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Action Alert Archive
Take action to promote federal court reform!
Please take a moment to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support three bills aimed at reforming the federal judicial system. Recent events have struck yet another blow to the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court, with the court’s ultraextremist majority revealed to be improperly meeting with litigants, praying and allegedly leaking details of their upcoming judgments.
This week, FFRF wrote a second letter to Chief Justice John Roberts asking for an official investigation. Justices are not bound by any ethical standards, unlike lower court judges, and the high court has been packed by Christian nationalists. Meanwhile, lower federal courts are massively overworked and have also been packed with ideologues.
Three federal bills would address these issues. Please take a moment to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support these bills. Use our automated system today, before the legislators go home for the holidays.
More »Take Action: Tell Gov. Stitt that claiming Oklahoma for Jesus is not OK
Tell Gov. Stitt that claiming Oklahoma for Jesus is not OK
Please voice your concerns regarding a recent prayer Gov. Kevin Stitt made after winning reelection. Stitt stated in a public prayer that “we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus.”
FFRF has written a letter to Stitt voicing concerns with this prayer. In the letter, Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Anne Laurie Gaylor remind Stitt that the country was founded with a secular Constitution that protects citizens from state-enforced religion. They also call attention to the fact that by claiming Oklahoma for Jesus, Stitt is alienating secular and non-Christian citizens in Oklahoma and reducing them to second-class status.
Tell Stitt that he does not have the right to claim Oklahoma in the name of his personal religion, and to abide by the secular Constitution that he swore an oath to uphold.
Read FFRF’s letter to Gov. Stitt here.
More »TAKE ACTION! Ask your House member to support resolution defending Iranians against theocratic tyranny
Please take a moment to use our automated system to contact your member of Congress and ask them to support House Resolution 118. This resolution, which supports “the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular and non-nuclear Republic of Iran,” would send a message condemning recent harrowing developments.
The Iranian Parliament recently voted overwhelmingly to execute peaceful protesters who object to the ruling regime’s archaic religious law that women remain covered in public. While the United States has limited power to influence such decisions, we must do all we can to support those in Iran who are fighting for freedom of conscience, and to condemn the Iranian government’s brutal actions.
This is a stark reminder of what can happen when religion and government are mixed. Please click “TAKE ACTION” below and use our automated system to contact your representative!
MORE INFO
In an absolutely stunning and abhorrent decision, the theocratic Iranian Parliament has voted to impose the death penalty on all protesters. 227 of the 290 members signed this egregious letter of damnation for those who have been arrested for protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini in September at the hands of Iran’s morality police. There are roughly 15,000 Iranian citizens in custody simply for protesting Ms. Amini’s murder. These are nearly 15,000 lives that are in jeopardy for speaking out against their barbaric government.
For far too long, the Iranian government has committed atrocities with complete impunity. Their unchecked violation of human rights must be stopped. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking you to urge your House representative to denounce these heinous, unjust sentences by supporting House Res. 118.
More »Tell Gov. Lee to rescind Day of Prayer Proclamation
Gov. Bill Lee has designated this Friday, Sept. 30, as a “Day of Prayer, Humility, and Fasting” for Tennesseans. Please take a moment to contact the governor with our automated system and tell him to rescind this improper and offensive proclamation.
FFRF sent Lee a letter about the proclamation. In the letter, Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor inform the governor that he does not speak for all Tennesseans when he says that “we” acknowledge God’s sovereignty and ask for God’s forgiveness. The letter also educates Lee about the importance of a secular government, which protects the rights of conscience of everyone rather than favoring those who share the governor’s personal religious beliefs.
Please click the "TAKE ACTION" button below to use our automated system to contact Gov. Lee. After entering your contact information, you can review our suggested talking points or write your own. For best effect, be polite and concise.
More »Take action: Tell your SC state senator to reject abortion ban
South Carolina lawmakers are on the verge of passing a near-total abortion ban. Please take a moment to urge your state senator to reject this catastrophic bill.
House Bill 5399 would ban all abortions in South Carolina, other than narrow exceptions in the first trimester for cases of rape and incest, and for the life of the pregnant person. The initial version did not even include those protections. Hardline zealot legislators are still pushing for a total ban even as colleagues point out that doing so would force young girls to carry to term a pregnancy that results from rape by a family member.
Secular voices must speak out in force against these religious-based assaults on reproductive freedom. HB 5399 would create senseless chaos, suffering, and inequity, and endanger the health, lives and future of South Carolina women.
The bill has a Senate hearing next Tuesday, and will likely face a vote by the full state senate soon after, so your senator needs to hear from you right away. Use our automated system with suggested talking points, or write your own. For best results, be concise and polite.
Please tell your state senator to vote no to help keep abortion care available in South Carolina by pressing the “Take Action” button below.
More »URGENT: Ask your U.S. senators to pass bill protecting abortion rights
A bipartisan bill securing a federal right to abortion and contraception has just been introduced in the Senate. The bill, called the Reproductive Freedom For All Act, needs your immediate support to meet an urgent crisis.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, it threw our nation and reproductive rights in dozens of states into crisis. Please tell your senators you want action now!
The bill introduced this week would prohibit any state regulation that imposes an undue burden on women’s access to abortion care before viability and bar restrictions on post-viability abortions necessary to protect the life and health of the woman. (The bill has gained bipartisan support by a compromise preserving conscience protections allowing providers with religious objections to opt-out.) The only organized opposition to abortion rights is religious in nature, so abortion rights are a state/church issue.
Please tell your senators to vote yes to help keep abortion care and contraception available in all U.S. states by pressing the “Take Action” button below. Or you can call the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and you will be connected to the senator of your choosing.
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Urge Biden to declare a National Health Emergency to ensure abortion rights
FFRF asks you to urge President Biden to declare a National Health Emergency to protect reproductive rights and take more steps to ensure that everyone who needs it has access to safe and legal abortion care. The only organized opposition to abortion rights is religious in nature, so abortion rights are a state/church issue.
Biden’s administration should provide reassurances to those seeking abortion care, contraception, in vitro fertilization or other forms of reproductive health care that the federal government will be there to protect these essential rights. There must be widespread, and widely understood, strong federal protections to limit the damage done by lawmakers aiming to impose their religious ideologies onto the private lives of other Americans.
Please take a moment to contact President Biden and urge him to use his executive powers to put abortion and other reproductive health care protections in place for federal citizens.
Read FFRF’s letter to Biden here.
Please press “Take Action” to be taken to the White House's “Contact Us” page and feel free to copy and paste the talking points below or write your own.
Talking Points
Please declare a National Health Emergency to protect abortion rights, and take further executive action in response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Extremist anti-abortion lawmakers around the country are focused on capitalizing on the demise of Roe to clamp down on reproductive rights in new and terrifying ways, now that they know the U.S. Supreme Court will not stop them. We appreciate the steps you’ve taken to date, but urge you to step up and fight for the basic human right to self-autonomy. Thank you.
Take action! Urge your rep to sponsor ‘Health Share Transparency Act’
Please use our automated system to contact your U.S. representative now to urge them to co-sponsor a vital bill to protect consumers from duplicitous health care sharing ministries.
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, is seeking original co-sponsors before he introduces the “Health Share Transparency Act.” We’re sending this request to you because your member of Congress is a likely sponsor whose support will increase the chances that the bill advances.
Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSMs) are a form of health coverage (but not insurance) in which members — who typically share a religious belief — make monthly payments to cover expenses of other members. HCSMs don’t have to comply with the consumer protections of the Affordable Care Act, don’t have to cover routine care or medications, can drop coverage for almost any reason (including a preexisting condition), aren’t regulated and can hide information about their terms. HCSMs are jeopardizing the health and well-being of a reported 1.5 million Americans through deceptive marketing practices and their systemic failure to provide necessary products and services for the consumers to whom they offer “coverage.”
Please take a moment now to contact your rep and urge him or her to co-sponsor the Health Share Transparency Act.
(If you have not previously signed up for action alerts using FFRF’s new system, which debuted Feb. 3, 2022, there is a one-time requirement to fill in your name, email and address. Then our system will remember you and connect you to the correct governmental offices. (If you move addresses, please update this information accordingly.)
