Tag Archives: Topic: Contraception

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Tyndale House Publishers filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate. Tyndale House is one of the world’s largest privately held Christian publishers of books, Bibles, and digital media.

Casey Mattox at Townhall: A court has recently stopped Illinois from enforcing a rule that denied freedom of conscience to pharmacists. This is a cause for celebration and an excellent legal win. But as the left reacts hysterically to the supposed lack of access to Plan B that will result, one pharmacist’s story perfectly demonstrates the fundamental flaw at the core of any effort to deny freedom of conscience: compelled violations of conscience won’t expand access, they’ll reduce it.

ABA Journal: Is the possibility of a new challenge to the health-care law on the horizon? The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the federal government for its views on a rehearing request by a religious university that is challenging the law, SCOTUSblog reports. Liberty University asked the Supreme Court to revive its lawsuit challenging the law in a rehearing request filed in July, Law360 (sub. req.) reported at the time.

Baptist Press: In filing its appeal, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to make a living,” said Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Matt Bowman. “That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

Religion Clause Blog: In O’Brien v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (ED MO, Sept. 28, 2012), Judge Carol E. Jackson (a President George H. W. Bush appointee) first held that she need not decide whether O’Brien Industrial Holdings (“OIH”), a secular limited liability company, is capable of exercising religion within the meaning of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the First Amendment because, even if it is, the contraception coverage mandate does not infringe religious exercise rights.

Thomas More Law Center: The Government attorney, on the other hand, argued that because Weingartz was a secular corporation it had no constitutional right to free exercise of religion or free speech. The Government also contended that the organization Legatus lacked standing, as the group was a non-profit company potentially eligible for a one year safe-harbor from the law.

SCOTUS Blog reports.

Pottsmer.com: A federal judge has denied a civil rights group’s bid to join the government’s defense against a western Pennsylvania Christian college’s challenge to regulations requiring employers to offer birth control coverage

NRL News: “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.” “The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately has its way,” Bowman said. “In filing its appeal today, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to earn a living. That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

Christian Post: “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said in a statement. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.”

Citizen Link: “The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately had its way,” Bowman said.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: USAID used the occasion of World Contraception Day to announce a new commitment to provide the longterm contraceptive implant – known as Jadelle, to women in the poorest countries of the world.

LifeNews: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys obtained the first-ever order against the mandate on behalf of Hercules Industries and the Catholic family that owns it. The administration opposed the order, arguing, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, that people of faith forfeit their religious liberty once they engage in business . . . “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but this appeal demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.”

LifeSiteNews: The cost of religious freedom for this family could be millions of dollars per year in fines that would cripple their business and potentially destroy jobs if the administration ultimately has its way,” said Matt Bowman, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom. “In filing its appeal today, the administration sent a clear message that it wants to force families to abandon their faith in order to earn a living. That’s the opposite of religious freedom.”

CNSNews: The National Catholic Bioethics Center has published an analysis saying that it will be immoral for a Catholic who owns a private business to purchase health insurance for his or her workers under Obamacare

Thomas More Law Center: This Friday, September 28, 2012, Federal District Judge Robert H. Cleland, of the Eastern District of Michigan, will hear oral arguments in Thomas More Law Center’s motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop implementation of the HHS mandate. The oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9:30am, in Courtroom #712, at the U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, Michigan.

One News Now: Attorney Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom tells OneNewsNow, “Every American, including family business owners, should be free to live and do business according to their faith.” “The Obama administration claims it has unwavering support for religious freedom, but the only thing unwavering in the administration is its tenacious opposition to religious freedom,” the attorney asserts.

n contradiction to the Obama administration’s recent claims of “unwavering” support for religious freedom, the president’s lawyers filed an appeal Tuesday of a court order that upheld the religious freedom of a Colorado family business.

Acton Institute Blog: It is alarmingly clear that so-called “Obamacare” has troubling implications for parents and children, not just employers with religious convictions regarding artificial birth control and abortion. According to an article in the National Catholic Register, Matt Bowman, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Obamacare: “tramples parental rights” because it requires them to “pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and education in favor of the same for their own children.” [more]

Catholic News Agency: Matt Bowman, senior counsel for the religious liberty legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the mandate “tramples parental rights” because it requires them to “pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and education in favor of the same for their own children.”

