Many factors can shape how someone views abortion – gender, age and education, to name a few. Around the world, however, religious belief is the most powerful predictor that someone will disapprove, as I document in my 2025 book, “Fetal…
The Culture War’s Quiet Front: Abortion Opinion in 2024
I can’t write a newsletter about religion and politics without including a semi-regular update on how the public feels about the topic of abortion. Looking back on the 2024 election, I think the Democrats believed it was going to be…
Pregnant veterans, criminalizing abortion and opposition to IVF
Reproductive rights continue to weaken in the United States under the Trump administration, and pregnant people are dying. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with the news as states continue to change their laws to make it harder for pregnant…
Texas anti-abortion bill would nullify RFRA
As the Texas Legislature convenes for yet another special session this week, lawmakers will face a surprise item buried on the agenda that would affect religious liberty. Senate Bill 7 (originally Senate Bill 2880 and then Senate Bill 6), which…
Lawsuits stack up, but Trump administration stonewalls challenges to Anti-Christian Bias Task Force
A constitutional watchdog group has filed a second lawsuit against the Trump administration’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force. The president created the commission in a Feb. 6 executive order directing U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch investigations into “anti-Christian conduct”…
‘Pro-family’ policies may worsen American women’s maternal health
Christian groups that identify as “pro-family” say America’s declining birth rates are an urgent crisis, and they support President Trump’s efforts to spawn a “baby boom.” But policies promoted by these groups may actually make becoming mothers more difficult —…
Religious Challenges to Abortion Bans are Winning in Unlikely Places
Almost immediately after Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health overturned the federal right to an abortion, more than a dozen states passed legislation effectively banning abortion. Soon thereafter, Jewish individuals and groups working in coalition with other religious groups began to challenge these…
3 years after abortion rights were overturned, contraception access is at risk
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated a nearly 50-year constitutional right to abortion and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states.
SBC’s 1,000-word resolution covers nine hot topics
A single resolution adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention June 10 rolls together at least nine hot topics in a single statement that was adopted without notable opposition. Resolution No. 5, titled “On Restoring Moral Clarity through God’s Design for…
Proposed SBC resolutions throw red meat to the base, avoid key issues
When the Southern Baptist Convention meets in annual session each summer, few things make as many headlines as the resolutions adopted in those two-day sessions. This year will be no exception as the voting participants — called “messengers” in SBC…
Are you liberal or conservative?
These two words may be the most politically charged words in the English language. One of the problems is we have let politics, instead of the dictionary, define these words. The primary way to communicate is by the use of…
63% of Americans support legal abortion in nearly all situations
Almost two-thirds of Americans support legal abortion in all or nearly all situations, while opposition is stronger among Christian nationalists and other religious conservatives, according to a new report by Public Religion Research Institute. In interviews with 22,000 U.S. adults…