More »Please thank Haven City Councilmembers for removing “In God We Trust” from cop cars
The Haven, Kan., City Council voted to remove “In God We Trust” decals from police vehicles last week thanks to a measure introduced by Councilmember Sandra Williams. She emphasized that the police department was an improper place to be having conversations about God.
“In God We Trust” was belatedly adopted as a motto when President Eisenhower signed legislation at the behest of the Knights of Columbus and other religious entities, which undertook a national lobbying campaign during the height of 1950s zealotry. The original inclusionary U.S. motto, chosen by a distinguished committee of Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, is the Latin E Pluribus Unum (From Many, [Come] One). As FFRF principal founder Anne Gaylor always pointed out, the religious motto isn't even correct: “To be accurate it would have to read ‘In God Some of Us Trust,’ and wouldn’t that be silly?”
Please take the time to contact the Haven City Councilmembers to thank them for voting to unanimously remove the exclusionary motto from the police cars.
To contact the Haven City Council, the members’ names, emails and phone numbers can be found here.
TALKING POINTS
As a nonreligious Kansan, I want to thank you for standing up for secular government by voting to remove “In God We Trust” decals from Haven police vehicles. Councilmember Sandra Williams was correct in saying that the police department was an inappropriate forum to discuss God. Thank you for standing up for our secular Constitution.
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Take Action! Protect abortion rights, contact your Senators, rally!
In light of the revelations last night that a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade has the support of a majority of Supreme Court justices, FFRF is asking you to act! Roe v. Wade protects a fundamental right imperiled by religiously motivated politicians and the Supreme Court majority.
Here are immediate steps you can take to flex your secular support for abortion rights.
Contact your U.S. senator now to urge passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (HR 3755), which has passed the House but is languishing in the Senate. It would codify the protections of Roe v. Wade even if the Supreme Court overturns it, as looks inevitable. Take a moment below to use our automated system to make your voice heard.
It’s vital that candidates, public officials and judges see massive resistance to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Rallies are being called around the nation today at 5 p.m. (your time) in town squares, federal courthouses and buildings. It’s free to sign up at Planned Parenthood’s website to find out what’s happening today or in the future in your community.
Read FFRF’s statement for other constructive ways to act and Barbara Alvarez’s helpful blog on how to speak up.
If you have not previously signed up for action alerts using FFRF’s new system, which debuted Feb. 3, 2022, there is a one-time requirement to fill in your name, email and address. Then our system will remember you and connect you to the correct governmental offices. (If you move addresses, please update this information accordingly.)
Tell Congress now: We need a National Day of Reason
Congress has named the first Thursday in May as the “National Day of Prayer,” an unconstitutional law the Freedom From Religion Foundation has litigated but was unable to halt. But now we and you can fight back!
Please take a minute to support landmark legislation calling on Congress to establish this upcoming Wednesday, May 4, as National Day of Reason.
Led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a number of national legislators are championing a resolution proclaiming an annual National Day of Reason. Sponsors of prior years’ resolutions include Reps. Jared Huffman, Mark Pocan, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Jerry McNerney and Pramila Jayapal, among the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
The resolution, scheduled to be introduced shortly, recognizes the central importance of reason in the betterment of humanity and makes clear the practical implications of straying from an evidence-based policy.
If you have not previously signed up for action alerts using FFRF’s new system, which debuted Feb. 3, 2022, there is a one-time requirement to fill in your name, email and address. Then our system will remember you and connect you to the correct governmental offices. (If you move addresses, please update this information accordingly.)
More »Take action! Tell Rapid City Area Schools Board to stop the prayers
The Rapid City Area Schools Board must end its unconstitutional practice of opening its meetings with prayer.
FFRF is asking you to prod the board to end this unconstitutional practice that it started in October. While allowing local religious leaders to deliver prayers has been found permissible in the context of legislative meetings, multiple courts have made it clear that prayers are impermissible as part of school board meetings.
The Rapid City Area Schools board includes student representative members present at meetings.
Urge board members to keep official prayers out of school board meetings — and to keep school-sponsored religion out of schools.
Read FFRF's letter to the district here.
Contact board members by email and please feel free to use our talking points:
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Talking Points
As a South Dakotan, I am concerned that the board is violating the Constitution by trying to institute prayers at its meetings. The board should respect the rights of all Rapid City area parents, students and the community by not having prayer at its meetings. Thank you.
More »Say “thank you” to your rep for co-sponsoring Thomas Paine Memorial Resolution
Your member of Congress, Rep. Julia Brownley, is one of the newest co-sponsors of the Thomas Paine Memorial Resolution. The legislation will begin the process of constructing a monument in the District of Columbia in honor of Thomas Paine, an 18th-century freethinker who wrote famous pamphlets such as Common Sense and The Age of Reason.
Please use our automated system to thank Rep. Julia Brownley for taking part in honoring Thomas Paine’s legacy. You can use our suggested talking points, or create your own.
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Tell Osceola County School Board official prayer is STILL wrong
The Osceola County School Board recently ended its unconstitutional practice of opening its meetings with prayer. However, it’s considering a proposal on Tuesday, March 8, to reinstate the prayers.
FFRF is asking you to prod the members to stand by their decision to end this unconstitutional practice. While allowing local religious leaders to deliver prayers has been found permissible in the context of legislative meetings, multiple courts have made it clear that prayers are impermissible as part of school board meetings.
Urge Osceola county school board members to keep official prayers out of school board meetings and keep school-sponsored religion out of schools.
Read FFRF’s letter to the district here.
Contact board members by their email and please feel free to use our talking points:
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Talking Points
As an Osceola County community resident, I am concerned that the board is violating the Constitution by trying to continue instituting prayers at its meetings. I believe you made the right decision when ending the divisive practice. The board should stand by its decision and respect the rights of all Osceola County parents, students and community by not reinstating prayer at its meetings. Thank you.
More »Contact your state senator today to save abortion rights in Fla.
FFRF is asking you to quickly ask your state senator to vote against HB 5, a bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks.
Such a blatantly religiously influenced bill should not be allowed to proceed and take effect.
This bill, which is unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade, is similar to the Mississippi ban awaiting an early summer decision by the Supreme Court. The bill has already passed the Florida House, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has signaled his support for it, so the Senate is our last chance to stop it.
This law would affect the most vulnerable people in Florida. Please urge your state senator to stand up for constitutionally protected reproductive healthcare rights by voting against this bill.
If you have not previously signed up for action alerts using FFRF’s new system, which debuted Feb. 3, 2022, there is a one-time requirement to fill in your name, email and address. Then our system will remember you and connect you to the correct governmental offices. (If you move addresses, please update this information accordingly.)
Click on "Take Action" to FFRF's new Action Center. Once you sign in, click "Contact your state senator today to save abortion rights in Fla." on the left.
More »Take Action! Urge your state senator to vote against discriminatory RFRA bill.
An Iowa Senate committee has approved a bill that would drastically expand religious privilege in the state.
The bill, SF 2284, is a state version of the federal law called RFRA, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This discriminatory bill died last year, but we need your help to make sure it doesn’t become law this year.
The federal RFRA law is directly responsible for the U.S. Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby debacle, allowing religious business owners to avoid following laws that they claim conflict with their religious beliefs. State RFRAs, based on the federal version, are emboldening corporations and business owners to discriminate against LGBTQ people, religious minorities, the nonreligious — and any other group their religion declares inferior.
The Iowa Senate will soon consider this dangerous measure. Please use our automated system to contact your state senator and tell them to oppose SF 2284. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
Talking Points
Please oppose SF 2284 (previously SF 2170), which is a state RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act). The federal RFRA law is directly responsible for the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby debacle, allowing religious business owners to avoid following laws that they say conflict with their religious beliefs. State RFRAs, based on the federal version, embolden corporations and business owners to discriminate against LGBTQ people, religious minorities, the nonreligious and any other group their religion declares inferior.