LifeSiteNews: Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan gave the HHS mandate its execution date if he is election: “Day one.” The Wisconsin congressman said if he and Mitt Romney are elected in November, the requirement that religious employers, including many religious employers, to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs, “will be gone, I can guarantee you that.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Morr-Fitz, Inc. v. Quinn, (IL App., Sept. 20, 2012), an Illinois appellate court narrowed the scope of an injunction that had been issued by a trial court preventing enforcement of an Illinois State Pharmacy Board rule requiring pharmacies to dispense Plan B and other forms of emergency contraception. | Francis Manion has this report at the ACLJ website: Pharmacists’ Victory In Illinois Caps Seven-Year Fight for Conscience Rights

Fox News (includes video): The New York City Department of Education is providing morning-after pills and other birth control drugs to students at 13 city high schools.

Orlando Sentinel: With Catholic organizations from around the state raising money to promote passage of an anti-abortion constitutional amendment in November, a coalition of religious groups is decrying the measure as a state imposition of religious dogma.

Casey Mattox at LifeNews: Yet while Alliance Defending Freedom successfully makes the case that this law violates employers’ religious freedom, the potentially devastating impacts of this mandate on others should not be ignored . . . It might be that the HHS Mandate really has two aims, the first of which is to establish the primacy of “sexual freedom” over religious liberty in the pecking order of constitutional protections. Alliance Defending Freedom and our allies are working to ensure that this does not happen. And the second aim may be to force resistant religious ministries into the prayer closet and out of the public square. Sadly, such an intention to water down the impact of communities of faith would be in keeping with previous steps the administration has taken to water down America’s stand for freedom of religion abroad to a more private and cloistered “freedom of worship.”

Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy: Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt today filed an amended complaint in the state’s lawsuit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that, among other things, challenges the legality of an IRS rule that would authorize tax credits for the purchase of health insurance in federally run exchanges, and thereby expose Oklahoma employers to penalties should they fail to comply with the law’s employer mandate.

LifeSiteNews: Tanzania has only about 120 people per square mile, but the population controllers talk endlessly about overpopulation in the country, claiming that more people means more poverty.

Jack M. Balkan at the Atlantic: The Right Strikes Back: A New Legal Challenge for Obamacare
The fight over health care reform is still going strong: A conservative group now argues that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because it started in the wrong House of Congress.

The Hill (embedded video): President Obama on Monday made a campaign pitch to “people of faith” in which he reaffirmed what he called his “unwavering” commitment to “protecting religious liberty.”

ABA Journal: Justice Antonin Scalia was “enraged” when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. switched his vote and created the majority needed to uphold the Obama administration’s health care law, according to a new book by journalist Jeffrey Toobin.

News-Leader: The suit was announced during a press conference in which College President Jerry Davis raised his voice on many occasions, saying the federal government health care act will require the school’s insurance to pay for abortions, abortion services and abortion counseling. “We believe it violates our religious rights as guaranteed by the Constitution,” Davis said.

Alan Sears at the American Thinker: Someone once famously distilled some two centuries of American debate over individual “rights” into a single sentence: “Your right to extend your fist,” he said, “ends about one inch short of the tip of my nose.”

Matt Bowman at LifeNews: It is an irony that the promoters of “reproductive choice” insist on coercing everyone else into paying for other people’s abortions and sexual decisions. Frances Kissling, founder of the misnamed “Catholics for Choice,” will appear opposite me on Monday at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County in Wausau to argue in favor of a government mandate that forces employers to violate their religious beliefs just because they operate in America.

LifeNews: Next month, thousands of pro-life advocates in more than 100 cities will engage in rallies to stand up for their religious freedom against the controversial HHS mandate the Obama administration put in place.

LifeSiteNews: The Obama administration is set to levy as much as a $1.3 million per day fine against a Christian retail business based on their religious objection to abortifacient drugs, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Volokh Conspiracy: The Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a motion in its pending suit against Obamacare asking the judge (1) to rule that, when it enacted the Senate health care reform bill that includes a “tax” for not purchasing health insurance, Congress violated the Origination Clause, which says that all revenue bills must originate in the House; and (2) that their clients are under no legal obligation to purchase health insurance under the ruling of the Court.

STL Today: But just hours after lawmakers voted Wednesday, the new law was hit with its first legal hurdle. The Greater Kansas City Coalition of Labor Union Women and a female firefighter filed a lawsuit claiming that the legislation discriminates by sex and religion and that it goes against federal law.

LifeNews: The Diocese of Nashville and seven of the Catholic entities operating in Middle Tennessee have filed suit in Federal court to block the implementation of mandates by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Matthew S. Bowman at the Wassau Daily Herald: It is an irony that the promoters of “reproductive choice” insist on coercing everyone else into paying for other people’s abortions and sexual decisions. Frances Kissling, founder of the misnamed “Catholics for Choice,” will appear opposite me on Monday at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County in Wausau to argue in favor of a government mandate that forces employers to violate their religious beliefs just because they operate in America.

