Tag Archives: Topic: Contraception

The Republic: North Dakota’s House Republican majority leader says the Legislature may revisit whether the state should take part in running a new health insurance marketplace that is a key part of the new federal health care law.

Tennessean.com: But attorney Matt Kairis argued on Thursday that this case is different. Kairis, representing the Diocese of Nashville, claimed that local nonprofits already have been injured by the mandate.

AP: After two years of political battles and a Supreme Court case, many if not most states are expected to tell the federal government Friday if they’re willing carry out a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Parroting UNFPA’s talking point, news stories on the UN’s family planning agency’s annual report focus on the claim that contraception is a human right. The media seem unconcerned that UNFPA has no authority to declare anything a human right, and rather naive in not seeing the crass self-interest inherent in demanding the products and services supplied by UNFPA are a “right.”

Utah Pulse: “If they (the federal government) want to take ownership of this (exchange), they take ownership,” said Lockhart, who was just re-elected to another four years as speaker by her new 61-member House GOP caucus. “We’ll have to play in these areas – the courts may tell us. But they (federal officials) take responsibility. They tax our individual (health insurance) plans, tax individuals and businesses. It won’t be something we did (in the Utah Legislature).” “But something that Obama did,” she added.

AP: From the South to the heartland, the once-solid wall of Republican resistance to President Barack Obama’s health care law is cracking.

LifeNews: Americans United for Life (AUL) filed a brief today in Nebraska v. Health and Human Services, a case initiated by the state of Nebraska and six other states challenging the Obama Administration’s “HHS Mandate,” which requires that employers provide insurance coverage for all forms of FDA-approved “contraception,” including life-ending drugs and devices classified as “emergency contraception.”

AP: It is the first time the U.N. Population Fund’s annual report explicitly describes family planning as a human right.

Alan Sears at the Alliance Defending Freedom: The occupant of the White House isn’t the only thing that hasn’t changed in the last two weeks. Many friends of Alliance Defending Freedom have expressed grave concern about how our work will continue, in the wake of President Barak Obama’s re-election. Although this ministry is committed to being apolitical, there is no denying that this administration has been the most openly and aggressively hostile in American history to religious freedom, to preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and to the protection of life in the womb.

AP: A top Roman Catholic bishop says the church will never comply with the Obama administration mandate to provide birth control coverage in health insurance.

LifeNews: A top legislative staffer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the nation’s Catholic leaders will push again for Congress to approve conscience exemptions for the Obama HHS-Abortion mandate in Obamacare.

The Hill: A new attorney general will face a thorough grilling from conservative senators on highly sensitive issues like the decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, attempts to close the Guantánamo Bay prison, moves to block the implementation of state voter ID laws and the department’s refusal to give Congress thousands of documents relating to a failed gun-tracking operation.

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: Unless they’ve been living under a rock, most Americans have heard that the Supreme Court decided a constitutional challenge to Obamacare’s infamous Individual Mandate in NFIB v. Sebelius. Plenty of Americans are unaware, however, that out of over 30 cases challenging the Mandate, NFIB was only one of five challenges that were considered serious and credible. Another one of those major cases was Liberty University v. Geithner, argued by the university’s law school dean Mat Staver, who is also chairman of Liberty Counsel, a public-interest law firm.

LifeNews: The new Catholic bishop in Lincoln, Nebraska says the Catholic Church will openly defy the Obama-HHS mandate that compels religious groups and businesses to pay for drugs that may cause abortions.

Alan Sears appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 8:26 mins

One News Now: “The government went so far as to say that even if this were the church itself, it would lose its free exercise of religion claim,” he tells OneNewsNow. “This is a government that says that it can pick and choose what religion is, who can exercise religion and where they can exercise it, and can basically say that nobody can do it except in maybe in the four walls of your church — maybe not even then.”

Omaha.com: “The Catholic Church is not going to back down,” said Denver Auxiliary Bishop James Conley, who will start as the new bishop of the Lincoln Diocese on Nov. 20. “We are never going to compromise our principles. We will defy it and face the consequences.”

Reuters: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said states must still tell her department by November 16 if they plan to set up their own health insurance exchanges.

LifeNews: Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Bowman. “For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is alarming. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes. For that reason, we are asking the court to halt this mandate.”

CBN (includes video): For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is alarming,” ADF Attorney Matt Bowman said. “It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes.”

One News Now: Bowman adds that in this case, the government is “attempting essentially cut the First Amendment out of the Constitution.” “So that people don’t really have religious freedom anymore because the government has declared that they are all engaged in secular activities,” he continues. “That is something that is incompatible with freedoms that Americans have always possessed, and we’re hopeful that the court system is not going to let the government attack people’s religious freedom and force them to be involved in abortion pills.”

One News Now: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” Bowman contends. “For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is alarming. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes.”

