RFI President Eric Patterson joined Dr. Ben Carson’s “Common Sense” podcast to discuss the growing religious liberty crisis in the United States, its impact on healthcare, and the need to protect conscience rights for medical professionals.

Patterson argued that people of deeply held religious convictions are increasingly expected to confine those convictions to their private lives, keeping them out of American public life altogether. “We’re at a time where defending religious freedom – and frankly, re-explaining it – is crucial to our democracy,” he said. And recognizing that religious freedom has always been intended in the American tradition to be exercised in public as well as private life is an essential idea that must be defended anew.

Patterson and Carson spoke about areas in which medical professionals are being forced to perform procedures that violate their religious convictions and medical judgments, such as assisted suicide and euthanasia, abortion, and “transgender” treatments. These practitioners often face discrimination, shaming, and even lawsuits if they do not comply. When asked what we can do in response, Patterson explained an important step that state leaders can take:

One thing we can do in America, and we’re doing it here at RFI with allies, is to protect the rights of those people through medical conscience rights legislation… not simply leaving it to the courts, but protecting these rights in law, in state codes; and over time, informing people and changing the culture in such a way that we protect this at the national level.

Watch the full interview below and listen to the interview here: