Abortion Pill Mandate Stirs Growing Resistance Among People of Faith

By Alan Sears
Posted Aug 22, 2012
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Efforts by the Obama Administration to force people of faith – including churches, ministries, Christian colleges, and private businesses owned and operated by believers – to offer insurance plans that include an abortion pill mandate are meeting with growing resistance nationwide.

Alliance Defending Freedom is representing several of these groups – your brothers and sisters in Christ – as they file suit against the Department of Health and Human Services, and the resulting court actions are heating up all over the country. These are cases with powerful implications for religious freedom in America – including that of your own church and family.

In Alexandria, Louisiana, for instance, our attorneys have filed a lawsuit challenging the mandate on behalf of Louisiana College. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the suit, and Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a response to that motion in federal court.

“The government shouldn’t punish people of faith for following their beliefs when making decisions for themselves or their organizations,” says Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “That’s why this lawsuit should not be casually dismissed, as the folks in Washington would like to see happen. Every American should be free to live and do business according to their faith.”

“It is a shame that the [Justice Department and HHS] is opposing religious freedom rather than supporting it,” says Allied Attorney and co-counsel Mike Johnson, dean of Louisiana College’s Pressler School of Law. “This mandate leaves religious employers with no true choice: either comply and abandon your religious freedom and conscience, or resist and be punished.”

In addition to Louisiana College, Alliance Defending Freedom is currently representing Geneva College (a Christian college in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania) and two family-owned businesses – Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company (of Cranberry, Pennsylvania), and Hercules Industries (of Denver, Colorado). In the latter case, as I recently shared with you, our attorneys were able on July 27 to secure the first-ever judicial order blocking enforcement of the Obama Administration’s abortion pill mandate, when a federal court issued an order halting that enforcement against Hercules until that company’s lawsuit is settled.

So: the battle is engaged, all over the country, and more lawsuits will follow, as Alliance Defending Freedom steps up to represent other Christian ministries and groups you support – people who share your faith and will soon be making their own legal stand against the growing threats to our religious freedom.

Inevitably, the outcome of these cases will decide what tomorrow looks like in America for your children and grandchildren. Please join me in praying for all of our staff and Allied Attorneys, and for the clients whose courage is equal to the challenge of resisting the dictates of an administration bent on curbing religious liberty.