Malcolm Potts is an obstetrician and reproductive scientist and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He has studied oral contraceptives since the 1960s and says the Catholic Church needs to recognize the health benefits – aside from contraception – of the birth control pill.

Thomas A. Cavanaugh is a philosophy professor at the University of San Francisco and one of nearly 100 scholars nationwide who signed a letter denouncing Obama’s contraception coverage mandate.

Michael McBride is an associate professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine. He specializes in religion and the economy and writes the blog The Religious Marketplace.

Joanna Brooks teaches American literature at San Diego State University. She also writes about religion and culture for religiondispatches.org and has been recognized for her writing on Mormons. She is the author of The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of American Faith (2012).

Kristin E. Heyer is an associate professor in the religious studies department at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. She co-edited Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension Between Faith & Power.

Ahilan Arulanantham is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Co-Director of its Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP). He formerly directed immigrant rights and national security cases for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Sunaina Maira, an associate professor of Asian-American studies at the University of California, Davis, writes about youth and immigrant culture. Her upcoming book is called Missing: Youth, Citizenship and Empire After 9/11.

Kristen Monroe is a professor of philosophy and political science at the University of California, Irvine, and director of its Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality. She is the author of The Heart of Altruism: Perceptions of a Common Humanity.

Ali Eastburn is the founder of With This Ring, a Christian organization that asks people to give up their wedding rings to buy clean water for villages in underdeveloped nations.