Frances Kissling, President of Catholic for Choice at the Wassau Daily Herald:

If you go
What: The Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service will host a public forum on “Contraception, religious liberty and the Affordable Care Act”
Who: Professor Mark T. Brown will moderate. Speakers will be Frances Kissling, visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics, and Matthew Bowman, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom.
When: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday
Where: UW Center for Civic Engagement, 625 Stewart Ave., Wausau.
The event is free and open to the public.

Columbia Missourian: Missouri lawmakers enacted new religious exemptions from insurance coverage of birth control Wednesday, overriding a gubernatorial veto and delivering a political rebuke to an Obama administration policy requiring insurers to cover contraception.

ACLU: Today parents and physicians sued the Clovis Unified School District over its high school abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education. The lawsuit charges that the district is violating California law and putting teens’ health at risk by teaching students misinformation and denying them critical instruction about condoms and contraception.

LifeNews: The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and the business says it is opposing the Health and Human Services “preventive services” mandate, which it says forces the Christian-owned-and-operated business to provide, without co-pay, the “morning after pill” and “week after pill” in their health insurance plan, or face crippling fines up to 1.3 million dollars per day . . . Washington politicians cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living,” said Lori Windham, Senior Counsel, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is handling the lawsuit for Hobby Lobby.

MSNBC: The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday assured congressional lawmakers that agents would play no role in enforcing the controversial requirement that Americans buy insurance under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Jonathan Adler discusses the issue at the Volokh Conspiracy.

The Hill: Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, joined a group of 102 other faith leaders in co-signing a statement Monday that urges support for a larger Medicaid program.

Inquirer News: The Senate has removed controversial provisions that purportedly promote abortion and the use of birth control devices in a bid to break a deadlock in its version of the reproductive health (RH) bill.

Melinda Gates says that despite criticisms from the church, she still feels obligated to bring safe contraceptives to the developing world:” We shouldn’t shy away, as a world, from doing things because we have made them difficult. Yes, contraceptives have had some sticky times in the past – absolutely – some not great things happened in Peru, our own country and in India and other places. But it means that we stepped back from it as a world and yet we are letting women die because they can’t space their children.”

The Thomas More Law Center, yesterday afternoon, filed its opening brief in support of its motion for a Preliminary Injunction to stop enforcement of the HHS Mandate.

Daily Herald: Wheaton College has appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking an exemption from a health care reform mandate to provide coverage for emergency contraception. A federal judge last week dismissed the lawsuit, saying it was premature. College officials chose to appeal because they said the mandate infringes on the school’s religious liberty.

Archdiocese of Denver: . . . When religious people are marginalized from the public square, all of us lose. Religious values (like those of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for example) have served as forces for great public good in America. Public shame of the religiously convicted undermines the American ideal. Sadly, however, Hercules is not alone in being marginalized; religious institutions and practices face increasing threats in America. Last week, the Washington, D.C.-based Liberty Institute released a survey of religious hostility in America, documenting hundreds of unreasonable persecutions of religious Americans. It is a chilling read . . . When religious conscience threatens essential human freedom or dignity, governments have a vested interest in protecting public welfare. But the law which Hercules is fighting is not an assertion of essential human freedom or dignity. The HHS mandate is designed to fund private sexual expression—and even abortion—from the coffers of American businesses. Trading free access to contraception for our foundational reverence for religious liberty is a betrayal of our history—and a short-sighted plan for America. House Speaker Frank McNulty took up the mantle of Hercules’ cause, and rightly commended them for their work. I pray the Denver City Council will do the same. Choosing to marginalize the owners of Hercules for their religiosity is an insult to the founding values of our nation.

Alan Sears appeared on the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss various cases and issues including Newland v. Sebelius. | MP3 audio 7:12 mins

The Hill: “For us Democrats, ObamaCare is a badge of honor,” Sebelius told the crowd.

World Magazine audio segment. ADF mentioned.

Politico: Democrats think they’ve figured out how to win the abortion debate: Don’t make it about abortion. Starting Tuesday, the Democratic convention here will feature speeches from Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards, NARAL President Nancy Keenan and Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, who became a flashpoint in the debate over requiring Catholic institutions to pay for birth control.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in a Washington state case, Americans United urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow state officials to enforce a rule that requires pharmacies to stock when locally demanded – and fill prescriptions for – the so-called “morning-after” pill, also known as Plan B.

NC Register: “In my view, the administration is constantly changing the rule book in order to attack religious freedom in the broadest fashion possible,” asserted Matt Bowman, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a coalition of Christian attorneys. Alliance Defending Freedom was formerly called the Alliance Defense Fund. Bowman told the Register that government bureaucrats are “redefining what religious faith is and what faith organizations are.”

