Mary Rice Hasson

Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that educates and equips parents and faith-based institutions to promote the truth about the human person and counter gender ideology. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, on topics related to women, education, and gender ideology. She serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth. Recently, Mary was honored to receive the Christifideles Laici award at the 2023 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

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Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that educates and equips parents and faith-based institutions to promote the truth about the human person and counter gender ideology. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, on topics related to women, education, and gender ideology. She serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth. Recently, Mary was honored to receive the Christifideles Laici award at the 2023 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

She speaks frequently at national conferences, universities, and in dioceses across the country, and has testified before the U.S. Senate, in state legislatures, and the Australian parliament on parents’ rights and transgender issues.

The co-author of several books on education, Mary’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, National Review, First Things, the National Catholic Register and Our Sunday Visitor, among others.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, Mary is married to Seamus Hasson, and they are parents of seven grown children and grandparents of four.


A note about the Person and Identity Project (PIP): The Person and Identity Project aims to equip parents and faith-based institutions with the facts, resources, and expertise to promote an authentic vision of the human person and to counter gender ideology.  PIP experts speak, write, and conduct workshops on gender ideology for churches, schools, parents, and faith-based organizations. See personandidentity.com


A note about the Catholic Women’s Forum: The Catholic Women’s Forum takes its inspiration from Pope St. John Paul II, who wrote that women have “the task of assuring the moral dimension of culture…a culture worthy of the person,” (Christifideles Laici, 51). The Catholic Women’s Forum provides a network for Catholic women scholars seeking fellowship and to influence the culture, and offers a forum for Catholic women to share faith, inspiration, and resources. See catholicwomensforum.org.


Recent publications:

Appellate brief in the 9th Circuit supporting challenge to Washington law effectively mandating “affirmation only” therapy for minors, December 16, 2021.

Bringing the Christ of Christmas to a Lost Generation,” Legatus Magazine, Dec 1, 2021

 “Erasing Females in Language and Law,” Journal of Christian Legal Thought, Christian Legal Society, Oct. 21, 2021.

Is It Emotional Abuse For Parents To Deny A Child’s Transgender Claims?” National Review Online, October 17, 2021.

Time for an Exodus from Public Schools?” Our Catholic Mission, Cardinal Newman Society, October 8, 2021.

The Equality Act and the End of Females,” Newsweek, February 24, 2021.

The Pope is Catholic After All,” co-author with Tim Busch, The Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2020.


Books and Book Chapters:

Chapter author, “Sexual Identity, Gender Ideology, and Religious Freedom: The Tug of War over ‘Who We Are,’ – Schools as Battlegrounds,” in the Handbook of Church and State, Shannon Holzer, ed. (New York, NY: Palgrave, expected publication fall 2022)

Co-author, with Theresa Farnan, PhD, of Get Out Now: Why You Should Pull Your Child From Public School Before It’s Too Late (Regnery: 2018)

Chapter author, “What About Sex: Habits of Heart for a Fulfilling Sexual Relationship and a Happy Marriage,” in Venus and Virtue: Celebrating Sex and Seeking Sanctification (2018).

Editor, Promise and Challenge: Catholic Women Reflect on Feminism, Complementarity, and the Church (Our Sunday Visitor: 2015)

Co-author, with Michele Hill, of the reportWhat Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience, and Contraception (EPPC 2012)

Co-author, with Kimberly Hahn of Catholic Education: Homeward Bound (Ignatius Press: 1996).


Selected Presentations and Interviews:

[See also the videos collected on the Person and Identity Project website]

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Women Are the Heralds of ‘Humanae Vitae’

Mary Rice Hasson

Women seem to be unhappier now than in previous generations. They need to hear the truth about the contraceptive mentality, especially from other women.

Articles

National Catholic Register / April 4, 2018

Judge Who Removed Trans Teen From Parents Highlights What’s At Stake

Mary Rice Hasson

The Ohio case is not a ‘slam dunk’ validation of adolescent transgender transition or of gender experts, but neither is it good news for parents: it foreshadows a troubling future in which teens will be allowed to decide (without parental consent) to pursue gender transitions.

Articles

The Federalist / February 21, 2018

Pediatrician: Revealing Your Baby’s Sex Might Traumatize Him

Mary Rice Hasson

The medical establishment is losing its bearings. Caught in the twilight zone of transgender alt-reality, where hurt feelings matter more than hard science, America’s pediatricians see a new threat on the horizon – the ‘gender reveal’ phenomenon.

Articles

The Federalist / December 1, 2017

Illinois Purges Social Workers and Foster Families Who Don’t ‘Facilitate’ Transgenderism

Mary Rice Hasson

Illinois’s child welfare agency has proclaimed staff must ‘affirm’ gender ideology and ‘facilitate’ LGBT identities for kids—or be fired.

Articles

The Federalist / May 30, 2017

Threatening Violence, Trans Activists Expel Un-PC Research At Medical Conference

Mary Rice Hasson

The drama at a recent medical conference on care for transgender persons reveals a disturbing picture of a medical community unable or unwilling to exercise independent judgment in the face of trans rage.

Articles

The Federalist / February 27, 2017

Do Catholic Hospitals Discriminate?

Mary Rice Hasson

Transgender patients raise issues of identity and language for Catholic health care facilities.

Articles

OSV Newsweekly / February 2, 2017

A Simple Gesture, a Grateful Heart: A Thanksgiving Lesson from Staff Sgt. Milosevic

Mary Rice Hasson

Ideologues may work to shred our cultural memory and thin the roots of our gratitude, but ordinary Americans can replant the seeds of deep gratitude on a daily basis.

Articles

Washington Examiner / November 28, 2016

Feminists’ Post-Election Panic Over Birth Control Is Shallow And Manipulative

Mary Rice Hasson

What matters most to feminist progressives is the need to help women keep their ‘uteruses as vacant as Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat.’

Articles

The Federalist / November 15, 2016

Report Debunks ‘Born that Way’ Narrative and ‘Transgender’ Label for Kids

Mary Rice Hasson

Political correctness about human sexuality is fostering horror stories for some of the nation’s most vulnerable children and their families. A new report attempts to clear that away to present the science.

Articles

The Federalist / August 24, 2016

New Study Refutes LGBT ‘Born that Way’ Theory, ‘Transgender’ Labels for Children

Mary Rice Hasson

It turns out those popular soundbites about sexual orientation and gender ideology are generally wrong, writes EPPC Fellow Mary Rice Hasson, as she and co-author Theresa Farnan unpack The New Atlantis report that dispels popular myths about sexual attraction, identity, and transgender children.

Articles

OSV Newsweekly / August 22, 2016

Reality Check: Gender Diversity is Driven by a Top-Down Ideological Movement

Mary Rice Hasson

How did transgenderism, gender fluidity, and the like gain such traction? And can we just wait it out? We must counter gender ideology now, before we find ourselves in a world we no longer recognize.

Articles

MercatorNet / June 9, 2016

Bathroom Guidelines Open Cultural Fault Line

Mary Rice Hasson

The Obama Administration’s latest “guidance” confirms that schools are ground zero for the promotion of gender ideology. But even ideologues can’t change reality — and it’s up to us to have the courage to say so.

Articles

Our Sunday Visitor / May 16, 2016