Catholic governor signs assisted suicide law ‘after careful prayer’

Washington D.C., Mar 14, 2019 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- As part of a wide-reaching crackdown on the online sale of illegal drugs, the US Food and Drug Administration has warned several online providers of abortion-inducing medications to stop the sale of unap… […]

CNA Staff, Mar 25, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Legislators in several states are moving to address the practice of “debanking” as part of an effort to stop what some critics say are anti-conservative measures employed by major U.S. financial institutions.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines debanking as “the act by a bank of closing someone’s account because they are regarded as a risk legally, financially, or to the bank’s reputation.” Critics have claimed that the practice is used by banks to antagonize certain groups, including conservatives and other political activists. 

For example, the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit earlier this month against one of the largest banks in the United States. President Donald Trump claims he was a victim of debanking after Capital One allegedly closed hundreds of his organization’s accounts soon after his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

In her recently-released memoir, Melania Trump alleged that she and her son, Barron, were also debanked.

The Ruth Institute, a global coalition designed to equip Christians to defend the family, alleged it was debanked in 2017. Just two years ago, a Memphis-based Christian charity called the Indigenous Advance Ministries also claimed that it had been debanked by Bank of America.

In another high-profile case, in 2022 former U.S. senator and ambassador Sam Brownback announced that his nonprofit group the National Committee for Religious Freedom had been debanked.

Over the past decade, other high-ranking individuals and grassroots organizations have reportedly faced debanking, including Nigel Farage, who led the Brexit effort in the United Kingdom; evangelist and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic; Moms for Liberty, a parental rights advocacy group; Christian author and preacher Lance Wallnau; and Timothy Two Project International, a Christian ministry.

U.S. bishops ‘monitoring’ debanking; legislators move to address 

While it’s unclear to what extent debanking has affected U.S. Catholics, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops acknowledged the phenomenon in its 2025 religious liberty report. 

“In recent years, individuals have raised concerns that banks are discriminating on the basis of political and religious viewpoints,” the report read.

“In response to incidents like these, some states have begun passing laws intended to prevent politically motivated debanking,” the bishops noted. “However, the U.S. government argues that these laws hamstring banks, who need to be able to account for potential customers’ exposure to foreign actors. The lack of transparency, though, makes it difficult to ascertain why someone like Ambassador Brownback would be debanked.”

According to the report, the USCCB is “monitoring this issue but has not taken a position on it.” 

Taking action against debanking 

Some lawmakers are moving to address the controversy via legislation.

An anti-debanking bill in Idaho was sent to the state governor for signature last week.

The Transparency in Financial Services Act would prohibit “large financial institutions from discriminating against customers based on their political or religious views” and would give customers the right to request the reason for denial from an institution.

Montana’s Republican-sponsored Equality in Financial Services Act and South Carolina’s anti-debanking bill — similar to Idaho’s bill — have made some progress in the state Legislature, while Georgia’s Freedom of Speech and Belief Act failed to pass at the beginning of March.

Some see changes in bank policy, or even legal changes, as potential solutions to debanking.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) — a legal group committed to protecting religious freedom and freedom of speech — worked with Indigenous Advance Ministries to file a consumer complaint following its alleged debanking in 2022.

“No American should ever fear losing access to their bank account due to their religious or political beliefs,” Lathan Watts, ADF’s vice president of public affairs, told CNA.

In its 2023 Viewpoint Diversity Score Index, ADF found that 7 out of 10 of the largest commercial banks — including Chase — have “hate speech” or “reputational risk” policies that contribute to debanking.

JPMorgan Chase, a top American bank, recently adjusted its policy, agreeing to protect clients against political and religious debanking in its code of conduct after 19 attorneys general petitioned the bank to cease its debanking practices in 2023.

“Chase’s policy change is a significant step by our nation’s largest bank to uphold financial access for all Americans,” Watts said. “This change provides necessary protections for customers like Ambassador Brownback, whose account at the National Committee for Religious Freedom was unexpectedly canceled in 2022.”

Watts shared his hope that other banks will take similar measures.

“Alliance Defending Freedom actively engaged with Chase in these negotiations, and we are hopeful that other banks will follow suit in safeguarding fundamental financial freedoms,” Watts said.

Jennifer Roback Morse, the founder and president of the Ruth Institute — an organization dedicated to combating the effects of the sexual revolution — recalled her own experience allegedly being debanked.

“In 2017, the Ruth Institute was one of the first organizations to be attacked in the banking arena,” Morse told CNA. “In our case, our credit card processor cut us off with no notification, or explanation, except to say that we ‘violated its standards.’”

While there was no clear explanation, Morse believes it was due to a leftist law center labeling the organization as a hate group. 

“We surmised this was because we were listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Hate Map’ for our opposition to the redefinition of marriage and other LGBT-issues,” Morse said. “Thankfully, we were able to secure another credit card processor fairly quickly.” 

Morse told CNA that banking “is a highly regulated, semi-monopolistic industry, comparable in some respects to public utilities such as electricity and water.”

“I am in favor of banks being legally required to be transparent and even-handed in their standards,” she said.

“Alternatively, if banks are permitted to engage in viewpoint discrimination,” she argued, “I would urge that bakers, florists, therapists, and other professionals also be permitted to refuse service to potential customers for any reason they choose.”

