(CP) For the second 12 months in a row, Illinois has ranked as the perfect state for religious liberty since it has essentially the most safeguards in place, while a majority of other states proceed to lack adequate protections for people of religion.
The Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy at First Liberty Institute released its third annual Religious Liberty within the States report last week. The report ranks all 50 states based on the presence or absence of spiritual liberty safeguards. For the second 12 months in a row, Illinois was ranked the perfect state for religious liberty, while West Virginia was ranked the worst.
However, Illinois’ overall rating of 81% marked a 4% drop from the 85% it received last 12 months. While West Virginia received the bottom rating amongst all 50 states, it saw its rating nearly double from 14% last 12 months to 24% this 12 months.
The report, titled “Religious Liberty within the States,” took 16 religious liberty safeguards into consideration when assigning scores. Illinois’ 81% rating reflects the indisputable fact that it has essentially the most safeguards in place, only lacking protections for public officials who don’t desire to perform same-sex weddings, for-profit businesses that don’t desire to supply services for such an occasion, those that don’t desire to perform abortions within the case of a medical emergency, and protections guaranteeing that houses of worship are usually not forced to shut.
Illinois has all other religious liberty safeguards in place, including absentee voting for religious reasons, general conscience protections for healthcare employees, protections for healthcare employees who are not looking for to perform sterilizations, protections for healthcare employees who don’t desire to prescribe contraception, medical insurance mandate exemptions for employers who don’t desire to cover abortions and sterilizations, in addition to protections for clergy and spiritual entities that don’t desire to be required to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.
Additionally, Illinois allows minors to eat alcohol as a part of a spiritual ceremony, has a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in place, allows exemptions to childhood vaccine requirements for religious reasons and permits excused absences from school for religious reasons.
Across the United States, essentially the most commonly adopted religious liberty safeguard is exemptions to medical insurance mandates. The following states wouldn’t have exemptions to immunization requirements: California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin lacking complete protections on this area. Only California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia.
All but eight states — Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia — allow absentee voting for religious reasons.
Exactly one-half of the states have a Religious Freedom Restoration Act on the books, specifically Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Only 19 states allow clergy to refrain from participating in same-sex weddings: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington.
Similarly, only 18 states protect houses of worship from forced closure: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
Less common religious liberty safeguards include general conscience protections for healthcare employees, which only Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington have in place.
Only 4 states allow public officials to recuse themselves from performing same-sex weddings: Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina and Utah. Mississippi is the one state that enables for-profit businesses to opt out of providing services for same-sex weddings.
Besides Illinois, other states that received a rating of no less than 50% on the difficulty of spiritual liberty were Florida (73%), Montana (66%), Arkansas (66%), Mississippi (65%), Ohio (65%), South Carolina (64%), Utah (61%), Washington (59%), Maryland (58%), New Mexico (56%), North Dakota (52%) and Hawaii (51%). Joining West Virginia in the underside 10 were Alaska (29%), California (29%), Vermont (29%), Wyoming (30%), New York (33%), New Jersey (33%), Colorado (34%), Michigan (35%) and New Hampshire (35%).
