A bill has been proposed in Congress which would require women in the United States to register for draft into military service.

This petition exists to alert lawmakers to the reality that this would harm American family life and make living according to their faith impossible for many religious persons. Our petition to lawmakers is to cast their vote against the bill to preserve American family, rights, and religion.

THE BILL
The bill, numbered House Bill 4478, aims "to extend the registration and conscription requirements of the Selective Service System, currently applicable only to men between the ages of 18 and 26, to women between those ages".
The bill can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house...
It is a part of a larger bill, found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house...
Many Republicans, who have traditionally defended family values, are voting for the larger bill because it includes provisions for defense funding, etc. If it passes, however, the draft registration requirement will become a reality for American women, irrespective of their beliefs, and perhaps even of whether they have children at home in their care.

THE FREEDOMS WE ARE PROTECTING
Women have a right to be homemakers if they so choose, men are divinely appointed to be protectors, and men and women have a right to live according to their faith. Husbands and wives have a right to rear their own families. This bill would severely hamper these rights, requiring husbands and wives to rely on daycare for their children in the event of their mutual absence. It would eliminate potential for many young women of my faith and of others who are hopeful to marry and rear a family from having the promise of protection for that future by the government and prospective spouse.

The strength of America is in its homes and families. Allowing a mechanism to extradite mothers from their homes or to divert prospective mothers away from their desired calling would make America into a vast orphanage, and our children would be taught the philosophies of strangers. There would be no strength and no vitality in our nation in times of war, and unsettledness in times of peace. The burden of those at war is shared and eased by those on the home front. We look to our ancestors and the ancestors of others who fought in the Second World War, and we remember the assurance and the strength they received from those who were working, fighting, and praying back home. In that war, women of courage and grit eased the burden on our soldiers and government by their thrift, labors, ingenuity and self-reliance. They diligently taught their children the principles of freedom to keep them unsullied by enemy doctrines. Many also supplied factories with materials and labor, kept up food production, and worked with news and broadcasting agencies to keep people informed. They demonstrated to the rising generation the value of work over idleness. If we enable our government to draft women, who is there left to hold down the fort? Who is comforting, teaching, nurturing, and keeping our children safe? A war is not won by guns and bombs alone. The greatest work in the world is done by mothers. Abandoning the nest will leave our precious eggs, so to speak, unguarded against the ravenous hawks, foxes, and wolves that are the very reason we would have cause to go to war.
Mothers have a unique gift of nurturing children; even if the husband in a family is permitted to stay at home, there will not be the same benefit to the children—children have a natural reliance on the nurturing capacity of a mother that can in no way be retrograded or replaced by fathers. Fathers are similarly irreplaceable in their distinctive duties, and it is mockery and especially poisonous to the rising generation to suggest that the two are interchangeable to no ill effect.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION
The Family: A Proclamation to the World1 is a central document of my faith that clearly sets forth these values and obligations. Many faiths espouse a similar creed or belief in traditional families and have set forth documents and teachings outlining the respective responsibilities of husbands and wives.2
The religious rights of many will no longer be safeguarded if this legislation is passed, because of the constant threat of sacrificing the sacred calling of motherhood for what is ultimately a disservice to our country, dissolving the security of the family and dismantling the strength and vitality of our nation from within. The sacred right of parents to rear their children will be up for grabs.

I do not speak for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I speak as an individual observer of that faith. I have made sacred covenants to uphold the doctrine of the family as taught by living prophets under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In September of 1995, the Prophet and President of the Church at that time, Gordon B. Hinckley, issued The Family: A Proclamation to the World on behalf of the Church.

In part, it states:
"Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

Further, the divinely decreed roles of each respective gender within the marriage relationship are clearly defined:
"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

The proposed bill would greatly weaken the Constitutionally guaranteed liberty of millions of American families to live according to their faith, including my own, making this country uninhabitable by persons practicing such faiths.

The Proclamation on the Family further states:
"In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."
It is manifest to the world that we who sign this petition already view, or support the religious freedom of those who view, men and women as equals without feeling a need to force women into the roles of men or vice-versa in order to enact said equality.

OUR APPEAL
Our officers of government have a moral obligation to the American people to protect their Constitutional rights, including the free exercise of religion.

We appeal to the protections granted in the First Amendment of the Constitution, namely, that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".

We call upon our people to protect the right of women of our faith and others to prepare for and perform without hindrance the sacred responsibilities of motherhood, which is our nation's greatest strength.

We encourage our lawmakers to vote against this bill and the larger bill, HB 4909, to which it is attached, until the draft requirement for women is removed.

This petition will be delivered to our lawmakers in Congress with the attached signatures as evidence of irreparable harm to American families caused by the bill's assault against First Amendment rights, if passed.

I encourage you to join in defending America's families, faith, and freedom by adding your voice to this petition.

References
1. The Family: A Proclamation to the World. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/the...
Accessed May 27, 2016.
2. The Role and Responsibility of Catholic Parents. http://catholicnews.sg/index.php?option=com_conten...
Accessed May 27, 2016.