White House Forces Entities to Violate Religious Beliefs to Comply With Health Care Law
White House Forces Entities to Violate Religious Beliefs to Comply With Health Care Law
Little Sisters of the Poor Seek Supreme Court Protection
(Washington, D.C.) – This morning the White House asked the Supreme Court to uphold the contraception mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, which requires employers to provide contraceptive coverage in their health insurance policies, despite claims that the mandate violates religious liberties. The request comes in response to the injunction issued by Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, which delayed the mandate while lower courts consider a legal challenge to it. The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Baltimore-based order of nuns, argues that the contraceptive mandate requires them to go against their religious beliefs, in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. The societal mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor is to operate nursing homes throughout the country and care for 13,000 elderly people. It's not clear whether organizations like this will continue to perform these valuable services if federal law forces them to violate their religious convictions in order to do so.
More than 300 legal challenges have been brought against this rule to date.
Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative released the following statement:
"The First Amendment to the Constitution protects some of our most basic and cherished rights: the right to free speech, and the right to practice religion as we see fit, free of government interference. The Supreme Court has already determined that several provisions of the health care law violate the Constitution, and it's clear that this indefensible and coercive mandate does as well. It is disappointing that nuns and other people of conscience have had no choice but to go to the Supreme Court to have these rights protected.
It's far past time for the Administration to acknowledge the very serious problems with this law, and to begin to work with Congress on a better approach that puts people and patients first. The politically-motivated band-aid fixes simply aren't working. Too many people are losing insurance and access to care."
Learn more about "The Accountability Project" campaign and LIBRE's efforts to keep elected officials accountable for supporting the flawed Obamacare law that is causing families everywhere to lose their current health care plan and lose their full time jobs. They are elected to make the right decisions for the people – let's keep them accountable.
For interviews with a LIBRE representative, please contact: Judy Pino, 202-578-6424 or Brian Faughnan, 571-257-3309.