Announcing RLS 2024’s Runner-up State: Florida

Florida has ranked in the top ten in Religious Liberty in the States’ previous two editions, but its position among those ten states has fallen and risen dramatically each year.

In 2022, Florida ranked fourth, with a score of 58 percent. The following year, its percentage rose slightly to 60 percent, but it fell to eighth place in the rankings. RLS 2023 added new items and safeguards for which the Sunshine State already had statutes, but several other states rose ahead because they took intentional legislative action to protect religious liberty that year.

This year, it was Florida that took the legislative initiative that fueled its rise to second place in RLS 2024’s religious liberty rankings with a 73 percent score—an impressive 13-point rise.

Florida lawmakers passed a general conscience provision for medical providers with religious or moral objections to certain procedures. They also protected houses of worship from being closed during pandemics, which is one of the new safeguards RLS added this year.

Florida’s increase in the rankings is a good example of the two main ways a state’s score is affected from year to year—by passing new laws and having laws on the books that are reflected in new safeguards identified by RLS over time.

General Conscience Safeguard

On May 11, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 1580 into law. It took effect on July 1, 2023. The law protects medical professionals and insurers from having to participate in procedures to which they have religious or moral objections.

As the law states, “‘Right of medical conscience’ means the right of a health care provider or health care payor to abide by sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs… A health care provider or payor has the right to opt out of participation in or payment for any health care service on the basis of a conscience-based objection.”

Florida also added statutes for protecting objections related to sterilization and contraception refusal, bringing its total exemptions for health care providers to 14 out of 20.

Protecting Houses of Worship from Forced Closures

One of the many controversies during the COVID-19 pandemic was the forced closure of churches and other houses of worship while similarly situated businesses and other entities were allowed to remain open. The criteria determining which entities were “essential” often seemed arbitrary.

In response, Florida was one of 18 states to pass a law treating houses of worship the same way local and state governments had been treating essential services throughout the pandemic. Because this is a new statute that is actually on the books in several states, we added this as a new safeguard in RLS’s 2024 edition.

SB 254 took effect in Florida on July 1, 2022. It prevents the state from discriminating against religious institutions in these matters and protects the freedom of these places to determine for themselves whether they’ll close. The law applies to all houses of worship equally, not just Christian churches.

This provision is an example of how a state’s RLS score can change as the report continually updates the safeguards it identifies from year to year.

Can Florida Dethrone Illinois in Future Rankings?

Florida has made great progress over the last year. But it can do more, and to improve it would do well to look to Illinois, which has held on to its first-place position.

The biggest difference between the two states concerns the Health-Care Provisions group. Illinois has protections for all items pertaining to sterilization and contraception refusal and six of the seven items under abortion refusal.

Florida, however, does not provide complete protection for any of these specific conscience-based refusals. While it has made progress by passing its general conscience statute, it can further protect this fundamental right by focusing on these detailed items in the coming year.

The Sunshine State also lacks half the safeguards for freedoms found in the Marriages and Weddings group and has failed to enact one-third of the safeguards for Religious Ceremonial Life.

None of this is to take away from Florida’s impressive gains from 2023 to 2024. Its initiative to pass laws protecting conscious medical objectors illustrates how a state can create concrete, positive change in the lives of its citizens, while its early decision to protect houses of worship shows how additional safeguards identified by RLS each year can reveal existing conditions for religious liberty in any given state.

Want to see where your state ranks? Check out the RLS index state ranking or access the report to learn more.