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Obama Administration ‘Doubles Down’ on Fight Against Nuns

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Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Post – Gazette / NewscomThe Obama administration has decided to continue its legal battle against Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic charity that objects to Obamacare’s mandate that employee health plans cover contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

The order of Catholic nuns argues that the rule fashioned by the Department of Health and Human Services requires them to violate their religious beliefs by offering insurance coverage for 20 specific drugs and devices — some of which the nuns believe could destroy what they consider a human life.

If the Little Sisters of the Poor choose not to abide by the HHS mandate, they face devastating fines by the Internal Revenue Service that could result in millions of dollars a year being diverted from their mission of caring for elderly women and men.

Sarah Torre, a policy analyst in The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society who tracks the legal trail of the HHS mandate, said:

It’s really incredible, even after so many losses in federal court, that the Obama administration is doubling down to enforce this coercive mandate against religious organizations – even against charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor who do such necessary and effective work serving those in need.

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Contraception Mandate Turning into Abortion Mandate?

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Photo Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

Photo Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

During a recent Supreme Court argument over the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptives mandate, Justice Anthony Kennedy cut to the heart of the government’s argument. “Under your view,” he told Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, “a for-profit corporation could be forced to pay for abortions.” After some verbal fumbling, Verrilli conceded: “you’re right.” But, he quickly added, there is nothing to fear because there “is no law like that on the books.”

Not yet.

Earlier this year, Washington State tried to be the first. HB 2148, Washington’s Reproductive Parity Act, would require any health plan that covers maternity care to cover elective, surgical abortions also. The bill is supported by a majority of the Washington legislature and the governor. It is stalled — for now — in the Senate Health Care Committee.

The reach of this abortion mandate would be extensive, because current federal laws require almost all insurance plans to cover maternity services. Washington State stands ready to require almost every business in the state to cover elective abortions.

Although HB 2148 cites an existing conscience clause in Washington law, it is immediately followed by another clause that seems to nullify it. How the two can be reconciled is unclear.

What is clear is that the federal government believes no for-profit corporation has an enforceable – or even cognizable – conscience objection to such a law. In his argument, Solicitor General Verrilli made it clear, repeatedly, that the government believes for-profit corporations do not have constitutional or statutory rights to protection of their religious exercise. The government seems to believe the same regarding religious nonprofit corporations. While grudgingly recognizing that churches are entitled to an “exemption” from the contraceptives mandate, HHS granted religious nonprofit corporations an “accommodation” instead.

Read more from this story HERE.

Court: No Reprieve for Notre Dame on Contraception Coverage Rule

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Photo Credit: APA federal appeals court has turned down the University of Notre Dame’s request for immediate relief from complying with Obamacare provisions relating to contraceptive coverage.

In a 2-1 decision issued late Friday afternoon, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected Notre Dame’s appeal of a district judge’s order denying a preliminary injunction the Catholic school requested to avoid having to complete a form stating that Notre Dame had a religious objection to providing the contraceptive coverage normally required under the Affordable Care Act.

Judge Richard Posner, one of the country’s best known jurists aside from the Supreme Court, largely dismissed Notre Dame’s objection to filling out the government-issued form.

“If the government is entitled to require that female contraceptives be provided to women free of charge, we have trouble understanding how signing the form that declares Notre Dame’s authorized refusal to pay for contraceptives for its students or staff, and mailing the authorization document to those companies, which under federal law are obligated to pick up the tab, could be thought to ‘trigger’ the provision of female contraceptives,” Posner wrote in an opinion joined by Judge David Hamilton.

Read more this story HERE.

Nuns Threatened with $4.5 Million Fines for Not Violating Beliefs (+video)

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Photo Credit: State Library of Victoria Collections/flickr

Photo Credit: State Library of Victoria Collections/flickr

Of the dozens of lawsuits against Obamacare’s requirement that employers pay for abortifacients, probably no other exemplifies the Obama administration’s dedication to abortion at the expense of religious beliefs than the case against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The order of nuns, founded in the early 1800s, is dedicated to helping the poorest of the seniors and to acting in Christ’s stead whenever they can.

Members are not making public statements on their legal case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court – they leave that to their attorneys. But they have prepared a video that communicates their priorities: Christ and their patients.

