Former Mayor Ray Flynn this week wrote a letter of support for U.S. Sen. Scott Brown’s push for a “conscience clause” exempting employers from covering contraceptive services based on religious or moral objections.

“As a proud American and strong defender of the U.S. Constitution, I want to thank you for your courageous political and moral leadership on this and other issues,” Flynn, a conservative Democrat and a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said in the letter, which was released by Brown’s office. “I intend to tell anyone who will listen how you stood tall in protecting the human and civil rights of everyone.”

The Senate voted 51-48 Thursday to kill the “conscience clause” measure, known as the Blunt Amendment. Democrats have blasted the amendment as too broad.

Flynn voted for Brown, a Wrentham Republican, in the 2010 special election to replace the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. In October, Flynn escorted the freshman senator around the Irish Heritage Festival in Adams Corner.

Brown is up for reelection in the fall and facing Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.