Tag Archives: HHS mandate

Pennsylvania Senator Votes to Overturn Hobby Lobby Decision

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This week, U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. from Pennsylvania voted to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties.

Stop Abortion MandatesThe U.S. Senate failed Wednesday to pass the bill, which aimed to overturn the high court’s decision and force religious people who own businesses to violate their beliefs.

Our Executive Director Michael Ciccocioppo told LifeNews.com that he is disappointed with Casey for supporting measures to overturn the high court’s ruling.

“The U.S. Supreme Court rightly affirmed religious liberty a few weeks ago when it ruled that the families who own Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties can exercise their religious beliefs,” Ciccocioppo said. “The high court agreed that business owners should not be forced to violate their beliefs by providing abortion-causing drugs/devices to their employees.”

“We are disappointed that Sen. Casey has abandoned our nation’s founding principle of religious freedom by trying to overrule the Supreme Court’s decision,” he added. “We agree with Justice Samuel Alito that, had the Supreme Court ruled against Hobby Lobby and Conestoga, business owners could be forced to cover third-trimester abortions and assisted suicide.”

While we gained a victory over the HHS Mandate, we can’t stop working now. There are other abortion-expanding aspects of Obamacare that are still in effect. Read about them here.

Clearing Up Some Confusion on the Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Case

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I’ve noticed a lot of confusion this week in reports about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the HHS Mandate. Here are two clarification points for you as you’re reading about the case:

Supreme CourtFirst — Many media outlets are saying the two companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, oppose providing birth control coverage to their employees. This is not true. The family owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga opposed only four of the 20 types of contraception that the government requires employers to provide. The families argued that the four types aren’t just contraception; they can be abortion-causing, life-destroying. Abortion is what the families object to paying for.

Second — Some pro-abortion groups claim that the four drugs/devices in question don’t cause abortions because they don’t interrupt a pregnancy. However, these groups define pregnancy as beginning when the embryo implants in his/her mother’s uterus. They fail to acknowledge that a new human life begins before that point. According to biologists, a new human being forms at the moment of fertilization. The four drugs/devices may sometimes work by preventing an embryo from implanting in the womb, thus killing him or her. That’s why the families who own Hobby Lobby and Conestoga are opposed. They do not want to be forced to pay for the destruction of innocent human lives.

As you read news about the case, please keep these facts in mind.

Supreme Court Upholds Religious Freedom for Business Owners

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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the overreaching Obamacare HHS Mandate on Monday.

“This is a victory for religious freedom,” said Michael Ciccocioppo, executive director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life FederatioGaveln. “Government cannot force business owners to pay for abortion-causing drugs for employees.”

“This decision renounces the Obama administration’s attempts to overreach the basic provisions of Obamacare by imposing unlawful mandates on Americans,” Ciccocioppo said.

The high court ruled in favor of family-owned businesses Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, a Lancaster-based Mennonite company. Both objected to paying for abortion-causing drugs for their employees.

Click here to read the full Supreme Court decision.

Central Pa. Employer Files Lawsuit against HHS Mandate

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Out of Central Pennsylvania this week came a new challenge to the provisions in President Obama’s HHS Mandate.

Conestoga Wood Specialties, a Mennonite-owned company based in Lancaster County, filed a federal suit against the mandate, which forces employers to cover abortion-causing contraception for their employees.

According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article:

“Conestoga Wood Specialties, citing the principles of religious freedom on which William Penn founded Pennsylvania, says in its suit, filed in U.S. District Court, that to accord to its Mennonite beliefs, it would be ‘sinful and immoral for the company to participate in, pay for, facilitate or otherwise support any contraception’ that would have the effect of an abortion.”

The Conestoga lawsuit is one of more than 40 challenges that have been filed against the federal law. In the past few months, several employers have won temporary victories against the mandate.

Let’s hope and pray that the courts will continue to reject this forced violation of conscience.

Pennsylvania Lawsuits Oppose Abortion in HHS Mandate

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This month, a Pennsylvania judge is weighing a lawsuit against the controversial federal Health and Human Services Mandate.

Filed by the Catholic Diocese of Erie, the suit says the mandate violates religious liberty by forcing the diocese to pay for contraception and abortion-causing drugs.

Read more about the case here.

The diocese is one of dozens of employers who filed lawsuits opposing the abortion and contraception provisions in the law. These include a business in western Pennsylvania and Geneva College in Beaver Falls.

This dangerous mandate not only is a violation of religious liberty, but its abortion provisions also extend our country’s violation of the right to life.

To learn more about the abortion, medical rationing, and euthanasia provisions in the new health care law, visit our website and click on the videos at the top of the screen.

If you haven’t already done so, you can sign our petition opposing the life-threatening provisions in the federal health care law here.

Notre Dame Sues Over HHS Mandate

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The University of Notre Dame joins with more than 40 Catholic institutions and dioceses nationwide in filing suit in response to the HHS mandate. Pro-life groups believe that the controversial mandate can easily lead to a mandate for abortion coverage. The mandate is clearly a violation of religious freedom and the fundamental rights we hold dear. To read more about the lawsuits, click here.