A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. federal government in Michigan by Legatus, a national organization of Catholic business leaders, and the Weingartz Supply Company, a Michigan retailer, the President of which is a member of Legatus. The suit seeks a permanent injunction against the HHS regulation that requires employers to provide health insurance coverage for birth control and sterilization on the grounds that the law violates freedom of conscience and religion. [News Release]
New Zealand Medical Association against euthanasia
The Chair of the New Zealand Medical Association has stated that the Association would continue to be opposed to euthanasia even if the procedure were legalized.[EPC]The statement clearly indicates that conflicts of conscience would arise among health care professionals were New Zealand to permit or require their involvement in providing euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Hercules versus Obama
ADF attorneys file suit against administration’s ‘abortion pill’ mandate on behalf of Denver’s Hercules Industries
NEWS RELEASE
Monday, April 30, 2012
ADF attorney sound bite: Matt Bowman
DENVER — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys representing a private Denver employer filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Obama administration over its mandate that forces the family-owned business to violate its religious beliefs by requiring it to offer insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception.
Because the company, Hercules Industries, would be required to begin offering the new coverage when its self-insured plan renews on Nov. 1, the case is one of the only ones in the nation requesting a court order that would halt the mandate within the next three months.
“The government shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with their faith,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Every American should know that a government with the power to do this to anyone can do this–and worse–to everyone. The abortion pill mandate unconstitutionally coerces the leadership of Hercules Industries to violate their religious beliefs and consciences under the threat of heavy fines and penalties. That is simply not acceptable in America.”
Hercules owners William Newland, Paul Newland, James Newland, and Christine Ketterhagen, and its vice-president, Andrew Newland, are practicing and believing Catholics. They desire to run the company, an HVAC manufacturer, in a manner that reflects their sincerely held religious beliefs, including their belief that God requires respect for the sanctity of human life. Their lawsuit, Newland v. Sebelius, is in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
In February, ADF attorneys filed suit against the mandate on behalf of two private Christian colleges, Geneva College in Pennsylvania and Louisiana College in Louisiana.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
Scots women to get birth control pill direct from pharmacists
An Aberdeen pharmacy has become the first in the country to offer birth control pills directly from a specially trained pharmacist, thus avoiding the need to obtain prescriptions from physicians. The new scheme will be tested in a Boots the Chemist outlet, and will be available to women who are at least16 years of age. [Scotsman]
Seventh Day Adventist president stresses importance of freedom of conscience
Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson, speaking at the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom in the Dominican Republic, distinguished between “radical” or anti-religious secularism—that would exclude religion from public life—and “secular governance,” which accommodates religious belief, protects the religious freedom rights of minorities but does not favour a particular religious tradition. Radical secularism, he said, must be opposed. At the same time, religious believers must not attempt to establish a “religious state” as an alternative to secular regimes. [Adventist News Network]