EWTN Sues Obama Admin

EWTN  SUES Obama Admin

UPDATE ADDED ON OBAMA "ACCOMODATION" - A FAILED EFFORT (Update at Bottom)

In a remarkable decision, EWTN is suing the Obama Administration over the Contraception Mandate.  This extraordinary act, as well as near unanimous outcry from other Faiths, is sparking a Religious Liberty controversy that the Obama Administration, seemed willing to take on.

     "We had no other option but to take this to the courts," says EWTN President and CEO Michael P. Warsaw. "Under the HHS mandate, EWTN is being forced by the government to make a choice: either we provide employees coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and violate our conscience or offer our employees and their families no health insurance coverage at all. Neither of those choices is acceptable."

The  Obama Administration HHS rules were mandated on January 20, 2012, and EWTN is the first Catholic entity to file a lawsuit against the government.

EWTN President Warsaw, states that there are two primary complaints against the violation of the 1st Amendment: 

1)  ""The government is forcing EWTN, first, to inform its employees about how to get contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs, a concept known as forced speech."

2)  "...the government then will force EWTN to use its donors' funds to pay for these same morally objectionable procedures or to pay for the huge fines it will levy against us if we fail to provide health care insurance."

The mandate clearly violates EWTN's and other Catholic entities' Freedom of Speech rights.  Importantly, the precedent that this sets is a threat to all people of Faith and Faith organizations and entities.  The mandate would affect universities, hospitals, charities and other groups.

As the improvised saying goes, "...First they come for the Catholics..."

But the Obama Administration has already come for the Catholics.  Previous to this attack on The Catholic Church, there were the lies expressed to the Bishops regarding ObamaCare, specifically regarding the "conscience clause" to protect healthcare workers from performing acts that violated their expression of faith...primarily meant to protect Catholics from being forced to assist in the aborting of babies.   

The Obama Administration has already come for the Lutherans as well.  The Obama Justice Department, argued the case for a fired teacher at a Lutheran school.  The Obama-Holder decision to attempt to force the "hiring and retention" of a religious teacher, based on a discrimination claim, outraged Religious Liberty advocates.

The Supreme Court struck down the Obama-led Hosanna-Tabor Church v Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, in a near unanimous decision.  

The Obama Administration is clearly showing a strong bias against Faith-based groups and specifically Christian Churches, as evidenced by the above attempt to force a Christian Church to retain an employee against its Christian belief system.  Taken in conjunction with the present attack on the Catholic Church - Obama's ideological bent for "Statism over Individual Faith", is opening up a huge political hole - for conservatives to run through.

Amazingly, Obama doesn't seem to care.  In fact, he has attacked Romney over the Contraception Mandate issue.  This reinforces a belief by many political conservatives and Democrat people-of-faith, that Obama not only has a radicalized ideology that puts the State in a "supervisory ruling" position over religion, but opens up critical questions in swing states.

Does Obama find people who "cling to their religion...", repugnant and an enemy?

How far would an uninhibited and unchecked Obama second term go in it's attack on Religion?


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Afternoon Update:

Obama has “backed off” the Contraception Mandate.

But, did he?

No, he did not.

Obama will maintain the mandate to “give every woman access to contraception”...this includes the “morning after” pill.

Now he will simply add another Mandate to Insurance Companies and disengage the Catholic entities from paying for it.

This does not solve the problem and the Catholic Bishops will not agree to this. Shifting the payment from the Catholic entity to the Insurance provider is totally ignoring the Liberty issue.

In effect, the coercive government Contraception Mandate stays. They will still require that Catholics or employees of Catholic entities be offered the Contraception through the Catholic Organization’s provided Health Insurance Company.

We were told that Obama was brilliant. He appears to be dense in this “accommodation” that misses the point. They are still telling the Catholic Church that they must offer what The Church considers a sin to Catholics and employees of Catholic organizations.

I’m stunned at the arrogance of this “accommodation”.

The added mandate requires the insurance company to pay for all of the cost of the Contraception.

Unbelievable.