Category: News

Seven states file lawsuit against Obama administration health care plan

Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida and Texas have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and the U.S. Department of Labor and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.  The suit alleges violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act through the HHS birth control mandate that will force insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives and embryocides.[CNN]

 

Southern Baptists urged to oppose HHS birth control mandate

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptists has issued a fact sheet warning that the Obama administration’s birth control mandate “tramples religious freedom,” and has alerted church members to contact their senators to support proposed protection of conscience legislation. [Baptist Press]

 

Idaho House of Representatives passes resolution against federal birth control mandate

By a vote of 53-13, the Idaho House of Representatives has passed a non-binding resolution urging the U.S. Congress  to pass a federal bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which is before both the United States Senate and House of Representatives.  The bill would stop the imposition of the Obama administration’s birth control insurance mandate that is generating a controversy across the United States.

 

Washington state coercive pharmacy regulation rejected by court

Judge Robert B. Leighton of the United States District Court has ruled against the Washington State Department of Health. The case may be summarized by quoting the judge’s opening and concluding paragraphs:

This case presents a novel question: can the State compel licensed pharmacies and pharmacists to dispense lawfully prescribed emergency contraceptives over their sincere religious belief that doing so terminates a human life? In 2007, under pressure from the Governor, Planned Parenthood, and the Northwest Women’s Law Center, the Washington State Board of Pharmacy enacted regulations designed to do just that. . .

. . . The Board of Pharmacy’s 2007 rules are not neutral, and they are not generally applicable. They were designed instead to force religious objectors to dispense Plan B, and they sought to do so despite the fact that refusals to deliver for all sorts of secular reasons were permitted. The rules are unconstitutional as applied to Plaintiffs. The Court will therefore permanently enjoin their enforcement against Plaintiffs.

[Full text of ruling]

Three more universities sue US federal government because of HHS mandate

Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, Louisiana College in Alexandria, Louisiana, and Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania have filed civil suits against the US federal government in response to an Obama adminstration regulation that will force objecting employers to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal  drugs.