Despite their name, RFRAs are bad for religious freedom, allowing discrimination against religious minorities. Other states that have passed RFRAs have reeled from the economic blowback as major companies and grassroots organizers alike have pushed for statewide boycotts based on the discriminatory rule. This was perhaps most memorably seen in Indiana, when then-Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill into law and the backlash was so severe that he scrambled to “fix” the bill, leaving discriminatory evangelicals feeling betrayed. Indiana would have been far better off if it had never passed the bill. Thank you for opposing this discriminatory bill.
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Take action! Urge your state senator to vote against discriminatory bill
Arizona Senate Bill 1399 has passed through a committee and will soon be voted on by the state Senate. It would allow adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate on the basis of religion. They could, for example, refuse to work with parents or children based on their race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Please take some time to reach out to your senator and urge a negative vote on this religious bigotry.
Handing religious groups a ticket to discriminate against LGBTQ families seeking adoption or foster care is morally reprehensible and inimical to the well-being of the hundreds of thousands of children currently in the foster care system. This comes on the heels of the Supreme Court decision, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which allowed a Catholic agency to discriminate against same-sex couples. Recently, another agency cited this case in refusing to work with Jewish families.
Ultimately, the health and care of a child should be the only factor that a child welfare agency and its employees take into consideration — not advancing the bigoted agendas of state contractors promoting discriminatory dogma at the expense of children in need.
Talking Points
As your secular constituent, I am urging you to vote no on AZ SB 1399. This bill would make it legal for adoption or foster agencies to discriminate on the basis of religion. It would adversely affect LGBT families and religious minorities looking to adopt or foster, for example.
Denying a child a home based on someone else’s religious agenda is morally reprehensible and discriminatory, and should never be supported by state funding. Please vote “no” on SB 1399.
More »TAKE ACTION: Ask Congress to support Thomas Paine memorial bill HR 6720
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Please ask your member of Congress to support a just-introduced HR 6720, a bill to memorialize America’s “forgotten Founder” Thomas Paine in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, co-chair of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, introduced legislation today to authorize the construction of a long-overdue D.C. memorial to Paine, noting: “Despite his catalytic role in founding America and our constitutional republic, Paine remains too often on the dark outskirts of history. It is way past time for Congress to give Paine the central place of respect and awe he deserves in our nation’s capital."
This noncontroversial bill is one that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle can unite over. Without Paine, the United States of America would not exist. His writings in Common Sense and Crisis made the case for American independence and sparked the American Revolution. To freethinkers he is revered as the author of The Age of Reason, to freedom lovers everywhere for proclaiming “The world is my country” and for working to advance freedom, equality and democracy.
Please take a moment to use our automated system to send a message to your members of Congress today. (Feel free to personalize the message or edit as you wish.)
Read FFRF’s press release about the bill.
Talking Points
As your constituent, I am asking for your support and co-sponsorship of a new congressional bill to approve a memorial in Washington, D.C., for “forgotten Founder” Thomas Paine. The bill to memorialize patriot and Revolutionary War veteran Thomas Paine is one that every American and member of Congress can unite behind. Paine’s very words in Common Sense and the Crisis papers sparked and nurtured the Revolutionary War. A visionary of modern democracy, liberty and justice, Paine embodied the words in our Declaration of Independence. It is past overdue to recognize him with a D.C. memorial. May I count on your office to co-sponsor the bill to approve a Thomas Paine Memorial? Public funds will not be utilized.
New System and National Prayer Breakfast
FFRF is excited to announce a new and improved system to make it easy for you to take action to fight for state/church separation!
Keep an eye on your email for upcoming details, but if you want to try the new system out, click the link below and enter your name, email, and address so that our new system can connect you with the right offices. The National Prayer Breakfast took place today and we're asking you to contact your federal reps to thank them for skipping it, or else to shake your finger at them if they did go.
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Tell your member of Congress to stop supporting the National Prayer Breakfast
Please help FFRF oppose congressional participation in the upcoming 70th National Prayer Breakfast, scheduled to take place next week, Thursday, Feb. 3. FFRF has had success in discouraging members of Congress from attending, and we need your continued help to educate Congress.
This private event, which sounds like an official governmental function, is run by a shadowy religious group known as The Family, and is a hotspot for Christian nationalists and theocrats, anti-LGBTQ bigotry and influence-peddling. Born in opposition to the New Deal in the height of the Red Scare, it has been mired in scandal after scandal, including the FBI’s arrest of a Russian agent with ties to Vladimir Putin. Rev. Franklin Graham is the primary financial backer of the event, and he admitted the entire point of the shindig is for people to purchase access to Congress under the guise of prayer: “They’re wanting to be able to rub elbows with somebody that they normally couldn’t rub elbows with.”
Read more about FFRF’s opposition to the National Prayer Breakfast here.
Press the "Take Action" button below to contact your representative and feel free to use our suggested talking points.
As your constituent and as a secular American, I urge you not to sponsor or attend the National Prayer Breakfast, which is run by a shadowy religious group known as The Family.
Red flags include attendance by Russian operatives, deliberate influence-peddling and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Members of Congress who attend may assume the event is merely a solemn religious breakfast, but are in fact lending endorsement and credence to an unsavory organization that is exploiting their support. There are hundreds of houses of worship within walking distance of our great Capitol, and you and your fellow members can enjoy fellowship and prayer without associating with this troubling group.
More »Take action! Ask Senate to ensure Roe has a 50th anniversary
Tomorrow, Jan. 22, will mark the 49th anniversary of the landmark decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide and ensured the basic rights of reproductive privacy and self-determination.
With the Supreme Court, for underlying religious reasons, poised to overturn or negate Roe later this year, the Senate must act now to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. The act, which has passed the House, will codify the protections in Roe regardless of what the high court does. It would also render unenforceable the many medically unnecessary and burdensome restrictions against abortion passed by various state legislatures.
Please take a moment to ask your senators to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. The lives of millions of women depend on our secular action — since religion has always been at the heart of the push for anti-choice legislation.
Read FFRF’s WHPA testimony letter here.
Talking Points
Jan. 22 marks the 49th anniversary of the landmark decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide and ensured the basic rights of reproductive privacy and self-determination. It is now endangered. Please vote in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify the provisions of Roe. The shocking enactment of an unconstitutional abortion ban in Texas and across the country, with the Supreme Court refusing to intervene, is a wake-up call that immediate action is required to protect access to safe and legal abortion nationwide.
More »Urge S.D. House Education Committee to stand up against unconstitutional school prayer
Please help FFRF keep religion out of public schools in South Dakota! Ask the House Committee on Education not to back Gov. Kristi Noem’s required time for school-sponsored prayer disguised as a “moment of silence.” This hearing is tomorrow (Friday) morning at 7:45 a.m., so please take action now.
This “moment of silence” bill is actually an attempt to insert religion into public education. Noem explained when she announced the bill’s introduction, “I hope students will take this opportunity to say a quick prayer or reflect on their upcoming day.” This quote shows that this House bill is meant to promote religion in public schools. FFRF warned that Noem would continually insert religion into public schools when she supported putting In God We Trust in public schools in 2019.
Click "Take action" to submit your own digital testimony. Feel free to use our talking points as well as personalize your own. In the same email, you can also request to testify live (remotely), if you are willing to do so.
Talking Points
As a South Dakota citizen who respects the separation of church and state, I am dismayed to read that the governor has decided to try to insert her Christian religion into classrooms around the state by requiring a moment of silence in our public schools.
In order to demonstrate the Education Committee’s respect for the diverse range of religious and nonreligious citizens living in South Dakota, we urge you to concentrate on civil matters, leave religion to the private conscience of each individual and stand up against HB 1015. Thank you.
More »Urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor anti-discrimination bill
Please ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor an anti-discrimination bill that addresses a problem created by a recent misguided Supreme Court ruling.
The Every Child Deserves a Family Act (HR 3488/S 1848) would prohibit any child welfare agency receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against a potential foster or adoptive family on the basis of religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. In addition, it would prevent discrimination against foster youth because of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Some states bar lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals or same-sex couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents, and many public child welfare agencies still discriminate against qualified, licensed LGBTQ foster and adoptive families.
