Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said that President Joe Biden isn’t standing up for the public’s religious freedom.
Lankford, an ordained minister, gave a bleak analysis of Biden’s stance on religious liberty in an interview with the Daily Mail.
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“This particular administration is not going to protect the religious liberty of conscience protections that are already in law,” he said.
Lankford’s main concern was the Biden administration’s treatment of Christians over their objections to abortion, particularly in regard to employment.
He referred to a case in the “early days of the Biden administration,” in which a nurse in a Vermont hospital was compelled to participate in carrying out an abortion, despite her vehement objection.
“They literally just trampled on her conscience rights,” Lankford said, adding that the Biden administration didn’t take up her case.
Respecting believers’ objections to abortion is a central part of Lankford’s definition of religious liberty, something he said he holds dear due to his religious background.
“My passion for religious liberty really draws from my personal faith, that I have the ability to be able to live my faith, practice my faith and speak about my faith,” he said. “Faith is not the freedom of worship. You have the freedom to be able to worship as you choose. It’s the freedom of religion. It’s the freedom to have a faith and live that faith. And so that’s been dear to me.”
“For me, protecting the rights of a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, a Sikh, an atheist, whatever it may be, to be able to have their own personal expression of their faith is really important,” Lankford added.
The Oklahoma senator, who believes that life begins at conception, also called for increased normalization on the topic of abortion.
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“If other people want to have other ideas on that, let’s throw them out there,” he said. “Let’s talk about it nationally.”
“But let’s not just ignore this and say this is an inconvenience issue,” Lankford added. “I mean, convenience, or frankly, children are always an inconvenience at every single age of their life. There’s always an inconvenience with a child. So this is not about convenience. This is about how much do we value the life of each individual.”
