US Religious Liberty Commission Concludes its 7th and Final Hearing with Inspiring Testimony from a Sister of Life
.png)
The Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission concluded its seventh and final hearing on April 13, 2026. While the public session remained strictly focused on policy recommendations for its upcoming report to the President, the proceedings were overshadowed by a digital controversy involving President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV.
Here is a breakdown of the key testimonies, policy debates, and controversies from the capstone hearing.
Confidentiality in Crisis Pregnancy: Sister Mary Elizabeth of the Sisters of Life testified about their legal victory against New York state. The state had attempted to force the group to turn over internal documents, which she argued would have shattered the confidentiality promised to vulnerable women.
FULL TEXT Testimony of Sister Mary Elizabeth, with Sisters of Life Ministry to Women and Children in Need.
Chair Patrick and members of the commission, thank you for inviting me today to share what motivates my religious community, the Sisters of Life, to serve the most vulnerable among us and how a recent threat to our religious freedom could have seriously impeded it.
The Sisters of Life were founded in 1991 to promote a sense of the sacredness of human life in society. Through prayer and service, we bear witness to the inherent dignity of every human life created in the image of God. Each of our sisters has encountered a love that is so great, so beautiful and true. A love that captivated her heart and called her to respond. This love became incarnate in Jesus Christ. We as sisters of life offer our lives to the Lord Jesus so that others may come to know and experience this great love.
This love we believe is the source, the meaning and the destiny of every human life. Our community engages in a variety of works in order to share this love. Today I'm going to highlight our mission serving courageous women who are pregnant and in crisis in need of support,
friendship, and practical compassion. We are also privileged to serve women who are seeking hope and healing after the experience of an abortion. We are blessed to see time and again how Jesus's
perfect love and tender mercy casts out fear and transforms lives. We believe that every human being is sacred, unique, and infinitely loved by God. And we want every person we encounter to know
their own dignity as beloved sons and daughters of God, especially the pregnant women we serve.
Because once a woman experiences that she is loved and believed in, she can do anything, but only if she has meaningful support and options available.
Such was Nicole's story. When Nicole found out she was pregnant, she felt overwhelmed and afraid. She was already a single mother working 12-hour shifts in a factory to make ends meet, and she was barely getting by.
She had previously had an abortion and didn't want to go through that again, remembering the pain and regret it caused, but she felt like she had no other option. So, she obtained abortion pills, but couldn't bring herself to take them. Her boyfriend kept saying, "It's your choice."
Nicole told us what she really needed to hear was, "I will be with you every step of the way, no matter what." She found us through a friend. And in our first conversation, she shared a weighty list of needs from a mortgage to baby clothes, school fees, and a broken washing machine.
So, we packed up our van and hosted a baby shower at her home, providing her with a crib, stroller, car seats, maternity clothes, and everything she needed for her baby. We also called upon local friends who supported Nicole with meals, car rides, groceries, community, and friendship.
Receiving this tangible support, Nicole was empowered to discard the abortion pills she had contemplated taking and instead to make a leap of faith and welcomed her baby into the world. She named her daughter Emma Grace. Emma because it means my God has answered me and Grace because he answered when she least expected it. Supported and invited to dream again, Nicole began school to become a paramedic. It wasn't easy, but she graduated with honors and got a job driving an ambulance. An accomplishment she would have never dared to dream of before she became pregnant with Emma, who recently turned 5 years old.
Nicole is now reaching out and sharing her story with other women in her position and connecting them with our sisters. Speaking with Nicole last week, she told me, "I can't imagine life without Emma. She brings such joy. She gave me a new beginning, and I am so much the better for it."
Nicole's story is one of countless examples of how Christ's redeeming love has changed lives over the course of our community's existence. Through locations such as our visitation mission in Manhattan, we build relationships with each woman who seeks us out, listening to her hopes
and her fears.
We desire to meet her needs, emotional, spiritual, and practical, so that she may have the greatest freedom to choose life for both herself and her child. Our large network of co-workers of life enables us to provide all of this support free of charge and regardless of a woman's religious affiliation. The support we provide continues far beyond a mother's decision to give birth to her baby. Some reside with us during pregnancy, childbirth, and for whatever time each woman needs, often several months after her child's birth.
Melanie was one such woman, and her story shows how God's love poured out overflows into the next generation. 18 years after Melanie's son Zion was born, he came to see us. The doorbell rang at our Midtown Manhattan convent. The sister who answered found a group of tall, strong, college-aged young men on our doorsteps.
The one in front had a huge smile on his face and he said, "Hi, sister. I was born here." Zion explained that his mom had told him about us and the convent where she lived when she when he was born. All his life, he had wanted to come back and see it for himself. He was proud of his mom, knowing some of the sacrifices she had made to bring him into the world. So, as a college freshman on a football scholarship, he found himself in New York City with his teammates. The football players crowded into the front foyer of the convent to meet the sisters. Zion recently graduated from Yale and moved to New York City. He comes to volunteer at the convent where he spent the first few months of his life. How beautiful that God allowed our religious mission to inspire others. Zion, his team members and classmates at Yale, and all who are touched by Zion's goodness. Ours is just one of thousands of religious ministries seeking to be such a light in the world to create a society in which people are cared for, valued, and protected. Together we sacrifice for the vulnerable, uplift the downcast,
and enable human flourishing. But not everyone understands or shares our commitment to the sanctity of human life at all stages.
In 2022, the state of New York passed a law targeting our ministry to pregnant women. It allowed government officials to force pregnancy centers, but only those that do not perform abortion, to turn over internal documents, including sensitive information about the women we serve. Our missions are a place where women can feel safe with the knowledge that their stories are kept confidential. Many are in search of refuge from abusive partners and situations. We could not in good conscience break
trust with the women who come to us for help. Because we could not comply with the new law, we faced the threat of serious financial and legal punishments.
