has religious or moral objectives to covering, providing or enabling access to the mandated drugs and services. They will also ask Congress to take measures to prevent future breaches of religious freedom.

Speakers will include Archbishop Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Anne Hendershott, professor of sociology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio; and Yuri Mantilla, chairman of the Justice Initiative of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

The media conference will be held in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club, located at 529 14th Street NW in Washington. For more information about the event or the open letter, please contact Matthew Hawkins at mhawkins@erlc.com. For interviews with Archbishop Lori, contact Sister Mary Ann Walsh at mwalsh@usccb.org