The bill would prevent these taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies from engaging in such discrimination by allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to withhold federal funding if evidence indicates that such discrimination is occurring.
Please press the “Take Action” button below to contact your representative and feel free to use our talking points as well as personalize your own.
Talking Points
Please co-sponsor the bipartisan John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act (S 1848/ HR 3488), which ends discrimination in adoption and foster care based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and marital status and opens up more loving, supporting homes to the more than 400,000 youth in care. Federal taxes should never be used to discriminate, and discriminatory child placement agencies should not be eligible for federal contracts.
If you are already a co-sponsor of this bill, thank you for your support and please urge your colleagues to support it as well.
More »Urge your state rep to vote ‘no’ on AB 529
Please tell your Wisconsin assembly member to vote against the passage of AB 529, which comes up for a vote this Thurs. Jan, 20. This bill would license naturopathic “doctors” (NDs) as “primary care” providers. Naturopathic “doctors” rely on folk remedies and pseudoscience rather than evidence-based medicine. The State of Wisconsin should not place its stamp of approval on this quackery.
This bill ignores well-researched, scientific approaches to medicine that saves lives. It would create a Naturopathic Medicine Examining Board, made up mostly of naturopaths, and would be able to further define the scope of naturopathy in the state and decide educational requirements for someone to be licensed as a naturopath, among other tasks. Naturopaths would be allowed to treat severely ill children, for example, so long as the Naturopathic Board deemed that to be within the scope of their pseudoscientific practice.
The state should treat this as an unlicensed practice of medicine, rather than recklessly allowing naturopaths to determine the scope of their own care, which is akin to calling astrologers or tarot card readers “doctors,” and allowing them to treat any patients they themselves deem appropriate.
Please take a few moments to contact your assembly member now and urge them to vote “No” on this bill by clicking the "Take Action" button below. Feel free to use our talking points or personalize your own.
Talking Points
As a Wisconsin citizen, I urge you to vote “No” on AB 529. I am concerned that our state will no longer adhere to high medical standards if AB 529 passes, since it would allow practitioners of the pseudo-scientific “naturopathy” to market themselves as “doctors,” and would create a Naturopathic Medicine Examining Board, allowing these alternative medicine practitioners to regulate themselves under the protection of state law.
The State of Wisconsin should only license physicians who practice evidence-based medicine. Lowering this standard is reckless and dangerous, especially amidst an ongoing global pandemic. Please vote “No” to stand up to this dangerous and self-promoting bill and practice.
More »Urge N.C. City Council to stand up against unconstitutional government prayer
Please help FFRF keep religion out of government in a North Carolina city! Ask Mayor Ed Hooks and members of the Mebane city council to abide by his decision in December to stop opening meetings with governmental prayer.
The Freedom From Religion complained on behalf of a resident in November that the Mebane City Council always began with a prayer, invariably Christian in nature. As we wrote to Mayor Hooks and the rest of the council members, "Precedent from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over North Carolina, prohibits government-led prayer of the sort practiced at the Council’s meetings."
The mayor initially responded by changing the prayer into a moment of silence. But now other members of the Board have moved to create a new city policy that would return this divisive and inappropriate practice. Please help FFRF keep pressure on the council to do the right thing!
Use our automated system to contact the mayor and council by pressing "TAKE ACTION" below. It just takes a minute. Feel free to customize the response. If you live in Mebane, please identify yourself as a Mebane constituent.
Talking Points
As a North Carolina citizen who respects the separation of church and state, I am dismayed to read that the Mebane Council has decided to reverse the decision to change a moment of prayer into a moment of silence.
In order to demonstrate the Board’s respect for the diverse range of religious and nonreligious citizens living in Mebane, we urge you to concentrate on civil matters and leave religion to the private conscience of each individual. The Board can pray on its own time and dime, but should not inject religious ritual and prayer into a governmental meeting. Thank you.
More »Thank Sen. Kaine for finally dropping the National Prayer Breakfast!
Sen. Tim Kaine has decided to not attend the National Prayer Breakfast next year, and FFRF is asking its Virginia members to thank him for dropping such an inappropriate event.
The National Prayer Breakfast is put on by the Fellowship Foundation, a shadowy organization also known as “The Family,” and is largely funded by the notorious anti-gay hate preacher Franklin Graham. In recent years the event has featured pay-to-play influence-peddling, including by convicted Russian operative Maria Butina, and it was at the event that conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell entered Trump’s inner circle. The Family has had a pattern of troubling relationships with dictators around the world and actively exports anti-LGBTQ legislation and policy.
Kaine served as the event’s co-chair in 2016 and is the most prominent member of Congress to walk away from the event to date. Others who have dropped the event include Reps. Charlie Crist, Fla., Ro Khanna, Calif., Ann Kirkpatrick, Ariz., and Ted Lieu, Calif.
Government officials who attend the event in their official capacity send a message that their office endorses the religious message, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This alienates the 30 percent of Americans who are non-Christians, the one in four citizens who are not religious, and the 44 percent of millennials and younger Americans who are non-Christian.
FFRF recently sent letters to President Biden and members of Congress, urging them to skip this event. Please take a moment to thank Sen. Tim Kaine for doing just that by pressing the "TAKE ACTION" button below.
Talking Points
As your secular constituent, I want to thank you for choosing not to attend the National Prayer Breakfast. The event’s reputation as a bipartisan, solemn occurrence is a sham, and the shadowy organization behind it uses that ill-earned reputation to cozy up with dictators and to advance an anti-LGBTQ agenda.
Thank you for dropping this event. I hope your colleagues follow your lead.
More »TAKE ACTION- Tell the Labor Dept. that religious discrimination had no place in the U.S.
A proposed federal rule by the Biden administration would undo a Trump-era policy that currently allows religious organizations to discriminate while using taxpayer funds under a government contract. The window for comments on this positive change is closing on Thursday, and you can count on religious zealots to show up in force to oppose the new rule. Please take a moment to tell the Department of Labor that it is doing the right thing.
The proposed rule, titled “Proposal to Rescind Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption,” reverses the Trump administration’s harmful lurch toward discrimination. (This still falls short, unfortunately, of adequately ensuring that taxpayer dollars will not be used to fund discrimination because it reverts to an imperfect rule put in place by President George W. Bush in 2002.)
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has submitted a comment praising the new rule but noting its imperfection since the federal government should never sanction discrimination. The proposed rule moves in the right direction, even if it does not fully arrive there. FFRF strongly supports this rescission of the 2020 rule.
Click the “take action” button and say that no one should be allowed to discriminate based on religion.
STEPS TO COMMENT:
Click on the red “Take action” link below, which goes to the official comment page.
Fill out the corresponding comment form. We have provided suggested talking points below. Feel free to copy and paste the suggested message, or review FFRF’s comment for more ideas. Personalized comments are most influential. Make sure your comments mention the rule’s “RIN #,” which is 1250-AA09.
All comments are due by Thursday (Dec. 9)! Please take action today.
Suggested talking points:
I strongly support this proposed rule, entitled “Proposal to Rescind Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption,” with RIN # 1250-AA09. As a taxpayer, I do not want religious organizations using my federal tax dollars to discriminate. If they want to compete for government contracts, they should have to play by the same rules as everyone else and agree not to discriminate.
Ideally, government contractors should not be allowed to discriminate for any reason whatsoever. There is no need to extend the religious exemption from Title VII to government contractors. Still, this proposed rule is a solid move in the right direction.
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Take Action! Contact your legislators to keep Wis. a pro-choice state!
Please ask your state senator and assemblyperson to co-sponsor and support the Abortion Rights Protection Act or SB 75 and AB 106.
Although Gov. Tony Evers vetoed five anti-abortion bills last week, a 172-year-old law criminalizing abortion and making it a felony for physicians to perform the procedure is still on the books in Wisconsin. It would go into effect if the U.S. Supreme Court turns abortion matters back to the states to decide — which is looking increasingly likely after last week’s hearing over a Mississippi abortion ban. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, this law would go into effect, subjecting physicians who provide abortion with felony charges and up to six years in prison. The Abortion Rights Protection Act would repeal this 1849 statute.
