The National Organization of Women (NOW) has compiled a list of what they're calling the "Dirty 100" — organizations who have filed suit against the HHS Contraception Mandate. One of the "Dirty 100" organizations that NOW claims is simply "using religion" to discriminate against women, is, in fact, a group of Catholic religious sisters called the Little Sisters of the Poor.
In a blow to President Obama’s signature legislative mandate, a Brooklyn federal judge on Monday sided with several Catholic organizations in New York, saying they do not have to comply with an Affordable Care Act requirement to provide employees with contraceptive coverage.
Citing religious freedom grounds, the organizations filed the lawsuit last year seeking protection from the Obamacare directive.
In the first permanent ruling on the hot-button issue, US District Court Judge Brian Cogan said the religious groups should not be forced to comply with the birth control component of Obamacare.
The plaintiffs benefitting from the permanent injunction are Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, Monsignor Farrell High School on Staten Island, the ArchCare healthcare group and Catholic Health Services of Long Island.
The Archdioceses of Rockville Centre and New York, which are also plaintiffs to the suit, are already exempt from the contraceptive care requirement as religious institutions. The law takes effect Jan. 1
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(CNSNews.com) – Following on yesterday’s 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Hobby Lobby can continue its lawsuit against the Obama administration’s contraception mandate on religious grounds, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled today that the federal government must halt all enforcement of the mandate (and related financial penalties) against the Christian-based company.
Hobby Lobby and sister company Mardel are suing the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, arguing that to force the company to pay for health insurance that must offer abortion-inducing drugs, as well as sterilization and contraception, is a violation of its religious liberty. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/court-gov-t-must-halt-enforcement-sterilization-contraception-abortifacient-mandate#sthash.jBJiTzcX.dpuf
President Obama promised not to “give any ground” on the contraception mandate that went into effect yesterday, despite lawsuits that contend the mandate violates the religious liberty of Americans who oppose contraception but will have to fund it anyway.
“[Women] are beginning to gain access to contraception at no additional cost I’m not going to give any ground to those who would deny women their own health care choices,” Obama told the women of the BlogHer conference in a video feed address. He was referring to the Health and Human Services Department’s mandate that insurance policies provide all women with free contraception and arguing that the refusal to pay for someone’s contraception is tantamount to denying that person access to health care.
The regulation, which passed into law as part of the Obamacare bill, went into effect on August 1st. It has come under fire from religious leaders of various backgrounds, including the Roman Catholic bishops who supported the broader health care law.
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NAPLES, Fla. -- A Catholic university in Florida decided Monday to drop its student health insurance plan over complications stemming from the federal health care overhaul, becoming the second school this month to make that move, FOXNews.com reported.The decision by Ave Maria University follows that of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Both schools voiced moral and economic concerns with the health care law.
Officials were opposed to the so-called contraceptive coverage mandate -- but for both schools, premium costs associated with new coverage requirements appeared to fuel their anxiety.
Ave Maria University President James Towey told FOXNews.com in an email that school officials met Monday and decided to drop the student health plans. The university also will no longer require students to obtain health insurance.
President Obama suggested that his mandate that insurance companies provide free contraception is an effort to avoid “government meddling” in health care.
“This contraception fight in particular was illuminating,” Obama told a group of women at a campaign fundraiser yesterday. “This is a [Republican] party that says it prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulation. These are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling. But it doesn’t seem to bother them when it comes to women’s health.”
The religious groups that oppose the mandate argue that the mandate infringes on their religious liberty by requiring them to pay for a given product, the use of which they believe to be immoral. They have not called for a ban on contraception.
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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a bold stand for religious freedom. In a recent statement, titled “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” the bishops call for repeal of contraception coverage mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services. The clarified position sets up a dramatic confrontation with the Obama administration—and would, if the bishops prevail, help preserve the religious liberty of all Americans.
The HHS mandate requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception and sterilization services. It is, according to the bishops, an “unjust law.” They write: “It cannot be obeyed and therefore one does not seek relief from it, but rather its repeal.”
The statement is a rebuke of President Obama and the so-called accommodation his administration proposed in February. It also raises the stakes between the president and the leaders of America’s Catholic Church.
The bishops call on Catholics in America, “in solidarity with our fellow citizens,” not to obey the law. They implicitly compare the HHS regulation to a segregation-era statute, and even cite Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In a not-so-subtle manner, the bishops tell the Obama administration that they are willing to go to prison rather than comply with the mandate’s provisions.
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The leading voice of Roman Catholic bishops opposing a contraception mandate in the Obama administration’s health care law was named Tuesday as the 16th archbishop of Baltimore, the nation’s first diocese.
Bishop William E. Lori, 60, comes from the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and has testified before Congress several times in the past few months on a proposed measure to make religious employers cover contraception for their employees. The White House later backed off the rule, making insurers pay for the coverage, though many critics are still not satisfied.
In one instance in February, Lori drew an extended analogy between the mandate to cover contraception and a hypothetical mandate forcing all restaurants nationwide to serve pork, saying it is “absurd for someone to come into a kosher deli and demand a ham sandwich.”
When asked whether the Vatican was trying to move him closer to Washington, Lori joked about his frequent appearances before Congress.
“Yes, the Vatican decided that I was spending entirely too much time on the US Airways shuttle,” he said. “So, they moved me to Baltimore so I’m a train ride away.” Keep on reading...
