Former Pro Choice Congresswoman Speaks Out Against HHS Contraception Mandate and For Religious Freedom

It's is always interesting to wonder what happened to that broad Coalition that passed the then had signed by President Clinton the Religious Freedom Restoration Act . See Another Coalition for Religious Freedom? for some thoughts on that.

Regardless it's the law now and remains the law despite the irony that some people that opposed it now support it and some that supported it seem to want to ignore it now.


So it was of some interest that the former Republican Congresswoman and very pro choice Nancy Lee Johnson of Connecticut had in a paper on this issue.

The Corner has the link and this excerpt.

Former congresswoman Nancy Johnson of Connecticut was one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, especially on social issues. She voted to keep partial-birth abortion legal, for example. In an op-ed today, she nonetheless comes out strongly against the Obama administration’s command that almost all employers, including most religious employers, cover contraceptives and abortion drugs. She concludes:


Strong pro-choice representatives and senators, women and men, have understood the value of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Until the Affordable Care Act dramatically limited protection, it was seen as essential in a democracy that guarantees religious freedom. I respect Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon for understanding that being pro-choice does not mean denying others the right to seek the well-established protection of our conscience exemption.

Abortion often seems to be the only choice that some who travel under the pro-choice label are pro. Nice to see Johnson isn’t one of them.