ERLC Staff

NASHVILLE (BP) – This week, a federal court in Texas ruled that it is unlawful to force healthcare professionals to violate their consciences for gender transition procedures. This is good news for children, families and Christians who want to continue serving in roles without conforming to “the latest fashionable ‘right side of history’ cause.”

NASHVILLE (BP) – Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, states have enacted 1,313 abortion restrictions – 566 of them since the beginning of 2011. But this year alone, there have been an additional 561 abortion restrictions proposed in state legislatures – including 165 abortion bans, introduced across 47 states (all counts current as of June 7, 2021). As the Guttmacher Institute notes, 83 of those restrictions have already been enacted across 16 states, including 10 bans.

NASHVILLE (BP) – On Tuesday (April 6), Arkansas became the first U.S. state to prohibit doctors from providing gender transition procedures for children. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP) - La semana pasada, los comités de Senado sobre Salud, Educación, Trabajo y Pensiones (HELP) y Finanzas tuvieron audiencias sobre la nominación de Xavier Becerra para secretario del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS). Becerra ha atraído una fuerte oposición de los estadounidenses provida y de los defensores de la libertad religiosa.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP) – Last week, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) and Finance committees held hearings on the nomination of Xavier Becerra for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Becerra has drawn significant opposition from pro-life Americans and religious liberty advocates.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled for a floor vote on a controversial bill titled the Equality Act. This legislation, filed as H.R. 5, seeks to expand the definition of “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI) and would revise every title of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add these categories as new protected classes in the federal code. Last Congress, the Equality Act passed in the House, but the bill died in the Senate.

Located just forty miles north of the border in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Care Net Pregnancy Center seeks to partner with their clients by confirming pregnancy, extending comprehensive support, and cultivating healthy relationships to help them flourish.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Several weeks ago, the ERLC was presented with an opportunity to join a brief written by lawyers at the Thomas More Society, in support of one of our SBC entities. We decided to join the brief because of the importance of the underlying religious liberty issues at stake.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Southern Baptist leaders in Texas have joined the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in calling for a repeal of the parking and transportation tax on non-profit organizations, including houses of worship found in the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017. Nathan Lino, pastor of Northeast Houston Baptist Church in Houston, Texas and Robert B. Sloan, president of Houston Baptist University, published an op-ed in today's (Dec. 19) Houston Chronicle calling the provision fundamentally troubling for the future of religious freedom. "There are important reasons why non-profits and houses of worship are not taxed in the United States" write Lino and Sloan. "The bright line that separates the domain of church from the domain of state must be guarded. One of the most fundamental powers the state has is the authority to tax. Houses of worship ought not be taxed because houses of worship ought not be regulated by the government."

NASHVILLE (BP) -- President Obama has signed into law a bill from Congress to block imports "made with convict labor, forced labor, or indentured labor."