Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has written to Attorneys General in the other 49 US states inviting them to join a court case that will be launched by Nebraska to stop the Obama administration from forcing objecting employers to pay for insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs. He described the adminstration regulation as “an unconscionable intrusion on religious liberties.” [Associated Press]
A statement from the Southern Baptists has denounced the Obama administration’s regulation that will force employers to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs. The statement describes the regulation as “a clear violation of our nation’s commitment to liberty of conscience and a flagrant violation of our constitutional protection to freedom of religion.” It was signed by Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission since 1988, and Barrett Duke one of the Commission’s directors.
Rick Warren, a prominent Evangelical Christan pastor, has published a “tweet” stating, “I’m not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure.”
154 members of the US House of Representatives from both Democratic and Republican parties have signed a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stating that the regulation that forces objecting employers to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs is “an unprecedented overreach by the federal government that infringes upon rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.” They asked that the regulation be suspended until it is certain that employers and individuals “are afforded their constitutionally protected rights.”
Writing in USA Today, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has defended her plan to force employers to pay for insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs. She avoids the issue of coercion of employers entirely and claims that the narrow ‘religious exemption’ is adequate, despite nationwide protests to the contrary [See Map of institutions resisting the HHS “preventive services” mandate]. The USA Today editorial stated that “the Obama administration didn’t just cross” the line separating church and stated, but “galloped over it, requiring employers affiliated with the Catholic Church to include free birth control in their health insurance plans.”