Tag Archives: Topic: Conscience

News from The Associated Press: The Virginia state Senate passed legislation Thursday allowing private adoption agencies to deny placements that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, including opposition to homosexuality.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: The White House blog in a post called “Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions” addresses women’s preventive services required under the Affordable Care Act by religious institutions.

LifeSiteNews.com: Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com “we will not comply” with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD.

CBS New York (includes video): “The federal government should do what it’s traditionally done since July 4, 1776, namely back out of intruding into the internal life of a church,” Dolan told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer.

The Hill: The White House struggled Wednesday to contain the growing uproar over its birth-control mandate, with Democrats peeling off one by one in what has become an increasingly divisive election-year controversy.

LifeNews.com: “I’m not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure,” Warren said. “I’d go to jail rather than cave in to a govement mandate that violates what God commands us to do. Would you? Acts 5:29.”

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco at the Online Library of Law and Liberty: In the end, the court struck at the very heart of what Julea’s lawsuit is all about: that the First Amendment prohibits public universities from demanding that students change or violate their beliefs as a condition to getting a degree. As the court said: “A university cannot compel a student to alter or violate her belief systems . . . as the price for obtaining a degree.” The Sixth Circuit is right, “Tolerance is a two-way street.” A fact that is often lost on public universities when it comes to Christian expression and belief, as Julea’s case so clearly shows.

LifeNews.com: In a new interview with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, “pro-life” former Democratic congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan says he is opposed to the controversial new Obama mandate that forces religious employers to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs in employee health insurance plans.

NewsOK.com: Religious groups that oppose President Obama’s mandate that they provide contraception are using the right to religious liberty as a way to discriminate against women, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in an email opposing congressional repeal of the mandate.

Catholic Culture: A state law in Hawaii may form the basis for a compromise between the Obama administration and the US Catholic bishops on the mandate to include contraceptive coverage in health-care plans.

Daily Caller carries the video.

Nikolas T. Nikas and Dorinada Bordlee at National Review Online: While a much longer treatment is called for, here’s three quick facts that everyone should know . . .

LifeNews.com: Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is coordinating a legal challenge against the controversial Obama mandate requiring religious employers to cover birth control and drugs that can cause abortions.

Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America – Record of Protest Against the Infringement of Religious Liberty by HHS: . . . We, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, call upon HHS Secretary Sebelius and the Obama Administration to rescind this unjust ruling and to respect the religious freedom guaranteed all Americans by the First Amendment.

POLITICO.com: The advice coming from Biden and Daley also represented a division among the president’s top advisers, with a group of top women all urging the president to not create an exemption for religious organizations.

WSJ.com: The political furor over President Obama’s birth-control mandate continues to grow, even among those for whom contraception poses no moral qualms, and one needn’t be a theologian to understand why. The country is being exposed to the raw political control that is the core of the Obama health-care plan, and Americans are seeing clearly for the first time how this will violate pluralism and liberty.

LifeNews: Boehner Pledges Congress Will Overturn New Obama Mandate (includes video)

Rasmussen Reports.

CNN.com Blogs: But O’Malley, who identified himself as a Catholic, noted Sunday that 28 states already enforce such a policy.

ADF President and General Counsel at National Review Online: If the federal government can succeed in forcing people to violate their faith, it will have the power to force anyone to do anything. It is therefore sad but not surprising that Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius took to USA Today this week to spin rather than explain her boss’s decision to force people and entities all over the country to fund abortifacients, contraception, and sterilization against their consciences.

LifeSiteNews.com: Even as the United States’ Catholic bishops have launched an all-out campaign against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate and urged their flocks to resistance, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has invoked the support of “fellow Catholics” to justify her position in favor of the mandate.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 10:24 mins

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman appeared on The Victoria Taft Show to discuss the situation. | MP3 audio 6:41 mins

Rosss Douthat at the NYTimes.com: But there are trade-offs as well, which liberal communitarians don’t always like to acknowledge. When government expands, it’s often at the expense of alternative expressions of community, alternative groups that seek to serve the common good.

Associated Baptist Press: “Our religious liberty is being similarly subverted and attacked,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said of the Obama administration’s inclusion of pregnancy in “preventive services” that health insurers must provide.

LifeSiteNews.com: s a formidable tide of Christian opposition began rising this week, including at least 115 U.S. bishops, the nation’s leading abortion lobby is leaping to defend the Obama administration order that will force religious institutions to provide free birth control next year.

