WASHINGTON, D.C, Jan. 18, 2017—The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention announced its 2017 Legislative Agenda today, outlining various legislative and policy initiatives the organization plans to engage in the coming year.
At the top of the list, the ERLC plans to address the sanctity of human life, religious liberty, and marriage and family issues. Other items are also included in the agenda.
“This new year brings great opportunity to advance legislative issues of critical importance to Southern Baptists,” said Moore, “and as an organization the ERLC will be tireless in our witness and in our advocacy. The last several years have given rise to unprecedented legislative assaults on religious freedom, human dignity, family stability and other important issues, and I'm excited to engage on these issues with our team to help reverse this trend in the year ahead.”
Some of the key priorities Moore and the ERLC staff plan to address in 2017 include:
• Appointment of a pro-life Supreme Court nominee, which will play a critical role in future Court decisions that will shape American life. The ERLC will press for a Supreme Court nominee who, among other things, rightly objects to the so-called constitutional right to abortion and who will carry the mantle of Justice Scalia’s legacy.
• Defunding of Planned Parenthood, the ERLC is committed to seeing the nation’s largest abortion provider deprived of federal funds. More broadly, the ERLC will be active in legislative efforts such as the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would codify the Hyde Amendment by prohibiting federal funds from being expended for abortion or health coverage that includes coverage for elective abortion.
• Repeal of the HHS Mandate, which would eliminate the Obamacare provisions that force employers—including churches, educational institutions and religious nonprofits—to provide FDA-approved contraceptives, including abortion-inducing contraceptives. The ERLC has fought this rule in the courts, and will continue to work toward full legislative and regulatory repeal.
• First Amendment Defense Act, which would help protect individuals and institutions who believe marriage is the union of a man and woman from government intrusion and coercion.
• Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit the performing (or attempted performance) of abortions on babies at 20 weeks or greater gestation.
The entire ERLC Legislative Agenda can be accessed here.
The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.2 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBC’s ethics, religious liberty and public policy agency with offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C.
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