“A disappointed customer can find an alternative photographer a lot easier than they can find an alternative bank,” Morse noted. “And it is a lot easier to participate in the business world without a photographer or florist than to survive without banking services.”

‘A balanced approach’ 

While conservative legislators are pushing these anti-debanking bills, support for this legislation is not entirely united within the conservative movement.

A recent poll found that while a majority of conservatives are concerned about debanking, nearly three-quarters of conservatives expressed support for banks having the right to choose their own clients. 

The poll by the Tyson Group found that conservatives “do not support broad government intervention that prevents financial institutions from making risk-based assessments when determining their customers.” 

“When informed that legislation could force businesses to provide services to customers at odds with their values and the conservative movement, many expressed hesitations,” the study noted.

“As conservatives push for greater accountability from regulators, they also seek a balanced approach to debanking that avoids unintended consequences and protects the rights of both consumers and businesses.”

Some opponents of anti-debanking laws maintain that restrictions against debanking could have unintended consequences.

In South Carolina, for example, an anti-debanking bill under consideration, the Equality in Financial Services Act, would prevent financial institutions from discriminating when providing financial services.

But a Republican executive committeeman from Richland, South Carolina, is concerned that such an anti-debanking law could require pro-life banks to work with abortionists.

“Stopping abortion and protecting children requires winning hearts and minds but also cutting off the financial pipeline that enables these activities,” Eaddy Roe Willard, Richland GOP executive committeeman, told CNA. “Misguided legislation at the state level will only make it harder to do that.”

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Hartford, Conn., Jan 31, 2020 / 04:28 pm (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Connecticut issued a statement Tuesday clarifying Church teaching on vaccines, as legislators in the state consider a proposal that would eliminate the option for religious exemptions from vaccines.

The bishops said that while the Church considers vaccines to be moral and encourages their use, religious freedom is also an important right to protect.

“The Catholic Church encourages the use of vaccines, and our Connecticut Catholic schools require mandatory vaccinations,” the bishops said Jan. 28.

The bishops issued their statement ahead of a Feb. 19 hearing, during which Connecticut lawmakers will hear arguments from hundreds of people regarding the proposal to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccines, the Hartford Courant reported.

The bill, which would eliminate the exemption if passed, is being drafted ahead of the hearing but may be amended afterward. The Hartford Courant reported that at one time, lawmakers were considering “grandfathering in” children who already enrolled in school with a religious exemption for their vaccines, allowing them to stay enrolled in school. However, the paper reported, legislators seemed to be reconsidering that proposal.

“(State Health Commissioner Renee) Coleman-Mitchell and other state officials have cited concern for children with compromised immune systems who cannot receive shots for medical reasons,” should the exemption remain, the Hartford Courant reported. If passed, religious exemptions for enrollment in school would be eliminated by October 2021.

In their statement, the bishops recognized that conscientious objection to vaccines often arises with “certain vaccines that use human fetal cell lines, but the use of such vaccines is not immoral according to Church guidance.”

The bishops recommended that concerned Catholics reference the Pontifical Academy for Life’s guidance to Catholics on vaccines.

In these guidelines, the academy states that Catholics should advocate for morally uncomplicated alternatives to vaccines that are made from fetal cell lines, and for which there are no alternatives.

The academy notes that conscientious objection may be used as one way to advocate for moral vaccine alternatives, “if it can be done without causing children, and indirectly the population as a whole, to undergo significant risks to their health.”

It adds that conscientious objection to such vaccines is not a moral obligation for Catholics, especially if and when it would cause “grave inconvenience” in threatening the health and life of children and other vulnerable populations.

“In any case, there remains a moral duty to continue to fight and to employ every lawful means in order to make life difficult for the pharmaceutical industries which act unscrupulously and unethically. However, the burden of this important battle cannot and must not fall on innocent children and on the health situation of the population—especially with regard to pregnant women,” the academy states.

The bishops also noted the importance of religious freedom in debates about vaccines and religious exemptions.

“The Connecticut Catholic Conference, our public policy office, stands as a defender of religious liberty for all,” they said. “In general, the Conference maintains that all religious exemptions should be jealously guarded.”

“Any repeal of a religious exemption should be rooted in legitimate, grave public health concerns. The existence of a health risk in the state of Connecticut is a question of fact beyond our expertise at this time,” the bishops concluded.

States and schools are grappling with religious exemptions to vaccines as the number of people declining vaccines for religious or personal reasons has increased.

In October 2019, the Archdiocese of Seattle announced that it would no longer admit children to Catholic schools who did not have mandatory vaccinations, and that it would no longer allow personal or religious exemptions.

In 2016, California passed a law adding more stringent guidelines as to what counted for medical and personal exemptions from vaccines, which also called for the investigation of doctors who wrote too many exemptions in a year. Since the law passed, the state has recovered a 95% vaccination rate, Forbes reported, the rate needed for herd immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases.

The Hartford Courant noted that an effort to eliminate religious exemptions to vaccines was recently defeated in New Jersey, and that groups in Connecticut advocating for religious exemptions hoped for a similar outcome.

In the U.S., measles outbreaks have occurred in recent years as more people decline vaccinations. As of October 25, 2019, the Connecticut Department of Public Health confirmed four cases of measles for that year in the state. Nationally, the Center for Disease Control reported that 2019 marked the highest measles rate in the United States in 27 years, with most cases of the measles occurring in unvaccinated people.

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