Leigh0220bTwo more evangelical Christian colleges are suing the federal government over the contraceptive coverage mandate included in the new national healthcare law, a requirement administrators from both schools say violates their constitutional rights.
Louisiana College, in Pineville, La., filed its suit on Saturday, while Geneva College, in Beaver Falls, Pa., will file its suit Tuesday. Attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) will represent both schools.
The suits are part of the latest round of opposition to the law, which has united Catholics and evangelical Protestants in withering criticism of the federal government’s expanding power.
“The Obama administration has attempted to negate exiting real protections for religious freedom and it has no authority to do that,” Matt Bowman, an ADF lawyer, told me.
Under the new healthcare law, employers must provide coverage for contraceptives, including abortifacients like Plan B and Ella, which can prevent an embryo from implanting in the womb. The law includes a narrow religious exemption that would apply only to churches, requiring schools, hospitals, and community service organizations to comply or face large fines.
On Feb. 10, after at first dismissing the severe backlash from religious leaders over the mandate, President Barack Obama announced what he called a compromise—a plan to shift the burden and cost of providing contraceptives from religious employers to insurance companies.
But the president’s proposal placated few religious leaders, who called it nothing more than a shell game. Under the proposal, insurance companies would simply raise the rates for religious organizations to cover the cost of contraceptives, ultimately making these organizations pay for something to which they object. And that objection is at the heart of the real issue: freedom of conscience.
“The First Amendment protects Americans from mandates that require us to act against our own convictions,” said Kenneth Smith, president of Geneva College, in a news release provided by the ADF. “We find the mandate to provide our faculty, staff, and students with insurance that provides pills to abort babies totally abhorrent and unacceptable. The government shouldn’t be able to force anyone to buy or sell insurance that subsidizes morally objectionable treatments.” … COMPLETE STORY >>