LifeNews: In the wake of the defeat to pro-abortion President Barack Obama, Republican political consultants are calling on the GOP to abandon pro-life issues. But a pushback has already begun to say that would keep the Republican Party on the road to failure.

The HIll: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) quickly reaffirmed his commitment to abolishing President Obama’s healthcare reform law after suggesting in an interview that repeal was no longer a priority for the House.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Friday asking for a court order to stop enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against a Bible publisher.

CNA: “We will continue to stand in defense of life, marriage, and our first, most cherished liberty, religious freedom,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

LifeNews: Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Alan Sears tells pro-life advocates that they should expect more battles with the Obama administration over the controversial HHS mandate that forces religious employers to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs. [more]

Freedom from Religion Foundation: In letters to the Internal Revenue Service, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has reported possible illegal political campaign intervention by Catholic bishops in Green Bay and Madison, Wis. In a Nov. 1 letter to the IRS office in Dallas which oversees “exempt organizations classification,” FFRF Senior Staff Attorney told the IRS that Diocese of Green Bay Bishop David L. Ricken wrote an article Oct. 24 titled “An Important Moment” to be inserted in all parish bulletins.

Religion Clause Blog: Last week, one more lawsuit challenging the contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act was filed– this time in federal district court in Minnesota.  The complaint (full text) in Annex Medical, Inc. v. Sebelius, (D MN, filed 11/2/2012) . . .

More information through the Alliance Defending Freedom Media website.

Religion Clause Blog: Add one more lawsuit to the dozens already filed challenging the contraceptive coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act.  Yesterday, Criswell College in Dallas, Texas filed suit. The complaint (full text) in Crisell College v. Sebelius, (ND TX, filed Nov. 1, 2012), describes Criswell as “a Christ-centered institution of higher learning.”

Jordan Lorence appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss the the case and other issues. | MP3 audio 11:53 mins

Bill Newland & Mike Norton on Catholic Answers Live to discuss the Newland case. | MP3 audio 23:37 mins

The New American: Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal advocacy group, announced that it had filed suit against several federal officials and departments, including Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her Department of Health and Human Services, on behalf of Grote Industries, an Indiana-based auto industry lighting manufacturer. “Americans should be free to honor God at work, at home, and at church,” said Indianapolis attorney Mike Wilkins, who is working with ADF to represent the firm against the federal government. “They have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith. Forcing them to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. The Administration’s attacks on faith and business prove that it doesn’t respect either one.” . . . “The government has no business deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, and when and where their faith may be lived out,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Washington politicians can’t confine our faith to our homes and our churches. Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including in our work. Freedom is God-given, not government-driven.”

Nathan Cherry at Engage Family Minute: A recent Alliance Defending Freedom article states: “An Indiana-based vehicle lighting manufacturer is the latest company to challenge the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate in court. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of Grote Industries against the mandate…’Americans should be free to honor God at work, at home, and at church. They have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith. Forcing them to surrender their faith in order to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional. The administration’s attacks on faith and business prove that it doesn’t respect either one.’”

National Review: In response, Barack Obama’s Department of Justice argues, that religious-liberty rights to not extend to the Greens as businessmen. Recall that this is an administration whose posture toward religious liberty was slapped down unanimously earlier this year in the Hosanna-Tabor case involving a Lutheran religious school. And yet the administration continues to work to erode religious liberty.

Christian Newswire: John Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of Autocam and Autocam Medical, will be the featured speaker in a live, web-based conference Friday, Nov. 2, from 9-10 a.m. Eastern, in which he will discuss his lawsuit against the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The business executive, a Roman Catholic, says his religious beliefs prevent him from complying with the abortion-related mandates of the new federal plan.

McClatchyDC: In the letter, Jenky cautions parishioners that Obama and a majority of U.S. senators will not reconsider the mandate that would require employers, including religious groups, to provide free birth control coverage in their health care plans. “This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system,” Jenky wrote. “Today, Catholic politicians, bureaucrats, and their electoral supporters who callously enable the destruction of innocent human life in the womb also thereby reject Jesus as their Lord,” Jenky added. “They are objectively guilty of grave sin.”

LifeNews: The Obama administration told a federal court today that the Christian business Hobby Lobby must obey the HHS mandate that forces religious companies to pay for drugs for women that may cause abortions.

Americans for Tax Reform: Our projected IRS form assists 140 million Americans in their obligation to disclose personal identifying health information and calculate the IRS tax penalty.