This is why we need to call on our Wisconsin legislators and demand that they pass the Abortion Rights Preservation Act.
FFRF encourages social media engagement and letters to the editor. Please press the "Take Action" button below to get involved.
Read FFRF’s full statement here.
Talking Points
As your constituent, I urge you to co-sponsor and support the passage of the Abortion Rights Protection Act. This act will ensure that no matter what happens with Roe v. Wade, safe and legal abortion care will be available in our state.
Amid stunning developments coming from the U.S. Supreme Court, advocacy for reproductive rights is more important than ever. The Abortion Rights Preservation Act will finally repeal the archaic, 170-year-old law that makes abortion a felony and calls for the imprisonment of physicians who perform such care. It will thus ensure that the right to abortion is protected in Wisconsin. With more than 70 percent of Americans opposing the overturn of Roe v. Wade, any bill aiming to restrict Roe is inconsistent with American values.
Urge Mass. legislative committee to oppose 5 disturbing bills
On Nov. 23, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Judiciary will hold a virtual hearing to consider a large range of bills, many of which are anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ.
There are five very worrisome bills: H 1534, H 1536, H 1628, H 1760 and H 3961. They range from allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination to banning all abortions (unless a physician deems them to be “necessary”) to adjudicating the maturity of a young person seeking an abortion based on a host of factors, such as whether or not she “exercises self-control over her behavior, emotions, and anger.”
These bills are extraordinarily imposing and have clear religious motivations. Massachusetts lawmakers do not have the right to control the bodies of their constituents based on their personal beliefs and should not allow discrimination in the name of religion.
The committee has called for public testimony on these issues. Please take a moment to email the committee and urge the members to oppose these bills by pressing "Take Action". You can use our suggested talking points below, or you can share your own story and thoughts. For best effect, be concise and polite.
This hearing is online, and you can also speak to the committee during the hearing if you register to testify. You can do so at this link by 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 22. The hearing starts at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 23.
Talking Points
As a resident of Massachusetts, I strongly urge you to oppose all bills before you that threaten abortion access or allow for LGBTQ discrimination, including H 1534, H 1536, H 1628, H 1760 and H 3961. These callous attacks on abortion rights will endanger the lives and safety of women in Massachusetts, and it is critical to me as a voter that you stop these in their tracks. With more than 70 percent of Americans opposing the overturn of Roe v. Wade, any bills aiming to restrict Roe are inconsistent with American values.
Especially with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a case that may severely threaten access to safe reproductive health care, the state Legislature must take steps to expand access to that care, not restrict it.
I am also strongly opposed to allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the name of religion. The law should never allow religious freedom to be used as an excuse for discrimination. Thank you for your time and for opposing these bad bills.
More »Tell Gov. Ducey it’s wrong and dangerous to discourage masking in schools
Back in August, we asked you to contact LINK Gov. Doug Ducey and tell him to stop his anti-science voucher program. He is now taking it an egregious step further by using federal Covid relief funds to only help schools without a mask mandate — in open defiance of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. This reckless decision will encourage schools to get rid of mandates already in place, further encouraging rather than discouraging the spread of the virus.
Ducey’s program will give private school vouchers to parents who object to public school masking or quarantine policies. Just last week, Ducey’s office sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department indicating it will continue to defy the department’s demand that he stop raiding the fund for this illegitimate purpose.
Please take a few moments to contact Gov. Ducey and urge him to stop these policies and programs by clicking the "Take Action" button below.
TALKING POINTS
As an Arizonan, I am deeply troubled that our state is not listening to science and is instead proposing policies that will make the pandemic worse by pumping federal Covid relief funds into a program designed to discourage schools from taking life-saving measures to combat a global pandemic. Please rescind your announced misuse of COVID-19 relief funds.
Arizona’s voucher program has had a terrible history of fraud and abuse. Siphoning public school Covid relief funds to religious private schools and opportunistic bureaucrats without any measurable benefit to students who receive vouchers, while refusing the funds to schools that are protecting students, is inexcusable. The program should, once again, be ended — not expanded.
More »Ask your rep. to condemn HB 480
Ohio lawmakers just introduced a new anti-abortion bill, modeled after Texas’ notorious SB8. The bill, House Bill 480, would effectively ban all abortions and exploit a legal loophole by allowing private anti-abortion citizens to turn in people they think have provided, obtained or helped someone get an abortion.
Now that the Supreme Court has heard arguments for and against Texas’ SB8, and will soon hear oral arguments on a similar law out of Mississippi, we are asking you to immediately contact your legislator and urge them to condemn House Bill 480.
We previously wrote asking that you urge lawmakers to oppose Senate bills that would restrict access to abortion. Now, HB 480 has been introduced and presents a new threat to reproductive healthcare in Ohio.
This law would affect the most vulnerable people in Ohio and needs to be stopped. Ohio lawmakers have already stripped abortion access in your state and this will lead to the end of abortion access altogether. Please urge your legislator to stand up for rights that are protected under the Constitution.
TALKING POINTS
As an Ohio voter, I urge you to oppose HB 480, an extremist bill that was just introduced as a copy of Texas’ notorious S.B. 8. The consequences of this bill range from unnecessarily burdensome and restrictive to potentially deadly, and flagrantly infringe on a well-established constitutional right. Please oppose these extremist measures. Thank you for your time.
More »Urge Ohio lawmakers to squash dangerous anti-abortion bills
Anti-choice politicians have introduced legislation intended to severely restrict abortion care in your state. Please take a few moments to oppose these extremist bills and tell Ohio lawmakers to stop their attacks on reproductive rights.
SB 123 and SB 157 contain several restrictions on abortion providers and abortion procedures that impede on care. Similar to the current Texas abortion ban that has resulted in thousands of women without comprehensive reproductive care, these bills would seek to criminalize those who provide abortions. These bills codify into law beliefs not based on science, but religion. SB 123 seeks to ban all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest — a so-called “trigger” ban that goes into effect the moment the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
Talking Points
As an Ohio voter, I urge you to oppose the anti-choice bills, SB 123 and SB 157. These are being discussed by the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The consequences of these bills range from unnecessarily burdensome and restrictive to potentially deadly. Please oppose these extremist measures. Thank you for your time.
Click on the red “Take Action” link below to contact all members of this committee and urge them to oppose these bills. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
More »Take Action! Contact your legislators to keep Wis. a pro-choice state!
Please ask your assemblyperson and state senator to co-sponsor and support the Abortion Rights Protection Act or SB 75 and AB 106. This act would repeal an 1849 statute that criminalizes abortion in Wisconsin. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, this law would go into effect, subjecting physicians who provide abortion with felony charges and up to six years in prison.
Given the precarious future of abortion, we must finally overturn this archaic, anti-woman, anti-science law now. The Abortion Rights Protection Act would repeal this 170-year-old law and help to preserve the future of abortion rights in Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, extremist Wisconsin lawmakers have been pushing to advance seven new restrictions on reproductive health. This is amid the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to block the ban that the state of Texas has effectively placed on abortion. So they need to hear from you!
Talking Points
As your constituent, I urge you to co-sponsor and support the passage of the Abortion Rights Protection Act. This act will ensure that no matter what happens with Roe v. Wade, safe and legal abortion care will be available in our state.
The Abortion Rights Preservation Act will finally repeal the archaic, 170-year-old law that makes abortion a felony and calls for the imprisonment of physicians who perform such care. It will thus ensure that the right to abortion is protected in Wisconsin. With more than 70 percent of Americans opposing the overturn of Roe v. Wade, any bill aiming to restrict Roe is inconsistent with American values.
More »Tell Lt. Gov. Robinson this is NOT a ‘Christian nation’
Over the weekend, your lieutenant governor gave an intemperate rant, in which he called for America to become a Christian theocracy, and told those who disagree to leave the country. North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson even offered to pay for you and other non-Christians to leave the country: “As for this not being a Christian nation, yes, it is! If you don’t like it, I’ll buy your plane, train or automobile ticket right up out of here. . . . This will always be a Christian nation. It was established by Him.”
Robinson also blamed school shootings on the decline of religion, advocated for forcing religion into our public schools, and threw in some transphobic bigotry for good measure.
