Why this religious freedom expert is closely following the Senate’s birth control bill

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In the wake of the July 13 shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for a better kind of politics, for focusing on points of connection rather than points of difference.

Now, the Senate has an opportunity to embrace that approach with a bill that could turn down the temperature on a culture war debate. But they may let it slip away in favor of the partisan bickering we’ve come to know so well, according to Robin Fretwell Wilson, an expert on religious freedom law.

For the past several weeks, Wilson and her team at the University of Illinois College of Law have been researching the Right to Contraception Act, which would protect access to birth control. It was put forward by Democratic leaders who want to limit the impact of potential future Supreme Court rulings on health care and women’s rights.

Although research has shown that Republicans and Democrats show very similar, very high levels of support for birth control access, Senate Republicans blocked the measure in June, arguing that it’s not needed.

Democrats had almost certainly counted on them doing so, political commentators said, noting that the Right to Contraception Act was likely a messaging bill rather than a legitimate proposal.

Wilson, who has worked closely with Utah and other states in recent years on laws dealing with religious freedom, LGBTQ rights and adoption, watched all this unfold with frustration.

While she doesn’t believe that birth control is as threatened as some Democrats make it sound, she also thinks the Right to Contraception Act could be a valuable piece of legislation — and a chance for senators to prove that bipartisanship is still possible.

“This is eminently doable,” Wilson said.

But doing it would require more than changing some Republican senators’ minds, she said. Democrats would have to agree to simplify the bill and ensure that it wouldn’t overrule federal or state-level laws regarding religious freedom and parental consent. (She went into detail about her concerns with the current version of the Right to Contraception Act in a recent column for the Deseret News.)

The fight over this bill is part of a larger battle over religious freedom rights, in general, and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in particular.

As I wrote at the end of last year, that federal law once unified Democrats and Republicans, but it’s now caught in the middle of partisan strife. As they did with the Right to Contraception Act, Democrats are increasingly trying to exempt new policy proposals from the law’s protections, and, by doing so, almost guaranteeing that Republicans will object.

Passing a simplified version of the Right to Contraception Act would not only enable senators to back up their talk about unity with action, but it would turn down the temperature of some of the recent fights over religious freedom, Wilson said.

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Person of the week: Pope Benedict XVI

In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI chose to step down from a position of immense power because he felt that he was no longer the right person for the job.

Sound familiar?

Benedict came to some Catholics’ minds on Sunday when President Joe Biden announced he too would leave the spotlight earlier than originally planned. In an essay for America magazine about the parallels between their stories, Michael O’Loughlin argued that both men displayed an incredible level of humility.

Benedict had served as pope for nearly eight years when he made his historic decision to retire. (Popes are generally expected to serve until their death.) Pope Francis was chosen to succeed Benedict, who became pope emeritus.

Benedict died about 18 months ago, nearly 10 years after he retired. He will be remembered for his scholarly writings, his service to the church and, of course, his decision to step down, as I previously reported.

What I’m reading ...

It’s been a pleasure to get to know pastor and religion scholar Ryan Burge in recent years. We’ve talked about his experience leading a very small congregation in southern Illinois (near where I grew up) and his expertise on religion trends in the U.S. On Sunday, Burge led his final worship service at his longtime church, which voted to close due to low engagement. My friend Peter Smith at The Associated Press wrote a beautiful story on the congregation.

Christianity Today had reporters on the ground in Pennsylvania last week to speak with the faith groups grappling with the fallout from the Trump rally shooting. The resulting story, which includes a description of a memorial service for Corey Comperatore, is a testament to the power of faith in the midst of tragedy.

Religion books, including faith-based memoirs and special editions of the Bible, are having a moment, according to Publishers Weekly. The article highlighted data showing that “religion was the best performing category among all adult nonfiction subject areas in the first half of the year.”

Odds and ends

As I did when former President Donald Trump left office in early 2021, I’m planning a story about Biden’s religious freedom legacy for the end of the year (now that we know he’s no longer seeking reelection.) What other stories would you like to see about Biden and religion before he leaves office?

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is the newest commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. He was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. I interviewed Rabbi Soloveichik in 2018 when he was honored by Becket for his efforts to protect people of faith.