The Catholic Transcript: Taking the Obama Administration to task for what he considers its assault on the values and freedoms of Americans, Alan Sears, one of the leading legal advocates for religious liberty, urged an audience attending a bioethics lecture to “take a stand” for issues that preserve life and freedom. “This administration is waging a war on everything our Founding Fathers held dear, trying to destroy the heart of America, its rich heritage of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” said Mr. Sears, president, CEO and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an organization that works to defend religious liberty, marriage and human life. “This administration has turned the purpose of government on its head,” he continued. “No longer is its purpose to protect and defend our religious liberty. Rather, it is now becoming a tyrannical tool used to undermine our freedoms and eradicate our conscience.” Mr. Sears made his comments at the annual Pope John Paul II Bioethics Lecture on Oct. 5 at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. [more and photo]

Heritage Foundation: As Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for ADF who will be arguing at the hearing tonight, explained:Americans have the God-given freedom to live and do business according to their faith. The government shouldn’t punish people of faith for making decisions in accordance with it, and yet that’s what the Obama administration is trying to do here in Pennsylvania and throughout the country.

LifeNews: Another plaintiff has won a court ruling against the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate. Federal District Court Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan issued an opinion yesterday evening granting a motion for Preliminary Injunction that effectively halts enforcement of the HHS mandate against Plaintiffs Weingartz Supply Company and its owner and president, Daniel Weingartz. | Ruling: Legatus v. Sebelius | Thomas More Law Center press release

AP: The U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City is scheduled to hear the company’s arguments in favor of an injunction Thursday. The government says Hobby Lobby is a secular employer that by definition does not exercise religion.

Liberty Counsel: The U.S. Department of Justice has informed the Supreme Court that it does not oppose Liberty University’s Petition for Rehearing the Court’s denial of review of the case of Liberty University v. Geithner. Liberty Counsel, representing Liberty University and two private individuals, asked the Court to grant its Petition for review, vacate the ruling of the Court of Appeals, and remand (send back) the case for the Court of Appeals to consider the outstanding and unresolved claims, including the constitutionality of the employer mandate and the Free Exercise claim.

Anthony Esolen at Public Discourse: The Anti-Federalists’ early fear about Congress’s taxing power—that it would result in a tax on humans’ very existence—are now realized in the Supreme Court’s upholding of Obamacare.

Citizen Link: The government has no business deciding what faith is, who the faithful are and when and where those people can live out their faith, said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Washington politicians can’t confine our faith to our homes and churches,” Bowman said. “Honoring God is important every day, in all areas of life, including our work. Freedom is God-given, not government-driven.” The complaint states the family “seeks to run Grote Industries in a manner that reflects their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Breitbart: Notice that the administration goes beyond its argument that businesses have no religious freedom rights. The DOJ says that even if a business did have rights to religious freedom, the HHS mandate is not really a “substantial” ethical dilemma, and, in a sense, the government can decide what is a “substantial burden” and what is not.

Religion Clause Blog: The complaint (full text) in Grote Industries, LLC v. Sebelius, (SD IN, filed 10/29/2012), alleges 1st and 14th Amendment, RFRA and Administrative Procedure Act violations. Alliance Defending Freedom issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

One News Now: “The government has no business deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, or where and when their faith can be practiced,” contends ADF attorney Matt Bowman. “Washington politicians can’t confine faith to our homes and our churches. Honoring God is important every day in all areas of life, including in our business. Freedom is God-given, not government-driven.”

LifeSiteNews (include video): Pro-contraception activist Sandra Fluke, on a speaking tour for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, continues to parrot the Obama administration’s party line that children are one of the biggest roadblocks to women’s success.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews following a hearing Wednesday in which he will argue against the Obama administration’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit against the president’s abortion pill mandate.

An Indiana-based vehicle lighting manufacturer is the latest company to challenge the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate in court.

Christian Institute: Schoolgirls as young as 13 are being given birth control injections and implants without their parents’ knowledge during their lunch break.

Matt Bowman at Townhall: The president’s agencies have written rules that render evangelistic publishing of the Bible to be, well, not really religious. To the people who drafted the ObamaCare rule, and its defenders, religion is little more than a target of derision and marginalization.

ENIDNews.com: A new poll shows a new mandate in the Affordable Care Act, or the so-called “Obamacare,” is not popular in the state. SoonerPoll.com’s survey of 305 likely voting Oklahomans found 57% opposed the new mandate and 33% supported it, with 10% undecided.

LifeNews: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Bowman. “For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is alarming. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes. For that reason, we are asking the court to halt this mandate.”

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman will be available for media interviews following his oral argument Monday asking for a court order to stop enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against a Bible publisher.

The Hill: Republicans on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee threatened to issue subpoenas if the IRS doesn’t turn over more records about how it’s implementing the law’s insurance subsidies. Republicans believe the IRS is planning to hand out billions of dollars in subsidies that aren’t authorized by the healthcare law.

AP: The U.S. government is urging a federal judge to deny a Hobby Lobby Stores request to block the enforcement of a new health care law that requires employers to give staff insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar drugs.

