With an overall score of 82%, Mississippi ranked No. 1 in a recent report examining how states respond to religious freedoms through legislation.

In its analysis, “Religious Liberty in the States 2022,” the organization First Liberty Institute put each state under the microscope and examined their laws for such issues as private hospitals’ ability to refuse abortion services and the types of exemptions that are in place for marriage solemnization and wedding participation.

Mississippi’s top-level rank in the report was predicated on its safeguards of for-profit businesses in solemnization, recognition, association and celebration of marriages and weddings that would conflict with a business owner’s moral or religious beliefs.

Louisiana was ranked 27th.

Louisiana passed its Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2010 and has been a place of religious pluralism historically, owing in part to the influence of Catholicism among French and Spanish immigrants.

According to the report, Mississippi is the only state to offer the levels of protections in for-profit businesses.

Mississippi’s state statute includes sections on civil practice and procedure, and the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.

This is the first time First Liberty Institute compiled an index of states’ laws around religious freedom.

“The index aims to be robust in the sense that it is intended to capture all the relevant areas of variation in legal safeguards for religious exercise across all 50 states,” wrote Jordan Ballor, director of research for the institute’s Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy.

The organization’s first go-around of examining states’ various policies included an index of six different areas of action by state laws – including absentee voting, childhood immunization requirements and health care provider exemptions – wrapped around 29 distinct protections.

Mississippi lost scores in two specific metrics – not offering provisions for absentee voting and not offering exemptions for childhood immunization requirements.

The state checked all 20 of the boxes for its exemptions to health care providers, including general health care, abortion refusal, sterilization refusal and contraception refusal.

Mississippi’s neighbors had middling results in the analysis. Arkansas and Louisiana each tied for No. 27 in the ranking, while Tennessee was No. 7 and Alabama was No. 12.

While Mississippi did achieve the top ranking for some of its conservative-leaning policies, the report was not divided along states’ strong political leanings. Case in point: Illinois, with Democrats holding the position of governor and majority in the Legislature, followed closely behind at No. 2.

The bottom ranking states included California (No. 48), West Virginia (No. 49) and New York (No. 50).

In the report’s executive summary, the researchers outlined their approach to drawing comparisons between the states.

“To maintain objectivity, RLS does not start with a predetermined list of religiously significant topic areas,” the researchers wrote. “We look to the states to indicate where laws are relevant for religious liberty.’

The report further stated, “Where one state grants an exemption, for instance, to those with a sincere religious belief, we identify a potential safeguard and turn to the remaining states to determine whether they are implementing the same safeguard.”