Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, took to the House floor Tuesday to warn that there are Americans who want to “force” their religious beliefs upon us by law. You’re probably thinking: Finally! A Republican with the courage to talk about some states’ total abortion bans thanks to a subset of right-wing Christians who believe “life begins at conception.”
He proudly supports people forcing their religious beliefs upon others through laws that strip women of reproductive freedom.
Of course, that’s not what Roy was talking about. He proudly supports people forcing their religious beliefs upon others through laws that strip women of reproductive freedom. He has an “A+” rating from the so-called pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Roy was peddling the lie about American Muslims. “I’ve got some pretty strong concerns about Sharia law and whether that will be forced upon the American people,” he said. Roy claimed that there’s been a “massive Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom.” Facts don’t matter when you’re ginning up hate for political gain.
You’re also probably thinking: Isn’t the GOP fearmongering about “Sharia law” so 2012? Yep, you are correct.
During that year’s presidential campaign, Republican candidate Newt Gingrich told the lie that Muslims in America want to impose our religious beliefs as law and made it a central theme of his campaign. Other Republican presidential candidates followed suit. Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, said, “Creeping Sharia [law] is a huge issue here in the United States.” Four years later, Gingrich said during a Fox News appearance, “We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia they should be deported.”
It’s safe to say that Gingrich wouldn’t support deportation for conservative Christians who, unlike Muslims, are imposing their religious beliefs as law.
Apparently, Roy thought Tuesday was the time to go back to the “worst of” the GOP and claim that it’s we Muslims who want our religious beliefs to have the force of law. But he won’t find any evidence that the about 4 million Muslims in America are doing that.
However, since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the GOP-controlled Supreme Court in 2022, we have seen an onslaught of laws enacted by Republicans in states they control that force extreme religious views upon the rest of us. In 14 states, Republicans have now banned abortion at day one of conception — often with no exceptions for rape or incest. In other states, they have imposed six-week abortion bans — when a fetus is about the size of a grain of rice and many women may not yet know that they’re pregnant.
Republicans don’t deny that their abortion bans are grounded in their own religious beliefs. For example, in August 2022, when Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a total abortion ban, he declared: “I promised Oklahomans that as governor I would sign every piece of pro-life legislation,” adding, “From the moment life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to do everything we can to protect that baby’s life.”
The idea that “life begins at conception,” which Roy also espouses, is a religious belief held by only a subset of Christians. And despite polls showing nearly 70% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy, Republican extremists like Roy don’t care what the rest of us want. This is tyranny of the religious minority.
After the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision was announced, ending a 50-year right for women to reproductive freedom, Roy released a statement declaring, “Thanks be to God.” This is the same Roy who last week ginned up fears after a Muslim candidate in the United Kingdom, upon learning that he’d won his election, said, “God is great” in Arabic.
I wish we could just laugh at the hypocrisy of people like Roy, but we can’t. His rhetoric and his beliefs are dangerous to women and to Muslims in America. In states that have enacted total abortion bans, studies have shown an alarming spike in maternal mortality. And a 2023 poll of OB-GYNs by the health research nonprofit organization KFF found that since Roe was overturned, nearly 70% of the doctors said the ruling has “worsened pregnancy-related mortality.”
I wish we could just laugh at the hypocrisy of people like Roy but we can’t. His rhetoric and his beliefs are dangerous to women and to Muslims.
The nation was gripped last year by the story of Kate Cox, who unsuccessfully begged courts in Texas, Roy’s home state, to allow her to have an abortion given that the fetus she was carrying had been diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder that significantly increased the risk of stillbirth or infant death shortly after birth. Even though Cox’s life was in danger and she encountered medical complications, the GOP-controlled Texas Supreme Court refused to allow her an abortion, and Cox was compelled to travel to another state for the procedure “due to the ongoing deterioration” of her health.
Then there is the risk to Muslim Americans posed by Roy’s Sharia law lie. He must be aware that in 2015, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called for a total ban on Muslims’ being allowed in the country, the spike in hate crimes against our community eclipsed the spike after 9/11. Tragically, hate incidents against Muslims during the Israel-Hamas war have spiked again. Roy’s peddling of baseless accusations against our community will only make things more dangerous.
But Roy is right about one thing: We must be on guard against religious extremists who want to “force” their religious beliefs “upon the American people.” Religion-inspired abortion bans are killing women.
