Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican who just weeks ago issued a proclamation calling on everyone in the state to “give thanks for God’s gift of Jesus Christ,” has shoved his religion in everyone’s faces yet again with a proclamation celebrating all the women who have to suffer because they don’t have access to safe abortions.

His request for January 22 to be “a Statewide Day of Prayer” comes on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. And the proclamation just gets more religious from there.

… Nebraska is a pro-life state that respects the dignity of human life, no matter how small… It seems right and fitting that the citizens of the State of Nebraska are urged to pray for an end to abortion and for our fellow citizens who need our love and support… … I do hereby urge all individuals to pray on their own or with others, according to their faith, for an end to abortion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has already weighed in with a letter calling out Ricketts for using his public platform to advance irrational mythology. To be clear, they disagree on the abortion issue, but FFRF’s concern is the government promoting religion.

The Nebraska government has no business — and no power — to tell citizens when or whether to pray, much less what to pray about, FFRF contends in its strong letter to Ricketts. “Our Founders even rejected a proposal to pray while adopting our godless Constitution,” FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor write to the governor. “Whether to pray, or believe in a god who answers prayer, is an intensely precious and personal decision protected under our First Amendment as a paramount matter of conscience. You have abridged freedom of conscience in issuing this call to prayer.”

State Senator Megan Hunt also condemned Ricketts’ irresponsible actions.

There are many personal decisions that are not the role of government to make, from deciding how & when to grow a family, to deciding how & when to pray. Politicians should not use state resources to encourage prayer, nor use state resources to control our reproductive choices. https://t.co/RfrxVqrA6A — Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) January 8, 2020

For Nebraskans, "separation of church and state" depends on whose church and whose state. https://t.co/5GfuQ8s5tE — Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) January 8, 2020

Not that Ricketts cares. He doesn’t pay attention to the Constitution and he sure as hell doesn’t care how many women in his state struggle so he can pretend to be a hero for fetuses.

This is the same governor who asked people to pray in response to a flooding because he’s a climate denier who refuses to take any actions that might actually mitigate the crisis. He has more money than you could ever dream of, yet nobody in his inner circle willing to tell him honestly that he’s full of shit.

There are voices of reason in this debate. None of them, unfortunately, work for the governor.

