To review: The Obama Administration issued a mandate that all private health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization services (including abortifacients). This meant that all
organizations offering health insurance -businesses, charities, universities, non-profits, hospitals and other
religious organizations, other than churches - would be forced by the
Federal government to offer health coverage of contraceptives to their
employees, including those like Plan B or Ella that can destroy human
embryos. (see my previous blog)
After severe negative
reactions from people of faith who saw the mandate as a violation of their First Amendment rights, President Obama offered an accommodation. His compromise has given the American people a new mandate that forces everyone to
subsidize practices that violate their religious and moral beliefs. Religious
organizations and people of faith will still be paying for insurance plans who will in
turn give free contraceptives to their employees.
There have been at least a couple of efforts to fight Obama's trampling of the Constitution. Five colleges and universities and the Catholic
cable network EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) have filed suits claiming the federal government is violating their religious freedom. These organizations are spread across
the nation’s appellate court districts, part of a coordinated effort
lawyers hope will help put the cases on a fast track to the U.S. Supreme
Court. The colleges are Louisiana College, in Pineville, La.; Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa (the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) represents both
schools); Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic school in
Belmont, N.C.; Colorado Christian
University, a nondenominational school in Lakewood, CO; and Ave Maria University, a Catholic school in southwest
Florida (the Becket
Fund for Religious Liberty represents the schools).
“The First Amendment protects Americans from mandates that require us to
act against our own convictions,” said Kenneth Smith, president of
Geneva College, in a news release. “We find the
mandate to provide our faculty, staff, and students with insurance that
provides pills to abort babies totally abhorrent and unacceptable. The
government shouldn’t be able to force anyone to buy or sell insurance
that subsidizes morally objectionable treatments.” Two of the colleges also argue that the mandate violates the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the Constitution’s First
and Fifth amendments. 
Ave Maria University President Jim Towey said that Ave Maria
had no choice but to fight for its rights: “It is a sad day when an
American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its own
government in order to exercise religious liberty rights guaranteed by
our nation’s Constitution. Allowing a U.S. president of any political
party or religious affiliation to force conformance to his or her
religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action, is a perilous
precedent.”
On another front, members of Congress are attempting to overturn Obama's overreach. Reps. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Dan Boren (D-OK) introduced the
Respect for Rights of Conscience Act in the House (H.R. 1179), and Sen.
Roy Blunt (R-MO) sponsored the companion bill in the Senate (S. 1467).
This measure will ensure that those who participate in the health care
system “retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health
coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral
convictions.”
Congressional action is necessary. For far too long Congress has let Obama trample on the Constitution. We must insist Congress act on this bill now.
