ABSTRACT
Open up a daily newspaper and you will see how religious groups attempt to influence government actions. Often controversial, sometimes dangerous, religious pressures on public policy are everywhere. They include such seemingly insignificant issues as posting the Ten Commandments in a courthouse or as intensely debated as prayers in public schools. Religious groups also try to influence public policy that places limits on women’s freedom of choice regarding their reproductive rights; attempts to ban embryonic stem-cell research; prohibiting sex education in public schools; insisting on the primacy of abstinence-only instruction for health workers receiving American funding in foreign countries; and downplaying condom use that would reduce exposure to AIDS. Some religious leaders opposed public funds to provide cancer vaccine for young women out of fear it will encourage promiscuity. Other restrictions include prohibiting public health workers from informing women of all their treatment options if those should include terminating a pregnancy, even one caused by rape or incest.