LifeNews.com: In an email distributed by Human Events, a conservative publication, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich takes the Obama administration to task of its new Obamacare mandate.

R.R. Reno at First Things First Thoughts Blog: We seem to be in a season of judicial sanity. As Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who argued the case reports, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that vindicated the claims of Julea Ward.

LaTimes.com: The healthcare law’s mandate to require religious-affiliated employers to pay for contraception for their workers has prompted two lawsuits. If the matter gets to the Supreme Court, it will go before justices who recently affirmed — in a 9-0 ruling — that the 1st Amendment gives special leeway to religious employers.

The Moral Liberal: In this blog entry, I’ll cover the facts at issue and discuss the court’s holding. Later this week, I’ll focus on how the opinion could harm campus speech in the future . . . ollowing her expulsion, Ward brought suit with the assistance of the Alliance Defense Fund, alleging that the defendants, employees of a public school, had violated her rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religious exercise under the First Amendment.

Baptist Press: “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree. The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately,” said Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. Tedesco argued for Ward before the court. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the ruling “marks an important step in defending the religious and intellectual freedoms of Americans.”

CBN.com: “Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor — a common, professional practice to best serve clients — EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them,” said Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, who argued Ward’s case last October.

World Mag: Jeremy Tedesco, the Alliance Defense Fund lawyer who argued Ward’s case, praised the court for recognizing Ward’s right to retain her religious beliefs while pursuing her education. “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” he said in a prepared statement. “The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately.”

LifeSiteNews.com: The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed a new rule on Thursday that defines “family” as at least two people living together “regardless of marital status, or actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity,” in addition to the surviving partners of AIDS victims who had previously been housed under HUD’s AIDS housing program.

Rasmussen Reports: Indiana as early as Wednesday could become the 23rd right-to-work state in the country, meaning non-union employees would not be required to pay union dues when working for a company that is unionized.

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco at Law and Liberty: On Friday, January 27, 2011, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down an important victory for religious liberty on public university campuses in a lawsuit the Alliance Defense Fund brought against Eastern Michigan University (EMU) on behalf of Julea Ward.

Robyn Hagan Cain at Findlaw: Julea Ward, who enrolled in the EMU program in 2006 to become a high school counselor, declined to counsel a homosexual client during her school practicum because her “Christian beliefs would not allow her to affirm the client’s homosexual behavior,” according to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which is representing Ward.

The letter form Bishop Thomas Olmstead, dated Jan. 25, 2012 is here.

ADF Attorney Jeremy Tedesco appeared on the Paul Edwards Show to discuss the Julia Ward case. | MP3 audio 10:51 mins

Inside Higher Ed: The Alliance Defense Fund, which has represented both Ward and Keeton, praised Friday’s ruling. “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree. The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately,” said Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who has worked on Ward’s case. The group has stressed the issue of religious freedom in both the Eastern Michigan and Augusta State cases.

WorldNetDaily (includes video): “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree. The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately,” said Alliance Defense Fund Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, who argued before the court in October of last year.

Detroit Free Press | freep.com: Tolerance is a two-way street,” the judges said. Ward’s lawyer, Jeremy Tedesco of the Alliance Defense Fund, a faith-based legal group, said: “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree. “Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor — a common, professional practice to best serve clients — EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them.”

Student Press Law Center: eremy Tedesco of Alliance Defense Fund, one of Ward’s attorneys, said he’s unhappy with Hazelwood’s extension, even though the court’s decision ultimately went in favor of his client. “Frankly, I’m not a huge fan of Hazelwood being extended to the public university context,” Tedesco said. “I think it’s very clear, though, that student publications at the college level wouldn’t — at least shouldn’t — be governed by Hazelwood, and I don’t think the decision says that at all.”

UPI.com: Ward is being represented by lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, a faith-based legal group. “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” said Jeremy Tedesco of the ADF. Ward said she was willing to counsel gay and lesbian students on other matters but refused to counsel them with regard to sexual orientation.

Sacramento Bee: Ward’s lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund, a faith-based legal group, hailed the decision. Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” said the Alliance’s Jeremy Tedesco, the lawyer who argued the case. “The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately. Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor – a common, professional practice to best serve clients – EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them.”