FFRF has sent Robinson a letter enlightening him about our secular Constitution and calling for his resignation. We now urge you, as a secular and non-Christian North Carolinian, to contact Robinson today and demand his apology and resignation.
Robinson is manifestly unfit to serve as a government official. Please take a moment to use our automated system to call and email Robinson and tell him what you think about his Christian nationalist statements. You can use our suggested talking points, or, for best results, edit the talking points or write your own personal message.
For more details on Robinson’s remarks and FFRF’s rebuttal, read our letter here.
TALKING POINTS
Lt. Gov. Robinson, as a nonreligious, non-Christian North Carolinian, I am deeply shocked and offended by your call for me to leave the country simply because I am not a Christian and do not want to live in a Christian theocracy. The United States is not a Christian nation, we are a secular country where citizens may choose any religion or none at all. Your rant was ignorant, unpatriotic and un-American.
Government officials who lack even the most basic understanding of our secular constitution are unfit to serve. You should resign.
More »Urge your U.S. Rep to vote in support of reproductive rights bill
Please take a moment to ask your representative to vote yes on the Women’s Health Protection Act. It would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States, rendering unenforceable medically unnecessary and burdensome restrictions against abortion passed by state legislatures.
After the Supreme Court shockingly refused to block the Texas law banning abortions after six weeks even in cases of rape and incest, this act is more important than ever. While court reform is clearly crucial to protecting constitutional rights, the immediate remedy is for Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. Now that the House Committee on Rules has agreed to put it to a floor vote this Friday, Sept. 24, it is more important than ever to get this passed.
Please urge your member of Congress to vote yes on the Women’s Health Protection Act so we can curb many of the abuses that will inevitably follow the Texas law. The lives of millions of women depend on our secular action, since religion has always been at the heart of the push for anti-choice legislation.
Read FFRF’s WHPA testimony letter here.
Talking Points
Please vote in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (HR 3755). The shocking enactment of an unconstitutional abortion ban in Texas, with the Supreme Court refusing to intervene, is a wake-up call that immediate action is required to protect access to safe and legal abortions. Abortion rights are already endangered in many states, and the Texas law will inspire even more bans.
The Women’s Health Protection Act would guarantee a statutory right to safe, legal reproductive care, and would void medically unnecessary and burdensome measures. I ask you to vote yes on the bill’s floor vote, and to speak up for its immediate passage. Millions of women — and their rights and safety — depend on your action.
More »Urge your senator to pass the Do No Harm Act!
Back in March, FFRF asked you to urge Congress to support the Do No Harm Act. This act is meant to curb the abuse that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has let fester. It is being reintroduced today, Sept. 15, by Sen. Cory Booker and co-sponsors.
Please take a moment to contact your two U.S. senators and urge them to co-sponsor the Do No Harm Act.
Meant to protect minority religious beliefs from the domination of the religious majority, RFRA has been a free-for-all that has let people discriminate on behalf of religion. A well-known example of this was when, in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively allowed employers and for-profit corporations to deny women workers contraceptive coverage based on religious offense.
The Do No Harm Act will help protect people’s fundamental legal, civil liberties and make certain religious liberty cannot be wielded as a weapon to discriminate.
Read FFRF’s full statement here. Read FFRF’s full statement here.
Please click on the red “Take Action!” link below and follow the prompt provided to contact your senators. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
Talking Points
As your constituent, I am urging you to support the Do No Harm Act, to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA.) This will stop dangerous religious exemptions from laws guaranteeing fundamental civil and legal rights. RFRA is filled with abuses of religious liberty, which at its core is intended to protect those with minority religious beliefs from the tyranny of the majority. Please support the Do No Harm Act. Thank you for your time.
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Take action now to keep religious funding out of the N.C. budget
We need your help in thwarting religious giveaways in the Tar Heel State budget.
North Carolina lawmakers are finalizing a two-year budget that Gov. Roy Cooper will review. Past budgets have included unconstitutional religious handouts. Please take a moment to contact Cooper and urge him to ensure the final budget will not include any religious funding.
Two months late on a two year-budget, Republican representatives still have not sent anything to Cooper for approval. Once this happens, the budget could swiftly be put into place. The budget has gone through myriad amendments and revisions but proposed versions have included grants to religious entities such as $1 million to the Brunswick Christian Recovery Center, and $1.5 million reportedly to First Contact Ministries, for faith-based recovery programs.
This religious funding is nothing new. In 2018, FFRF partnered with the Center For Inquiry to challenge items in the North Carolina budget that disbursed $250,000 to Cross Trail Outfitters, a Christian ministry that proselytizes through outdoor activities. The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from granting discretionary funds for religious purposes, but once the money has been awarded, it is difficult to retrieve.
Before the budget is passed and it becomes unlikely that we could stop an unconstitutional appropriation of the budget, use our automated system to urge Gov. Cooper to make certain the final budget does not include any funding of religion, including faith-based programs or funds to build or repair houses of worship. The time to stop this impending constitutional violation is now.
TALKING POINTS
As a secular North Carolinian taxpayer, I urge you to protect my constitutional right not to have my tax dollars fund religious missions.
Please ensure that the state’s final two-year budget does not contain any unconstitutional religious funding, including any grants to faith-based recovery programs, funding to build or repair houses of worship and other such purposes. Granting money to any organization for religious purposes goes against the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and takes funding away from important state programs.
More »Take action to keep anti-abortion education out of Massachusetts schools!
Stand up to religious zealots who are trying to sabotage women’s rights. Please spare a few moments to contact Massachusetts legislators and urge them to vote no on an anti-abortion measure pending in the Statehouse.
On Monday, Sept. 13, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education will decide whether to allow anti-choice educators to insert their religious ideology into the curriculum. H 662 contains a new proposal, for grades seven–nine in all public schools, that would include visual images and ultrasound images of fetal development. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, comprehensive sex education should focus on healthy reproductive development, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, and sexual expression — not fertility education.
In an attempt to include anti-abortion teachings in sex education, the bill refers to fetuses as “unborn children.” It is sponsored by state Reps. David DeCoste and Joe McKenna, who have tried to defund Planned Parenthood, regulate abortion and oppose expanding reproductive health. H 662 would allow any curriculum on this topic that does not directly contradict information from the National Institutes of Health, inviting teachers to mislead students about the reality of reproductive health care.
Effectively, this bill aims to insert the religious belief that life begins at conception into public school classrooms. Please take a moment to use our automated system to contact the members of the Joint Committee on Education and ask them to oppose this bill.
Talking Points
As a secular voter, I urge you to block the passage of H 662, a bill that aims to insert the religious belief that life begins at conception into public school classrooms. Comprehensive sex education does not require the state to allow teachers to miseducate students about fertility education, and this bill will do more harm than good.
More »Contact your members of Congress today to save abortion rights
Today, as abortion has effectively become illegal in the state of Texas, we are asking you to immediately contact your U.S. representative and your U.S. senators to urge their support of the Women’s Health Protection Act. This act would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States, rending unenforceable medically unnecessary and burdensome restrictions against abortion passed by state legislatures.
The Texas ban is the most radical anti-abortion law in the nation, a law crafted by religious extremists, making 90 percent of Texas abortions illegal. It also inaugurates “bounty hunting,” incentivizing private citizens to earn $10,000 for successfully suing abortion providers.
The U.S. Supreme Court shockingly refused yesterday to block the law. While court reform is clearly crucial to protecting constitutional rights, the immediate remedy is for Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.
Please call or email Congress and ask your representatives to sponsor and work for passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act that will curb many of the abuses in the Texas law. The lives of millions of women depend on our secular action.
Read FFRF’s full statement on the Texas abortion ban here.
TALKING POINTS
As your constituent, I urge you to sponsor and work for passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (H.R. 3755 / S. 1975). The shocking enactment of an unconstitutional abortion ban in Texas, with the Supreme Court refusing to intervene, is a wake-up call that immediate action is required to protect abortion rights. Abortion rights are already endangered in many states, and the Texas law will inspire even more bans.
