Thank you all for coming today to this essential assembly to preserve our religious liberty. I trust that our state and federal governments will hear our combined petition today—and not just from Concord, but from across the whole nation.
This Administration has launched an all-out war on religious freedom and the dignity of women in America through a new Health and Human Services mandate that forces all employers to provide “free” contraceptives, surgical sterilizations and abortion drugs through their insurance plans. That means private hospitals, schools and other charitable organizations will be forced to pay for these procedures against their deepest held religious beliefs.
Unfortunately, a state law from 1999 already violates these same rights and besieges these same religious hospitals, schools and other charitable organizations in New Hampshire.
The attacks on religious freedom come in different forms. Vaccination choice is an important religious right. Some vaccines violate the religious beliefs of many because fetal cells from aborted children are used in the production of many vaccines. Obamacare requires that health insurance plans also provide these vaccines “FREE.”
It is imperative in the battle to protect religious freedom that we recognize the many aspects of freedom of religion.
It is time for us to stand together and fight back for our right to choose life and liberty. That’s right, freedom means we have a choice, too.
Our state and federal constitutions guarantee our religious freedom and rights of conscience, and those guarantees are not confined to the halls of our churches, synagogues, temples and mosques or the silence of our own minds. All Americans, whether we act as individuals or business owners, have the right to express and live out our religious beliefs in our public lives without sacrificing our hard-earned dollars or our freedom. Our religious freedom comes with us wherever we have a right to be, and that also extends to how we choose to spend our money.
That means, at the very least, there should be a religious exemption in state and federal law that allows employers (and employees) to opt-out of immoral medical coverage and reduce the cost of their health insurance premiums accordingly.
You know, this Administration has this whole War on Women thing backwards. A co-pay is not a bomb. Asking people to pay for their own contraceptive choices is not a war.
In all of history, war has brought death and destruction. It’s clear to me that the true War on Women is the policy that backs them into a corner and gives them no other choice than to kill the innocent life inside them. The true War on Women deludes women into thinking that poisoning their bodies so they cannot naturally conceive a new life is the only way they can get ahead.
Women will only be free when society accepts their fertility, which sometimes results in pregnancy and birth. And all of us, men and women, will only be free when our government respects our choice to honor and protect our religious belief that all life is sacred because it is created by God.
It is for these values that we petition our government today.