Huffington Post (includes video): “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” Jeremy Tedesco, the Alliance Defense Fund lawyer who argued the case, told the Free Press. “Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor — a common, professional practice to best serve clients — EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them.”

NewsOK.com: Ward’s lawsuit, in which she is represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, stems from an incident near the end of her time as a graduate student at EMU. “She had no problem counseling gay and lesbian clients,” the court noted, explained that “Ward [had] asked that she be allowed to refer gay and lesbian clients seeking relationship advice to another counselor,” but instead she was dismissed from the program for allegedly violating ACA code of ethics by discriminating against homosexual clients.

David French at National Review Online: I argued the case at the trial-court level (and cough lost cough) when I was at the Alliance Defense Fund and was on the appellate briefs, but the credit and congratulations go to Julea Ward, my former ADF colleagues, and my friend ADF attorney Jeremy Tedesco, who argued the case at the Sixth Circuit. Well done, Jeremy.

National Catholic Reporter: A week after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told individuals and institutions who oppose contraception “to hell with you,” as one bishop put it, members of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy were mobilizing their followers to fight.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Friday in favor of Julea Ward, an Eastern Michigan University graduate student represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys who was expelled from a counseling program for her beliefs. In a strongly worded opinion, the court reversed a district court decision in favor of the university and sent the case back for trial, saying “a reasonable jury could conclude that Ward’s professors ejected her from the counseling program because of hostility toward her speech and faith….”

Detroit Free Press | freep.com (includes video): Ward’s lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund, a faith-based legal group, hailed the decision. “Public universities shouldn’t force students to violate their religious beliefs to get a degree,” said the Alliance’s Jeremy Tedesco. “The court rightly understood this and ruled appropriately. Rather than allow Julea to refer a potential client to another qualified counselor — a common, professional practice to best serve clients — EMU attacked and questioned Julea’s religious beliefs and ultimately expelled her from the program because of them.” | The ruling.

Patrick J. Reilly at the Washington Times: Many religious liberty analysts agree that HHS has overstepped its authority. Attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund have written that the HHS exemption “violates the right to religious freedom protected throughout federal law,” including under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox at the SpeakUpMovement.org University Blog: Even at the time of Roe, some were concerned that legalized abortion would lead to compelled participation in abortion, a concern that was not misplaced as ACLU attorneys were working in Montana to force Catholic hospitals to perform sterilizations. The Supreme Court acknowledged but dismissed that concern, holding only that “the attending physician, in consultation with his patient, is free to determine, … the patient’s pregnancy should be terminated.”

William McGurn at WSJ.com: Less predictable—and far more interesting—has been the heat from the Catholic left, including many who have in the past given the president vital cover.

Grace-Marie Turner at National Review Online: The Obama administration announced today it will wait for a year (coincidentally until after the elections) before requiring religious organizations to comply with an Obamacare mandate that they provide coverage for contraception — including controversial drugs that can abort an early pregnancy.

News from The Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI says Roman Catholics in the U.S. need to understand the “grave threats” to their faith posed by what he calls radical secularism in the political and cultural arenas.

LifeNews.com: Missouri lawmakers have introduced legislation which would protect the conscience rights of health care workers and religiously-based health care institutions. The proposals would ensure that physicians and nurses would not face employment discrimination for refusing to participate in medical procedures which violate their religious beliefs.

BBC News: Scotland’s largest health board has been taken to court by Catholic staff who claim conscientious objections over abortion procedures were disregarded.

Kathleen Hunker at Townhall.com: The New Jersey controversy prompted a series of questions regarding the rights of individuals who oppose abortion, and whether they retain the right to abstain from facilitating what they view as the termination of a human life in the course of their professional and/or business activities.. . . Kathleen Hunker has an LL.M. in Public Law and Human Rights from the University College London. She is a third-year student at the Columbia University School of Law and an Alliance Defense Fund Blackstone Fellow.

ADF Attorney Matt Bowman on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this. | MP3 audio 13:13 mins

: The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) agreed not to require nurses to aid in abortions, according to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represented 12 nurses in a lawsuit against the hospital. A federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order in the case against the hospital in November, protecting two of the nurses who were scheduled to assist in abortions the next day.

Christian Institute: ADF’s Matt Bowman, who represented the nurses, said: “No pro-life medical personnel should be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions. The hospital has finally done the right thing in agreeing to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs”. He added: “The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose not to participate in abortion according to their legal rights.”