Erik Scheidler at the Washington Times: Despite 10 months of controversy — including a public clash between the White House and the U.S. Catholic bishops, countless rallies and protests across the country and the filing of dozens of federal lawsuits — many liberals and independents remain puzzled by the fight over the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. They don’t understand how conservatives can insist that the HHS mandate constitutes an unprecedented attack on religious freedom.

LifeSiteNews: Thousands of Americans in dozens of cities took a stand against the Obama administration’s HHS birth control mandate on Saturday. Marching at noon local time, people in 145 cities protested the mandate as part of the nationwide Stand Up for Religious Freedom movement.

Colorado Statesman: Former U.S. attorney Norton called Obama’s health care law the “greatest threat to religious freedom of our time,” citing a provision in the law that birth control be made available to women at no out-of-pocket cost. He said it is not a contraception mandate, but an “abortion pill” requirement. “They must think we’re stupid,” said Norton, who is the husband of former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. “Who is paying for this coverage? It’s you and me. It doesn’t really matter whether the employer pays it or the insurance companies pay for it…” “What right does the government have to run roughshod over the conscience and religious convictions of every American, including business owners?” he continued. “And what right does the government have to decide what is faith and who are the faithful?”

Religion Clause Blog: Yesterday, yet another federal lawsuit was filed challenging on RFRA, 1st Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act grounds the contraception coverage mandate under the Affordable Care Act.  The complaint (full text) in Griesedieck v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (WD MO, filed 10/19/2012) . . . American Center for Law and Justice issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Mark Taylor of Tyndale Publishing and Matt Bowman with Chris Fabry on the Moody Radio Network to discuss the Tyndale House Publishing suit versus the Obamacare mandate. | MP3 audio 37:28 mins

World Magazine audio and report on Oct. 20th, Hour 3, Segment B.

Lexington Herald-Leader: The Obama administration has “seized the power to define what faith is, who the faithful are, and when, how and where we get to practice our faith,” said Bryan Beauman, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, a socially conservative legal consortium.

Alan Sears at Holy Apostles College: Seriously, I am truly honored to be here tonight, honored to address in the name of the Blessed John Paul the II – you, my fellow followers of Christ in this age of much uncertainty, about some of the defining issues of our time: the sanctity of life, bioethical issues, marriage, and the
struggle to preserve freedom of conscience and religious liberty.The 19th century Russian writer, Fyoder Dostoevsky once wisely said: “If God is dead all things are permitted.” My friends, we live in age — particularly right now in history during a crucial election year – where a political and legal battle wages about the law and the meaning of life: what it is, when it begins, and what our responsibilities are to nurture and protect it — or to extinguish or prevent it.

DiarioPanorama.com (translation from Spanish by Google): The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, for its acronym in Spanish) announced on World Contraception Day partnership with international donors to distribute Jadelle (second generation Norplant) among women poor in developing countries. This contraceptive is not marketed for use in more affluent countries. The product was developed by the Population Council, a group known for its eugenic roots. “The most likely eugenic goals will be attained under another name than that of eugenics” wrote Frederick Osborn, the first president of the Population Council, founded by John D. Rockefeller III in the fifties . . . One of the topics discussed was related to the interaction between domestic legislation and the institutions that protect the life and “soft law” transnationalist, that pro-abortion activists demanding liberalization of practice frequently mentioned. Nikolas Nikas, the Bioethics Defense Fund presented a panel on international law which was attended by Jane Adolphe, Ave Maria University, Stefano Gennarini, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM Friday Fax editor) and Piero Tozzi, Defending the Freedom Alliance. Another of the speakers was Francisco Javier Borrego Borrego, former member of the European Court of Human Rights

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: I was waiting for the moment where Governor Romney would do the educating he’s done on the campaign trail at times; some of the undecideds in New York might benefit from knowing what is going on on the religious-freedom front here.

Timothy P. Carney at the Washington Examiner: When President Obama speaks about women’s issues, it’s a safe bet he’s telling tall tales. When Democrats talk of a “war on women,” they are usually waging a war on facts. And women, it seems, aren’t fooled.

Naomi Schoenbaum at The Atlantic: Obamacare has been one of the yardsticks of Obama’s term in office and one of the touchstones of the 2012 election. Last night’s presidential debate was no exception, with health care reform mentioned at least half a dozen times. But an important piece of the discussion has been missing: is the health care law a tax or a penalty?

Matt Bowman appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss some of the whoppers being told about the HHS mandate. | MP3 audio 9:28 mins

William J. Haun at National Review Bench Memos: Professor Vincent Muñoz is one of this country’s foremost scholars on religious free exercise. His recent criticisms of the religious-liberty challenge to the HHS mandate at Public Discourse, though well-reasoned, underestimate the challenge’s merits. In so doing, Professor Muñoz prematurely closes the door to litigation that can better protect the free exercise of all Americans.

Matt Bowman appeared on the Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio. An earlier report on the case appeared in National Review Online. | MP3 audio 10:26 mins