The Women’s Health Protection Act would guarantee a statutory right to safe, legal reproductive care, and would void medically unnecessary and burdensome measures like the Texas ban. I ask you to co-sponsor WHPA, if you are not already, and to speak up for its immediate passage. Millions of women and their rights and safety depend on your action.
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Take Action! Mandate vaccinations for Madison school staff
Please make your pro-science views heard before the Madison School Board meeting to discuss mandating Covid-19 vaccinations for school staff, which is slated for Monday, Aug. 30 at 6 PM.
The Madison school district handed down a decision against mandating vaccines without discussing it with the board. Many members are in favor of mandatory vaccinations, as are 85.5% of teachers.
Public schools open next Thursday, Sept. 2, and half of the students are under 12 — too young to be vaccinated yet. Don't let the religiously motivated anti-vaxxers and anti-science crowd intimidate public officials and endanger student and public welfare. Dane County used to be #1 in full vaccination rates, but we've lost that lead due to the lack of science-based leadership by local government officials.
Please take a moment to use our automated system to contact the school board by pressing the "Take Action" button below. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided. You may also attend the meeting remotely by visiting this website.
Talking points
It is critical to me as a member of the community that the Madison School district takes a reasonable approach this school year by requiring vaccinations for Madison school staff. This decision will help keep not only young vulnerable children safe but also the members of our community.
Urge UW System to enforce compulsory vaccination
Please speak out for scientifically influenced public policy — ask the University of Wisconsin System to implement mandatory vaccination.
As the Freedom From Religion Foundation has reported, a religiously motivated state senator is trying to prevent the UW System from adopting Covid-19 mitigation efforts. UW System President Tommy Thompson is fighting back to protect academic freedom and public health. Please send him a quick thank you and urge him to enact vaccination mandates, as many public and private universities are responsibly doing.
This is a state/church issue since the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers are almost entirely religiously motivated. The number of fully vaccinated Wisconsin residents is under the national average, and we’re in the midst of a major surge.
Click on the red “Take Action” link to use our automated system to contact Tommy Thompson and ask him to mandate vaccines for students and UW staff. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided. For best results, be polite and concise. If you are a UW alum or have children or grandchildren enrolled in the UW, please be sure to add that to the proposed message.
Talking Points
[I am a UW graduate.] Thank you for standing up against Sen. Steve Nass and for academic freedom. Now please stand up for science. Protect student, staff and community health around the state by mandating vaccines for students and UW staff. Your firm guidance on this will help curtail the current spread of Covid-19 and shorten the pandemic in our state. Thank you.
More »Ask Gov. Ducey to nix anti-science school voucher expansion
Please take a few moments to contact Gov. Ducey and urge him to stop these policies and programs by clicking the "Take Action" button
Tell Gov. Doug Ducey that it is wrong to use pandemic funds for an anti-mask and anti-vaxx expansion of the state’s voucher scheme.
Ducey announced last week that he will be (mis)using federal pandemic aid funds to pay for students to attend private schools if their public school has a mask mandate, orders quarantines due to COVID-19 exposure or imposes requirements on students because they are unvaccinated.
FFRF has previously made a case against Arizona voucher programs that almost exclusively benefit religious schools. Expanding the program will only open the door to more fraud and abuse.
With what’s become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” chaos is reigning. Parents of children under 12 are anxious and concerned about when their children will be cleared for vaccination. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has altered its advice to encourage indoor masking in areas of the country with low vaccination rates — and that currently includes everyone in Arizona. The proposals that are being raised by Ducey are dangerous, anti-science, and unfair to reasonable Arizonans and to Arizona children who are too young to get vaccinated. Help protect Arizona; urge Ducey to reverse this decision immediately.
Please take a few moments to contact Gov. Ducey and urge him to stop these policies and programs by clicking the "Take Action" button below.
Talking Points
Dear Gov. Ducey,
As an Arizonan, I am deeply troubled that our state is not listening to science and is instead proposing policies that will make the pandemic worse by discouraging schools from taking life-saving measures to combat a global pandemic. Please rescind your announced expansion of the state’s private school voucher program, which is a direct attack on public schools trying to protect their students.
Arizona’s voucher program has had a terrible history of fraud and abuse, siphoning public school funds to religious private schools and opportunistic bureaucrats without any measurable benefit to students who receive vouchers. The program should be ended — not expanded.
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Urge Gov. Cooper to sign anti-child-marriage bill into law
North Carolina is advancing SB 35, an important bill that increases the minimum age of marriage from 14 to 16. It also creates a new requirement that those seeking to marry a minor cannot be more than four years older than the person they intend to marry.
While it would be preferable to end ALL child marriage in North Carolina, SB 35 is a step in the right direction. North Carolina has a reputation as a state willing to marry young girls to much older men, and SB 35 will protect many girls who would otherwise be forced into such a marriage.
As Unchained at Last, an anti-child-marriage advocacy organization, points out, “While the federal criminal code prohibits sex with a child age 12 to 15, it specifically exempts those who first marry the child. This incentivizes child marriage and implicitly endorses child rape.” In 88 percent of marriages with such age differentials, the marriage license becomes a “get out of jail free” card, the group asserts, because sexual contact would be considered statutory rape.
Please take a few moments to urge that Gov. Roy Cooper sign this critical bill into law.
Click on the red “Take Action” link to use our automated system to contact the governor and urge him to sign SB 35 into law. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided. For best results, be polite and concise.
TALKING POINTS
Dear Gov. Cooper,
As a North Carolinian, I am deeply troubled that our state has developed a reputation for marrying adult men to young girls, effectively facilitating statutory rape. Please sign SB 35 into law.
While SB 35 is not perfect and banning all child marriage would be preferable (as several other states have recently done), it is a step in the right direction. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
More »
Demand Little League remove “I trust in God” from its pledge
Little League is alienating the large portion of young people who do not have a religious affiliation by requiring players on the field to recite a pledge that states "I trust in God." FFRF has been repeatedly contacted about this unnecessary pledge in the past. Now is the time to urge the president of Little League, Stephen D. Keener, to do something.
The inclusion of this line in the pledge is unrepresentative of the U.S population and completely unnecessary. Since 2007, there has been a 10 percent increase in nonreligious Americans, who are now roughly a quarter of the population.
Organizations like Little League need to stop brainwashing our children into thinking the United States is a theocracy. If you want baseball to be about fun and friendly competition instead of being divisive and coercive towards nonbelievers, contact Little League International and urge it to strike out “I trust in God” from its pledge.
Read Freedom From Religion Foundation’s full statement chiding Little League.
Email Little League through the link provided on its website and urge Stephen Keener to remove this divisive line. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
TALKING POINTS
As a nonreligious American citizen, I urge you to remove, "I trust in God" from your pledge. The use of such a line is unnecessary and excludes the nonbelieving children and parents who are a part of your organization. Keep baseball the inspiring and entertaining game it is, and leave religion out of it.
More »Help block Va. city council’s attempt to foist ‘IGWT’ on cop cars
The Chesapeake City Council is considering a proposal tonight to put “In God We Trust” on all its police vehicles, and we need your help now to thwart this proposal.
Such moves are about advancing the Big Lie that the United States was “founded on God” or Christianity, thus dismantling the wall between religion and government. The motto “In God We Trust” is inaccurate, exclusionary, and aimed at brainwashing the country into believing that our nation is a theocracy.
And the exercise will be a waste of taxpayer money. There’ll be an estimated $81,000 in labor costs to add it to 1,500 vehicles, plus $6,000 for materials.
The Chesapeake City Council meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Eastern tonight, July 13, in the City Hall Council chamber at 306 Cedar Road. Please attend the meeting if you live in the area and make your opposition to this absurdity heard loud and clear.
“In God We Trust” was belatedly adopted as a motto when President Eisenhower signed legislation at the behest of the Knights of Columbus and other religious entities, which undertook a national lobbying campaign during the height of 1950s zealotry. The original inclusionary U.S. motto, chosen by a distinguished committee of Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, is the Latin E Pluribus Unum (From Many, [Come] One). As FFRF principal founder Anne Gaylor always pointed out, the religious motto isn't even correct: “To be accurate it would have to read ‘In God Some of Us Trust,’ and wouldn’t that be silly?”
