Religious Coalition for Conscience Protection to Address HHS Mandate

WASHINGTON—Agroup of national religious leaders and scholars, including Archbishop WilliamE. Lori of Baltimore and Russell D. Moore of the Ethical and Religious LibertyCommission of the Southern Baptist Convention, will release an open lettercalling 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 leaderswill call HHS to expand conscience protections to cover any organization orindividual that has religious or moral objectives to covering, providing orenabling access to the mandated drugs and services. They will also ask Congressto take measures to prevent future breaches of religious freedom.

Speakers willinclude Archbishop Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops'Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; Moore, president of the SouthernBaptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Anne Hendershott,professor of sociology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio; and YuriMantilla, chairman of the Justice Initiative of the National Hispanic ChristianLeadership Conference. 

The mediaconference will be held in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club, locatedat 529 14th Street NW in Washington. For more information about the event orthe open letter, please contact Matthew Hawkins at @email. Forinterviews with Archbishop Lori, contact Sister Mary Ann Walsh at @email.

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Keywords: HHSmandate, religious liberty, USCCB, conscience protection, Southern BaptistConvention, Archbishop William E. Lori, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, AdHoc Committee on Religious Liberty, Fortnight for Freedom

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