Conscience Rights: The New Frontline in the Culture War

Sarah Torre / April 19, 2011

Last week’s congressional tussle over defunding Planned Parenthood demonstrates that national deliberation on controversial moral debates is far from over. While federal funding of abortion is currently in the media spotlight, a new fight is being waged in the culture war over individuals’ right of conscience.

As new Heritage research from Visiting Fellow Thomas Messner points out, increasing government overreach through regulations and nondiscrimination policies poses serious threats to citizens’ conscience rights and religious liberty. From health care to institutional religious freedom to legalizing same-sex marriage, threats to conscience rights are emerging in many sectors of society.

In Washington state, for example, a state regulation may force a family-owned pharmacy to choose between closing its doors and selling an abortion-inducing emergency contraceptive in violation of the store owners’ pro-life beliefs. (more…)