Anne Gaylor’s remark is more apt now than ever. The number of “Nones,” those with no religious affiliation, has tripled since the 1990s, to comprise 23 percent of the U.S. population in 2020. The “Nones” have made substantial inroads in all sectors, a just-released report shows.
Please contact Chesapeake City Council members and urge them to oppose the "In God We Trust" shenanigans. Their emails and phone numbers can be found here.
TALKING POINTS
As an area resident and nonreligious citizen, I am asking you to please oppose the Chesapeake City Council resolution seeking to impose “In God We Trust” on police vehicles. It is an exclusionary motto adopted during the McCarthy era, and it would result in a waste of precious taxpayer dollars. Thank you for standing up for our secular Constitution.
More »Pass Federal Budget without Hyde and Weldon
Please urge your U.S. representative now to stand up for secular values, science and women’s rights.
The full House floor is expected to begin voting on the federal budget next week. For the first time in 50 years, the budget does not contain the Hyde Amendment. The Weldon Amendment, passed since 2005, was also eliminated. Both of these riders severely restrict abortion care and access to millions of women throughout the United States, so we’re asking for your help to keep them out of the budget.
The religiously rooted Hyde Amendment is an annual appropriations rider banning federal funding for abortions with few exceptions. Low-income women on Medicaid (one in five women in the United States), those in the Indian Health Service Plan or the Peace Corps are essentially denied abortion care unless their state is one of the few to cover such care. The Hyde Amendment was first introduced in 1976 by the ultra-Catholic Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, whose Catholic convictions emboldened him to pass some of the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the country.
The Weldon Amendment is a rider that emboldens hospitals, insurance companies and health care professionals to deny women health care by refusing to provide, cover or refer abortion services based on “religious or moral grounds.”
Yet the majority of Americans (and 98.8 percent of FFRF members) believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Help ensure that abortion access and equity is free from religious interference.
Please make your voice heard! Send a message to your U.S. House representative to pass a federal spending bill without the Hyde or Weldon Amendments.
TALKING POINTS
As a secular voter, it is critical to me that you fulfill your promise to stand up for reproductive rights by voting for a federal spending budget that excludes the Hyde and Weldon Amendments. For decades, the Hyde Amendment has prevented underserved women from accessing safe abortion services, exacerbating the already grotesque inequalities that exist in U.S. health care access. Similarly, the Weldon Amendment has emboldened health care providers and insurance companies to restrict health care services due to the religious beliefs of corporate owners at the expense of the health and safety of millions of Americans. Please stand with the overwhelming number of Americans who believe abortion should be legal and vote for a federal budget without this destructive legislation. Thank you for safeguarding women’s reproductive rights.
More »Take Action to end child marriage in Rhode Island
Rhode Island is advancing a pair of good bills, SB 398 and HB 5378, which would increase the minimum age for marriage to 18 — with no exceptions. Please take a few moments to make your voice heard on this important issue.
More than 200,000 minors in the United States were married between 2000 and 2015. A report published earlier this year warns that the Covid-19 pandemic is threatening decades of progress toward eliminating child marriage worldwide. School closures, economic stress, service disruptions, pregnancy and parental deaths are putting an additional 10 million girls globally at risk for child marriage before the end of the decade.
According to UNICEF, minors who are married are 50 percent more likely to drop out of school. Additionally, early marriage doubles a teenager’s chances of living in poverty and triples the likelihood that he or she will be a victim of domestic violence, compared to married adults. Often, these marriages stem from antiquated and horrifying religious beliefs that compromise the safety of children, but many states still allow the practice in order to pacify powerful theocratic constituencies.
Click on the red “Take Action” link to use our automated system to contact your state lawmakers and urge them to vote yes on these bills. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
More »TAKE ACTION: Protect abortion rights in Wisconsin
Abortion rights are under attack nationwide, and that includes in our home state. Please take a few moments to contact your state lawmakers and urge them to overturn Wisconsin’s archaic statute criminalizing abortion by supporting the Abortion Rights Preservation Act.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear an appeal of a Mississippi statute that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, laying the ground for SCOTUS’ anti-choice majority to reverse Roe v. Wade and erase abortion rights nationwide. Should this happen, Wisconsin’s statute criminalizing abortion, dating back to 1849, would go into immediate effect. Physicians who perform abortions could go to prison for up to six years.
The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Health Organization, will be the first significant abortion case heard by the high court since extremist Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett is one of the three anti-abortion justices appointed to the high court by previous President Trump, whose stated goal was to overturn Roe.
The Abortion Rights Preservation Act, AB 106/SB 75, would eliminate Wisconsin’s ancient ban and preserve abortion rights in the state, even in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Please use our simple, automated system to contact your state lawmakers and urge them to support this critical legislation. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided. Personalized messages are always the most effective.
More »Urge Biden to strike anti-choice amendments from budget
Please take a few moments to urge President Biden to stand up to religious megadonors and members of Congress by excluding two amendments from the presidential budget that restrict access to abortion and family planning services.
The first, the Hyde Amendment, is a discriminatory provision that denies federal funding for abortion care, mainly for low-income women. Women on Medicaid are ineligible for receiving subsidized abortion care unless their residential state uses its own funds to pay for abortion care, which is only the case in 16 states. The Hyde Amendment disproportionally limits already underserved populations from accessing abortion services, further exacerbating health care and economic inequality.
The Hyde Amendment was introduced in 1976 by Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, a staunch Catholic who was praised by the Catholic Church for his extremist anti-abortion policies. He cited “the final judgment” and fear of “what happens to them in eternity” as his motivations for the amendment. Read “It’s time to end the Hyde Amendment” by Barbara Alvarez.
The second, the Weldon Amendment, is considered a “conscience protection” that emboldens hospitals, insurance companies and health care professionals to deny women health care by refusing to provide, cover or refer abortion care based on “religious or moral grounds.” Allowing providers to deny patients’ rights because of religious beliefs threatens access to quality, comprehensive health care.
These provisions are plainly based on dogmatic religious beliefs, and abandon the safety and autonomy of some of the most vulnerable Americans. Biden has promised to end the Hyde Amendment, but he needs to hear public support for doing so immediately. Please urge Biden to exclude the Hyde Amendment and Weldon Amendment from the presidential budget. Click on the red “Take Action” link below to contact the White House. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
Support HHS rule expanding access to family planning
The Department of Health and Human Services has published a new proposed rule to reverse the Trump administration’s cruel attacks on Title X, the federal program providing family planning and other health care screening to low-income patients. Please take a moment to submit a public comment to support this proposal to expand equitable, affordable family planning services.
Under pressure from religious megadonors, the Trump administration instituted the domestic gag rule, which stripped public funding under Title X from health care providers offering abortion services or information. This callous and shortsighted policy change specifically targeted Planned Parenthood clinics, endangering the health care and safety of millions of women across the country and leaving many underserved communities scrambling to find new providers or going without services entirely.
The proposal, “Ensuring Access to Equitable, Affordable, Client-Centered, Quality Family Planning Services,” will reverse the Trump gag rule, restore funding to health care providers who offer abortion services or referral, and advance public health by expanding access to health care for underserved Americans.
Read FFRF’s full comment in support of the new proposed rule.
Submit a formal comment on this to the Department of Health and Human Services proposal via the Federal Registrar. Follow the brief steps below. Feel free to copy and paste or adapt the talking points provided. The public comment period on these HHS rules is open until Monday, May 17.
- Click on the red “Take Action!” link below. You will be taken to the regulations.gov comment page.
- Click on the green button in the upper right corner that reads “Submit a Formal Comment.”
- Fill out the prompt provided.
TALKING POINTS
I strongly support the new Department of Health and Human Services proposed rule change “Ensuring Access to Equitable, Affordable, Client-Centered, Quality Family Planning Services,” which will overturn the domestic gag rule. Expanding health care access for underserved Americans is critical, including access to comprehensive family planning services and abortion services. As a secular nation, we must not allow the religious motivations of the few to dictate the health care of millions of women.
More »