The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

ERLC Urges Congress to Enact the  Conscience Protection Act

In an op-ed for USA Today, ERLC President Russell Moore and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archdiocese of New York City and the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, explain why Americans should support the Conscience Protection Act, a measure that is expected to be included in government funding legislation currently before Congress.

Here is what you should know about this essential pro-life and religious freedom legislation. 

What is the Conscience Protection Act?

The Conscience Protection Act is a legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) that will protect health care providers who decline to be involved in abortions as a matter of conscience.

What does the Conscience Protection Act do?

Under current law, the only recourse healthcare providers who are discriminated against because they refuse, as a matter of conscience, to assist or perform abortions is to file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Conscience Protection Act will allow healthcare providers the ability to file a civil suit to seek relief from discrimination without having to file a complaint with the government. In addition, the legislation codifies the Weldon Amendment and the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion.

What is the Weldon Amendment?

The Weldon Amendment is a law that prevents the government from discriminating against hospitals, doctors, nurses, and insurance plans that decline to provide or pay for abortions. 

Originally passed in 2005, the Weldon Amendment provides that “[n]one of the funds made available in this Act [making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education] may be made available to a Federal agency or program, or to a state or local government, if such agency, program, or government subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.” It also defines “health care entity” to include “an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.”

Why is the Conscience Protection Act necessary if we already have the Weldon and Hyde Amendments?

The Weldon and Hyde Amendments have no “right of action,” which would allow those whose conscience rights have been violated to go to court. Instead, the protection is entirely dependent on HHS. During the Obama presidency, the HHS sometimes refused to fully enforce these laws and in other cases made them a low priority.

The HHS was limited in the type of action it could take penalize an institution that violated conscience rights but did not directly receive federal funds.

Has anyone actually been discriminated against for refusing to do abortions?

As Jeff Pickering noted in an article for ERLC, several individuals and organization have been discriminated against for refusing to participate in abortions. For example, in 2009, nurse Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York was forced by her superiors to assist in the dismemberment abortion of a 22-week-old baby. When she objected, she was threatened with the loss of her job. Also, in 2011 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Migration and Refugee Services was denied an HHS grant renewal for serving survivors of human trafficking because USCCB would not commit to referring their survivor clients to healthcare providers that covered abortion.

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to D.H. Dilbeck, author of Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet, about the legacy of this heroic abolitionist. On the Capitol Conversations podcast, Greg Glod from Right on Crime joins Matt Hawkins to discuss criminal justice reform, the DC team chats about current policies on the ERLC’s front burner ) including the Conscience Protection Act) and about Billy Graham’s lying in honor at the U.S. Capitol. On the Countermoves podcast, Andrew Walker interviews Heritage Foundation Scholar Ryan T. Anderson on his new book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. And on the ERLC podcast, David E. Prince, Daniel Darling, Phillip Bethancourt, Chip Dean, and Naomi Overton discuss how to talk to your kids about difficult issues.

Other Issues

Bioethics

The hidden costs of IVF: heartbreak, health risks, and helplessness
Naomi Whittaker, Mercatornet

Treating the underlying causes of infertility is a better way.

America’s Surrogacy Bump: Is Fertility a Blessing to Be Shared?
Kate Shellnutt, Christianity Today

Pro-life carriers and Christian bioethicists navigate the patchy landscape for assisted reproduction.

Christianity and Culture

5 facts about U.S. evangelical Protestants
Gregory A. Smith and David Masci, Pew Research

As the country remembers Graham, here are five facts about American evangelical Protestants.

Vatican trains exorcists as demonic possession claims rise
Catholic News Agency

With reported demonic possessions on the rise in Italy, the Vatican is hosting a week-long training to better prepare exorcists for ministry. Catholic leaders have said that the country needs more exorcists, and better training.

Creation Groans, but God Hears: Many Species Face ‘Thinning of Life’
Cara Daneel, Christianity Today

On World Wildlife Day, conservationists reflect on biblical ways of dealing with eco-anxiety.

Education

Schools Safer Now Than They Were in 1990s, According to New Study
Kyle Perisic, The Daily Signal

“The thing to remember is that these are extremely rare events, and no matter what you can come up with to prevent it, the shooter will have a workaround,” a professor at Northeastern University says of school shootings.

Schools preparing for active shooters the wrong way, experts say
Whitney Lloyd, ABC News

“Run, hide, fight” has been the Department of Homeland Security’s best advice to people who find themselves in mass shooting situations since the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, but some experts say hiding is the worst thing victims can do when bullets start flying and recommend DHS drop that advice altogether in favor of just "Run, fight."

International Issues

The end of international adoption?
Kiley Crossland, WORLD

New regulations and fees announced by the U.S. State Department in February could spell the end of intercountry adoptions in the United States, according to adoption advocates.

Advice for the Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom
Paul Marshall, Providence

The ambassador will operate in three contexts that in varying degrees seek to thwart him from promoting religious freedom.

The “Pence rule” is trending in South Korea as #MeToo takes hold
Isabella Steger, Quartz

Following a series of explosive allegations of sexual harassment in South Korea in recent weeks—with the latest bringing down one of the country’s most prominent politicians—some Korean men are trying to figure out how to navigate gender relations in the world of #MeToo.

Sexuality Issues

Transgender teens: New study 'no surprise,' says ethicist
David Roach, Baptist Press

A medical journal's finding that the number of transgender teens may be three times greater than previously thought should not shock believers, says a Southern Baptist ethicist, but it should summon them to ministry.

Sex Change: Physically Impossible, Psychosocially Unhelpful, and Philosophically Misguided
Ryan T. Anderson, Public Discourse

Modern medicine can’t reassign sex physically, and attempting to do so doesn’t produce good outcomes psychosocially. Here is the evidence.

Porn’s “Butterfly Effect”: A New Podcast Exposes Porn’s Unexpected Consequences
Mary Rose Somarriba, Institute for Family Studies

How culpable are porn execs, producers, actors, and even adult consumers in this problem of child exposure to porn?