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Dear Friend,
As
you know by now, the federal government is requiring both
religious and secular employers to fund possible
abortion-inducing drugs as part of most companies' employee
health plans. This has created a national outcry over the
blatant disregard for religious liberty under the new federal
healthcare law.
With
more than 30 lawsuits from some 80 businesses, religious
organizations and individuals over the mandate, various initial
court decisions are beginning to emerge. Some are encouraging,
such as the decision from Denver saying the Catholic owners of
a secular business do not have to comply with the mandate
while their lawsuit proceeds.
Others, however, are discouraging.
Last
Friday, a federal district court judge in Missouri dismissed
the legal challenge from a secular business, O'Brien Industrial
Holdings, and its owner, Frank O'Brien, who is Catholic.
What's different—and chilling—about this particular decision is
the reasoning behind the decision.
Judge
Carol Jackson concluded that forcing a company to fund a
health insurance plan that could be used to pay for
contraceptives and possible abortion-inducing drugs was not a
"substantial burden" on the religious beliefs of any
employer—religious or otherwise—because there was no difference
between paying an employee a salary that might be used to
obtain an abortion or paying an insurance company which might
pay for the employee's abortion.
No
difference? The 80 plaintiffs who've filed the 30 lawsuits
and the people who have sent more than 200,000 public comments
to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since
the mandate was first proposed see a big difference. So do
we.
Perhaps
most alarming is that if Jackson's reasoning is allowed to
stand, then no employer, including religious individuals,
institutions and churches, are protected from the mandate (or
similar laws) unless the government is kind enough to grant
such an exemption.
We,
however, continue to believe and fight for the truth that
our religious freedom comes from God, not the government. The
O'Brien case is only in its initial stages of litigation, and
we will continue to follow it and the other lawsuits against
the offensive mandate and report back to you as they develop.
For faith and family,
Tom Minnery
Senior Vice President, Government & Public Policy |
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