Dominique Ludvigson at the Heritage Foundation: Yesterday, Wheaton College appealed a federal district court dismissal of its lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its anti-conscience contraception mandate.

Andy Newland at the Washington Times: With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, we asked for an injunction that would block enforcement of the mandate while our lawsuit proceeds. A federal judge granted that injunction — the first legal victory of its kind against the abortion-pill mandate — and it was at that point, interestingly, that Denver city officials decided a proclamation honoring our company was no longer in order.

C-FAM: Top Asian demographers, population experts, and UN staff gathered in Bangkok this week to address the region’s aging crisis. Despite the severity of the low fertility predicament, abortion, contraception, and “reproductive and sexual health” were the subject of one out of every four papers presented.

Bridgett Amiri writes at the ACLU Blog: Religion Doesn’t Justify Discrimination: ACLU Files Brief in Third Contraception Rule Challenge “Another private company – this one sells lawn and snow removal equipment in Michigan – is challenging the federal rule that …

LifeNews: The Obama administration has reportedly revised the controversial pro-abortion HHS mandate a third time, though it still fails to offer protection for religious groups not wanting to refer women for abortion-causing drugs or pay for them.

Human Events: Hercules Industries of Denver, Colorado is a successful 50-year-old heating and air-conditioning company, which was due to receive a Good Citizenship Award from the city for their many contributions to the community. The generous health care plan offered to their 265 employees, which a Denver Post editorial noted includes “premium benefits for pregnancy, women’s wellness and risk reduction,” was also cited in the proposed award. But Hercules Industries is owned by a Catholic family, the Newlands. They objected to ObamaCare’s outrageous imposition on their religious liberty.

Religion Clause Blog: In Wheaton College v. Sebelius, (D DC, Aug. 24,2012), the D.C. federal district court dismissed for lack of standing and ripeness a challenge by Wheaton College to the mandate issued under the Affordable Care Act requiring group health insurance policies to cover contraceptive services for women.

Engage Family Minute: The American Dream has promised that we are given the freedom to pursue happiness. Many have realized that dream through the growth of their small business. But, what if the government says that you can only pursue the American Dream if that dream is entirely secular? As Senior Counsel to the Alliance Defending Freedom and former U.S. Attorney, Mike Norton, points out, for one Colorado small business owner, the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., “Obamacare”) has done just that.

Catholic Culture: Some 79 members of the US House of Representatives have signed amicus curiae briefs in support of the 40 Catholic institutions that have brought suit to halt enforcement of the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate.

LifeNews: In a new interview taped last week and aired on Fox News Sunday today, Mitt Romney expresses a clear pro-life position saying he opposes abortions and is concerned about protecting both mother and child who are adversely affected by them.

Fox News Insider (includes video): Greg Baylor, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, said, “We can all agree that politicians shouldn’t use someone’s faith or their stand for freedom to deny them recognition for the good service that they’ve provided to their community.

Denver Post Editorial: A proclamation honoring a 50-year-old Denver business was pulled by its sponsor last week after she learned that the company opposed a provision of federal health reform requiring insurance coverage to include no-cost access to contraception and other preventive care.
In scuttling the proclamation, Denver city councilwoman Robin Kniech noted that it’s “silly season,” meaning that political disagreements are amplified in anticipation of the November election. In our view, her decision only makes things sillier.

Michael Norton at the Denver Post: Re: “Finding middle ground on contraception coverage,” Aug. 5 editorial. The Post’s editorial incorrectly concluded that “a suitable compromise” to a court order prohibiting enforcement of Obamacare and its abortion pill mandate against Hercules Industries would be to require Hercules’ insurance company to provide such abortion pill coverage.

National Review: “Every time the administration opens its mouth it changes its rules to attack religious freedom in a different way,” Matt Bowman, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom says of the bulletin. “Washington bureaucrats have no business continually picking and choosing what faith is and who is allowed to practice faith,” he continues.

Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: His explanation to his puzzled friend is that Liddell’s commitment as a runner is an extension of who he is and what he believes; the attempt to sever him from the source of his greatness was both foolish and morally wrong. That’s an important lesson many on the left fail to learn as they blithely cast aside religious liberty and rights of conscience for others

FoxNews: A Massachusetts school district will be contacting parents in the next two weeks to detail a new program allowing students ages 12 and older to have access to condoms.

Greg Baylor appeared on the Drew Mariana Show to discuss the Newland litigation. | MP3 audio 11:23 mins