White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday that the administration is looking to strike a balance when defending religious liberty, dismissing a purported draft executive order that would vastly expand protections for businesses and institutions opposed to same-sex marriage or providing contraception coverage.
Mr. Spicer said the president recognizes “there is a line” that must be respected between religious liberty and tolerance in the workplace. President Trump wants to make sure the “line is less blurry,” he said.
“We shouldn’t impose a religion on anybody. We are free to express our religion or not have one, that in our country is an equally valid way of living your life,” Mr. Spicer told reporters at the White House. “At the same time, people who want to express their faith shouldn’t be ostracized because they want to do that.”
Earlier, Mr. Trump said in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast that his administration “will do everything in its power to defend and protect religious liberty in our land,” including lifting prohibitions on political speech by religious groups.
Those comments and other remarks helped fuel concerns among liberal groups that Mr. Trump plans to undermine protections against discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, as well as allow businesses to force religious beliefs on workers.
Mr. Spicer said the federal government in recent years had imposed regulations and policies that infringed on the ability of businesses and institutions to exercise their faith. He cited Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor, which successfully challenged the Obamacare mandate to provide employee health coverage for contraceptives.
“There’s clearly a lot of evidence in the last couple years of the government coming in with a lot of regulations and policies that frankly denied people the ability to live according to their faith,” Mr. Spicer said.
He discounted the purported executive order that has been circulating in Washington, the latest in a series of supposed draft documents that he insists are not official White House documents.
Mr. Spicer said the president asks for input and ideas on a range of issues.
“But until the president makes up his mind and gives feedback and decides that that’s final, there’s nothing to announce,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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