To be really pro-choice, you must protect each doctor's choice to not perform abortions On one of our most divisive issues, we have an opportunity to unite across political and religious divides say a Catholic and Baptist leaders.

Timothy Dolan and Russell Moore | Opinion contributors

In a society where many issues divide Americans from each other, abortion is often called one of the most divisive and intractable.

For many years, about half of Americans who hold a definite view have identified themselves as “pro-life” and half as “pro-choice.” While there are variations by age, race and so on, the most important factor influencing Americans’ views on abortion is religion — not denomination, but religious commitment.

If you truly believe, as the words of the Declaration of Independence proclaim, that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with an unalienable right to life, you will likely see the life of the child in the womb as something to be respected and nurtured, not destroyed. That child as well as his or her mother are beloved children of God, and that makes demands on our conscience.

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As leaders in the nation’s two largest religious denominations, we are charged with promoting this message and defending the conscience rights of others who believe it. Not only that, but we believe that the freedom to live by one’s deepest beliefs, without being forced by government to act against those beliefs, is our first freedom and a founding value of our nation. That being the case, we find it hard to imagine how those who call themselves “pro-choice” could deny another the choice of following his or her conscience.

What has appalled us in recent years is an increasing and fierce attack on conscience rights. The movement that once called itself “pro-choice” has campaigned to force doctors, nurses, and hospitals to participate in abortion or leave the health care system — and to force all Americans to pay for abortions if they want any health coverage. This is a grave threat to freedom of conscience. Forcing those who decline to participate in abortion — including medical professionals and health care entities — out of the marketplace helps no one and harms the common good.

We revere human life at all stages as the gift of a loving God, but the threat here is not only to religious believers. Former abortion practitioner, Bernard Nathanson, turned against abortion when he was still an atheist, based on his personal experience and our newfound ability to see and appreciate life in the womb through ultrasound. A few years ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published a survey showing that the vast majority of ob/gyns — 86% — is unwilling to perform abortions. Even the Supreme Court has upheld laws against public funding of abortion, recognizing a legitimate secular interest in encouraging childbirth over abortion.

Congress has seen a need to protect conscience rights in this area since the year the Supreme Court legalized abortion. But the campaign to force pro-life Americans to violate their consciences has continued and sometimes succeeded, highlighting the deficiencies in current laws. Chief among these deficiencies is that none of these laws allow a person whose right of conscience is under attack to defend that right in a court of law.

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That is why we both strongly support passage of the Conscience Protection Act now before Congress. It would clarify current federal law and provide for a “private right of action” allowing people their day in court if their conscience rights have been violated.

The most important law on this issue, known as the Weldon amendment, is enforced by the threat of denying all federal health funds to a governmental body that refuses to respect conscience — a penalty seen by many as too serious to be credible. We believe such laws, like other civil rights law, should be clearly focused on effectively stopping discrimination.

And that is what we are discussing here: Unjust discrimination. Even the Obama administration, though it misinterpreted the Weldon amendment to effectively make it unenforceable, said pro-life Americans’ right of conscience should be protected by the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Even those who disagree with us on abortion should see that respecting the right to choose not to be involved in abortion is part of being “pro-choice.”

On one of our most divisive issues, we have an opportunity to unite across political, religious and regional divides to agree that those who respect the life of the unborn child have a right to act on that belief, that we are not second-class citizens. We hope members of Congress of both parties will take up this challenge and enact the Conscience Protection Act.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of NYC is the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities. Russell Moore is the president of Ethics and Religious Liberty of The Southern Baptist Convention.