Republicans misconstrue religious freedom

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the Supreme Court will hear a case in which Kentucky’s attorney general wants to appeal in defense of the state’s 2018 law banning abortions. The fact an anti-abortion law is on the books in Kentucky in the first place is the real issue. Religious conservatives have flipped the religious liberty idea in order to mix church and state and pass laws coercing women to accept the opinion of religious people about when life begins. Our country’s founders meant for religion to be protected privately, not in government. As author Coy Barefoot writes: “religious freedom stood for both a freedom of religion PRIVATELY practiced AND a freedom from religion IMPOSED BY GOVERNMENT”.

Pro-life activists have every right to protest abortion peacefully; they do not have a right to pass laws enforcing their religious opinion on others.