Several hundred protesters gathered at the state capitol today to rally against what they see as an attack on religious freedom. The protest came as part of a coordinated push by Catholics and others in dozens of cities today, over a federal requirement for most health plans to cover contraception.
The speakers included U.S. Rep. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) who said the federal mandate forces religious groups “to either violate the law or violate their conscience” in what she called “an unprecedented assault on our first-amendment right of religious freedom.”
Around maybe 400 people turned out for the noontime rally on the capitol steps, ranging from Catholic nuns to protestant students on Spring Break.
Teresa Reff is a stay-at-home mom who came from Springfield. Reff says although she’s protestant, she felt it was important to stand up alongside Catholics. Reff worries the federal mandate is just another step down a slippery slope:
“Before long you won’t be able to practice any type of religious ordinance in public. They’ve taken prayer out of school; they’ve taken scripture reading out of school. They want to get rid of the Bible clubs that are in school,” Reff says. “It’s just systematic taking-away, and if we sit by and do nothing, then we’ll be like Communist Russia, or China, where it’s against the law to even go to church.”
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