Sister Mary Bernard explains: “We’re here to live for Him, and for Him and the elderly. That’s our life.”

The nun said that when “people you care for look up at you, they want to see Christ’s face. ”

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Federal Judge Deals Another Blow to ObamaCare Contraceptive Mandate

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A federal judge granted an injunction this weekend that prevents the government from enforcing the ObamaCare mandate requiring religious groups across the country to provide insurance that includes access to the morning-after pill and other contraceptives.

The preliminary injunction, issued in an Oklahoma City federal court, is based on a class-action lawsuit filed in October by 187 ministries.

The court order Friday came just days before ObamaCare coverage begins January 1, which could have resulted in the ministries facing thousands of dollars a day in tax penalties.

The groups provide employees with health benefits through GuideStone Financial Resources, the health benefits arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“This is an overwhelming victory for GuideStone and the nearly 200 plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit,” said Adele Keim, a lawyer for GuideStone and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — a non-profit, public-interest law firm that helped represent the ministries in the case.

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Trey Gowdy: Obama Deceived Women

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Photo Credit: APSpeaking out against the contraceptive mandate, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy accused the president of winning the election by misleading women voters.

“The president knows he is not going to win this case. But what he did win was an election. He won election in part by deceiving women and the so-called war on women,” Gowdy said Wednesday on Fox News’s “On the Record.” “He knows he is not going to win this in Supreme Court, but he won in 2012. That was his real objective.”

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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Cases on Contraceptive Mandate – Hobby Lobby

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Photo Credit: AP By Jennifer Haberkorn

The Supreme Court has agreed to revisit Obamacare, this time to review the requirement that most employers provide contraceptive coverage in their employee health insurance plans.

On Tuesday, the court accepted two cases centered on the issue of business owners’ religious expression.

It’s another test for the embattled health care law, which is already struggling under the weight of a botched website and a political backlash after millions of Americans saw their current insurance plans cancelled for 2014.

The case could also rekindle the same clash that unfolded during the 2012 presidential campaign, when Republicans attempted to make the contraception rule an important issue. A ruling against the contraception coverage rule wouldn’t knock down the whole health law, but it would give more fuel to its opponents.

This is not Obamacare’s first trip to the high court. In 2012, the court ruled in favor of another controversial piece of the law — the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to have health insurance. Chief John Roberts sided with the liberal wing of the court to uphold the mandate, a surprise move that kept a key piece of the law intact.

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Photo Credit: LifeNews By Steven Ertelt

Hobby Lobby’s battle against the HHS mandate is headed to the Supreme Court, as the high court today agreed to hear its lawsuit against the controversial provision in Obamacare. The Obama administration is attempting to make it comply with the HHS mandate that compels religious companies to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their employees.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to take up Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a landmark case addressing the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of business owners to operate their family companies without violating their deeply held religious convictions. This is good news to the Green family, who own the store.

“This is a major step for the Greens and their family businesses in an important fight for Americans’ religious liberty,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead lawyer for Hobby Lobby. “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will clarify once and for all that religious freedom in our country should be protected for family business owners like the Greens.”

The Obama administration says it is confident it will prevail, saying, “We believe this requirement is lawful…and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.”

“My family and I are encouraged that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide our case,” said Mr. Green, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO. “This legal challenge has always remained about one thing and one thing only: the right of our family businesses to live out our sincere and deeply held religious convictions as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law.”

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Attorney General: Protest Obamacare’s Contraception Mandate by Going to Jail

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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on a radio program Wednesday that going to jail may be an effective way to protest a mandate tied to ObamaCare that requires employers to provide contraceptive coverage.

Appearing on Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace’s syndicated show, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said civil disobedience is one way to attack the federal health care law’s requirement.

The so-called contraceptive mandate is now being challenged in a federal lawsuit by the Hobby Lobby stores. The company is primarily concerned about coverage for the morning-after pill, which some consider an abortion-causing drug.

Cuccinelli called the mandate an attack on the Roman Catholic Church and religious freedom and suggested that opponents fight back by forcing the feds to crack down on those who don’t comply.

Cuccinelli, who is Catholic, said he had spoken to a bishop who suggested he’d go to jail to protest it.

Read more from this story HERE.