After much prayerful discernment, we sued the state of New York with the help of the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, eventually winning a court order protecting us and allowing us to continue providing for the needs of women who seek our help. Through this experience, we learned that we must value religious liberty as a society enough to continue prioritizing it a new for each succeeding generation. Most acts of charity by religious groups go unnoticed by the world at large. But it is through these actions motivated by the love of God that the world is changed one heart at a time.
Protecting religious ministries by protecting religious freedom is one of the best ways our policymakers can promote true human flourishing. Thank you for all you're doing to ensure that we can keep reaching out to serve those in need. God bless you.
The Debate Over Political Speech: The Johnson Amendment
One of the more provocative moments came from Kelly Shackelford, CEO of First Liberty Institute. He took aim at the Johnson Amendment, the tax code provision that prevents 501(c)(3) nonprofits—including churches—from endorsing political candidates.
"There’s a way to deal with this," Shackelford suggested, "and that is if the president would ask the IRS to go ahead and issue a small fine against any church for talking about politics."
His goal? To trigger a test case that would force the DOJ to defend the constitutionality of the regulation against the First Amendment in court. Notably, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has previously stated they would likely maintain their non-partisan stance even if the law changed.
Bishop Barron’s Warning: Religious Freedom/Conscience Rights/Catholic Charities
Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester highlighted what he described as escalating threats to religious freedom in the U.S., ranging from physical violence to regulatory mandates.
Public Safety: Barron flagged a rise in attacks on religious statues and houses of worship. He specifically noted that antisemitism—fueled by rhetoric from both ends of the political spectrum—is a primary concern.
Medical Conscience: A significant portion of his testimony focused on healthcare workers. He argued that forcing Catholic "physicians and nurses" to participate in procedures like abortion, contraception, IVF, and gender-transition surgeries constitutes a "repugnant" violation of their beliefs.
Immigration & Social Services: Barron argued that religious nonprofits (like Catholic Charities) should maintain access to government grants without compromising their mission. He also stressed that immigration enforcement should never disrupt worship services and that detainees deserve access to the sacraments.
New Proposal and Witness
The "Religious Liberty Hotline": Commission Chair and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proposed requiring businesses and schools to post a "notice of rights" regarding religious liberty in common areas, alongside a dedicated hotline for reporting violations.
Controversy and Lack of Diversity
Despite the commission's mandate to celebrate "religious pluralism," the body has faced significant internal and external criticism:
| Concern | Details |
| Member Removal | Carrie Prejean Boller was removed in February following "combative exchanges" with Jewish witnesses. She claimed religious bias; fellow commissioners (including Bishop Barron) disagreed. |
| Legal Challenge | A multifaith coalition (Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh groups) filed a federal lawsuit, alleging the commission represents only a "Judeo-Christian" viewpoint and lacks minority representation. |
| Separation of Church & State | Rachel Laser (Americans United) criticized the commission for "rebuking" the separation of church and state, calling the body a threat to true religious freedom for all. |
something that I said at the opening session of our commission, namely that the principal enemy of religious liberty in our country is what I call the ideology of self-invention. This is the
philosophical program that denies the objectivity of moral values and the stability of human nature and which proposes consequently that individual choice alone is the determiner of purpose and meaning. This dictatorship of relativism has taken hold in many of our institutions of government,
education and healthcare. And its advocates correctly recognize that their most important intellectual opponents are precisely those who subscribe to traditional religion.
It's no exaggeration to say that the proponents of the culture of self-invention want religion out of the pivotal institutions of our society. So we should be very cleareyed about this. Now this philosophical opposition manifests itself in a number of concrete ways and we've heard about them throughout this year. I'd mentioned first the anti-religious violence that's been increasing dramatically in our country over the past 5 to 10 years. Attacks on churches, statues, and most terribly of course on religious people themselves constitute a direct threat to religious liberty. The rise of anti-semitism encouraged by figures on both the left and the right sides of
the political spectrum is a particular concern here in regard to health care. The culture of self-invention expresses itself in an aggressive attitude toward those physicians and nurses who refuse on religious grounds to participate in certain medical procedures. Conscience protection for such individuals is therefore of crucial importance. This extends to, among other
issues, the HHS mandates regarding abortion and contraception, IVF insurance mandates to which Catholics strenuously object, and the requirement to perform so-called gender transition surgeries.
As we've heard now many times, this entire gender ideology, which proponents endeavor to insert into programs of education across the country, represents a very real threat to the religious liberty of those who find such ideas repugnant to their beliefs about the human person. And finally, under this healthcare rubric, we should continue to advocate for pro-life demonstrators who simply want the right to pray at sites where abortions are being performed. Criminalizing such righteous activity is a gross violation of religious liberty. We must also be vigilant with respect
to religious social service organizations such as Catholic charities that receive federal funding.
That financial support should not be contingent upon a repudiation of traditional teaching regarding marriage and family. Furthermore, since parents are the first and most important educators of their children, they should not be penalized through the tax code for choosing religious schooling. Also, the attempt in a number of states to require priests to break the seal of confession should be exposed for what it is, namely a particularly gross violation of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
never disrupt worship services in the carrying out of their duties. In a word, the religious liberty of detainees and worshippers should always be respected. And just a word by way of conclusion, I want to say the work of the of the our commission is of supreme importance in the life of our country. Religious liberty is rightly called the first of our freedoms and the lynchpin of our fundamental rights. So though it's far above my pay grade to make the suggestion, I'd nevertheless urge the president to allow this commission to continue in some form going forward. threats
to religious freedom both at home and abroad are not disappearing anytime soon and I believe it's
very much in the national interest to persevere in monitoring them. Thanks.
Comments