First Court Decision on Contraception Mandate Due Tomorrow
Throughout the controversy over the Obamacare contraception mandate, the focus has been on religious institutions—schools, hospitals, colleges, etc. But what about individuals who own and operate a small business, but have religious qualms about offering their employees health insurance that pays for birth control and abortifacients? Though it has flown under the radar, there is a case now before the federal district court in Denver that could offer the first indication of where the law will come out. According to Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review:
The Newland family of Denver, Colo., are among those whose religious liberties will be curtailed come August 1, the date the mandate goes into effect. Since they are not a religious organization of any sort, they are not eligible for the one-year waiver the administration has offered. They run Hercules Industries, a distributor of heating, air conditioning, and ventilation parts. This afternoon they find themselves in federal court asking for an injunction so that they might continue to enjoy the conscience rights they’ve always had in the 50-year run of their family business. As Catholics, they can’t in good conscience provide insurance plans that cover abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception.
The administration argues in its brief in the case that this curtailment of their rights is as it should be: “Once [an organization] enters the marketplace of commerce in any substantial degree it loses the complete control over its membership that it would otherwise enjoy if it confined its affairs to the marketplace of ideas.”
“America is a country founded on freedom, not on a presumption of government coercion,” Matthew Bowman, the Newlands’ lawyer from the Alliance Defending Freedom tells me. “Religious freedom in America has always included the way people exercise their beliefs Monday through Friday, not just on Sundays and in soup kitchens. If the government succeeds in destroying religious freedom for family businesses, they won’t be able to allow Jesus Christ to reign over their entire lives.” It’s the freedom to be authentically Christian.
Lopez also reports that a decision will come out tomorrow on this case. Check back here for the latest on the administration’s efforts to undermine the First Amendment.
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4 comments
Sure hope the Newlands win! Our constitutional rights are being trampled on by government at every turn. And every time the adminstration gets away with it, they’re strengthened and emboldened to take even more rights away.
[1] Posted by Nellie on 7-26-2012 at 01:04 PM · [top]
I wonder how many people Procrustes forced into his bed. I bet it was something short of 310 million.
[2] Posted by Jeffersonian on 7-26-2012 at 03:47 PM · [top]
Sadly, here we are learning that many Catholic and other organizations will be required to offer all the new Women’s Wellness Coverages (that’s what all this new stuff is actually called by the Fed) because they ALREADY COVER THIS STUFF!
Seems many of the colleges, food banks, etc, had quietly allowed these coverages onto their health insurance for years in a sort of women’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell”. The regulations say, if you ever offered these coverages to your employees (and it goes way beyond birth control, by the way) you cannot shut it off.
This stealth prior offering is crippling many institutions now who are trying to get back into compliance with the RC Bishops in America.
Very depressing.
If you want a complete list of what non-grandfathered health plans are now required to cover, here’s a list. Remember, ALL these services must be provided to women for free. No copays, no deductibles, no coinsurance, no out of pocket costs of any kind:
Includes:
FDA Approved Contraceptive Methods:
1 hormonal type (think “The Pill” in standard form)
1 barrier type (typically diaphrams or IUD’s)
1 delayed action type (Plan B, Morning after pill)
1 sterilization method (tubal ligation is most common)
Screening for gestational diabetes
HPV DNA Testing (women over 30)
STD counseling
HIV screening and counseling
Breastfeeding “support”, supplies, counseling
Domestic violence screening and counseling
All of the above make up the new, free “Women’s wellness coverage”.
mrb
[3] Posted by Mike Bertaut on 7-26-2012 at 09:45 PM · [top]
The Newland family won their injunction!
Judge Kane said the government’s arguments against the injunction are “countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion.”
He cited a Tenth Circuit Court ruling which said that there is a “strong public interest in the free exercise of religion” even where that interest may conflict with another statutory scheme.
Michael Norton, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said the lawsuit is “very important” because it determines “whether family-owned small businesses have the freedom to practice their faith as they wish in the public square and in the public arena, or whether they will be obliged to offer health insurance coverage that violates that faith.”
“Our view is that every American should be free to live and do business according to their faith. They should not have to choose between their faith and doing what some bureaucrat or politician thinks ought to be the way they live out their faith,” Norton said in a July 26 interview.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/colo-company-secures-injunction-against-hhs-mandate/
[4] Posted by Bob Maxwell+ on 7-27-2012 at 06:04 PM · [top]
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