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: The Alliance Defense Fund had filed suit on behalf of the pro-life nurses in defense of their conscience rights under federal law.

NC Register (12/28): According to the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the 12 nurses, the terms of the settlement require that if a woman suffers a true emergency from an abortion, the nursse will help protect her until other staff, such as the emergency team, arrives moments later. “Because the abortions are all elective, outpatient surgeries, and the court is requiring the hospital to fully staff all abortion cases with non-objecting medical personnel, the pro-life nurses should never actually be needed in any such case,” the ADF statement said. [more Matt Bowman quoted]

Christian Examiner: “No pro-life medical personnel should be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions. The hospital has finally done the right thing in agreeing to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs,” said ADF legal counsel Matt Bowman. “The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose not to participate in abortion, according to their legal rights.”

David Bohon The New American: ADF Attorney Matt Bowman, who represented the nurses in the case, recalled that the change in hospital policy had come “out of the blue,” noting that UMDNJ “had been performing abortions for decades without forcing nurses to violate their religious beliefs.” In September hospital officials announced to nurses at the Same Day Surgery Unit that they would now be required to assist with the procedures. The hospital instituted the policy change the following month “and repeatedly threatened that they must assist abortions or be terminated,” Bowman explained. “When one nurse objected to assisting abortions on the grounds of her religious beliefs, a supervisor responded that UMDNJ has ‘no regard for religious beliefs’ of nurses who object to participating in abortions.”

Catholic Culture (12/28): “It is a victory because the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs,” said the nurses’ attorney, Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund. “The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions, according to their legal rights. The hospital is required to fully staff all abortion cases so that our clients would never be needed for those cases, and the hospital cannot use pro-abortion staff to replace our clients or reduce their hours.”

National Right to Life News (12/28): Last week I asked the nurses’ lawyer, Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, how he would describe the settlement: a “victory” he told National Right to Life News Today. “It is a victory because the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs. The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions, according to their legal rights. The hospital is required to fully staff all abortion cases so that our clients would never be needed for those cases, and the hospital cannot use pro-abortion staff to replace our clients or reduce their hours. The judge warned the hospital that our clients could return to his court if they were assigned to work abortion cases or if the hospital claims that routine abortions are emergencies. We hope that other hospitals will realize that they should agree to obey conscience laws that protect pro-life medical personnel.”

LifeNews: This was indeed a great victory, and the credit goes to twelve brave and principled nurses who stood their ground, and attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund for his skillful and equally courageous defense of the nurses. There is a fundamental principle at stake here, one that is testing all of our established human anthropology, metaphysics, ethics, and jurisprudence . . . Blessedly, we have principled leaders and warriors today in people like Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, Nikolas Nikas and Dorinda Bordleee of the Bioethics Defense Fund, who speak frequently at medical and law schools about conscience rights, and brave medical professionals who are dedicated to upholding the highest estimation of humanity under the law.

LifeSiteNews.com: By 2013 prospective teachers in Ontario will be required to undergo focused training in “sexual orientation” and “gender diversity,” says a cabinet minister in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.

LifeSiteNews: We are glad that the hospital finally agreed to obey the law and not force our clients to do any work on abortion cases in violation of their beliefs,” Matt Bowman, the attorney who handled the case for the Alliance Defense Fund, stated in an e-mail statement sent to LifeSiteNews.com. “The hospital agreed not to penalize our clients in any way because they choose to not help abortions according to their legal rights.”

Samantha Henry Salon (AP): “I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said, referring to the hospital hiring four nurses who do not object to assisting with the procedure. Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian lawyers and organizations that represented the nurses, said they were satisfied with the agreement.

NJ Star Ledger: “The hospital has agreed that pro-life nurses do not have to assist abortion cases,” said Matt Bowman, an attorney with Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian nonprofit group.

LifeNews.com: “I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said. Matt Bowman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said he was pleased with the agreement. “Pro-life nurses shouldn’t be forced to assist or train in services related to abortions. Federal and state law both prohibit this,” said Bowman. “These 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in the abortion cases regardless of their religious and moral objections. It is disturbing that the hospital is fighting to continue violating laws that clearly protect conscience rights.”

As a result of a federal court hearing Thursday, a New Jersey hospital has agreed that it will not force nurses to assist with abortion cases.