Many of the clinicians the Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) often works with face barriers to providing comprehensive reproductive health care due to religious discrimination from institutions, co-workers, administrators, and lawmakers. This is why RHAP is proud to be a part of the Coalition on Liberty & Justice (CLJ), an alliance of faith-based and secular organizations working together to ensure that public policy protects the religious liberty of everyone regardless of personal beliefs. In light of the recent nomination of Representative Tom Price as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, we must fight harder than ever to ensure that religion does not have a place in public policy and law.

In 2012, Rep. Price, a physician, was asked by ThinkProgress to respond to women who can’t afford birth control without insurance coverage. Dr. Price, who has adamantly opposed the Affordable Care Act (including the mandate requiring employers’ insurance plans to cover birth control for employees), replied, “Bring me one woman who has been left behind… there’s not one. The fact of the matter is, this is a trampling of religious freedom and religious liberty in this country. The president does not have the power to say that your First Amendment rights go away. That’s wrong.” In addition to being factually inaccurate, this statement actually infringes on our First Amendment rights as Americans and is very troubling as we look ahead to the coming years.

Monday, January 16 is Religious Freedom Day (coinciding this year with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Day), a national commemoration of the 1786 signing of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. This Statue was the precursor to the First Amendment, which protects the religious freedom of all Americans—both those who identify as religious and those who do not identify as religious. Religious Freedom Day has commonly been embraced by religious conservatives as a way to share harmful religious narratives with the public. These narratives often become laws and policies that impose one religious viewpoint on all, restricting access to reproductive health care. Dr. Price’s nomination, and the anti-choice incoming administration, only underscores the importance of advocating for the rights of clinicians to practice safely and openly, and for the rights of people everywhere to access reproductive health care free from religious bias and discrimination.

From January 9-16 the Coalition on Liberty & Justice will host a social media campaign using the hashtag, #religiousfreedomis. Keep an eye on RHAP’s social media pages for more details on how you can participate!