Despite Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby Ruling Obama Administration Repackages Abortion-Pill Mandate
The Obama Administration is not one to let a mere Supreme Court decision get in the way of its radical pro-abortion agenda.
After losing major abortion-pill mandate litigation at the Supreme Court and then failing in an attempt to ram a new abortion-pill mandate through Congress (where it couldn’t even muster enough votes in the pro-abortion Senate), the Obama Administration is back with two more attempts at the HHS Mandate.
The Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled two new regulations concerning the mandate that would force businesses, religious non-profits and for-profit businesses alike, to pay for, facilitate, and provide abortion pills in violation of their faith.
The first proposal is labeled an “additional notification option” for the so-called religious “accommodation” for nonprofits. In reality it’s another slap in the face for religious based nonprofits and an affront to rationally based thinking.
This is the third attempt at an “accommodation” aimed at pulling the wool over the eyes of people of faith. The first and second “accommodation” proposals were nothing more than accounting gimmicks. In fact, the latest version of the “accommodation” was blocked by a federal appeals court within hours of the Supreme Court’s HHS Mandate decision.
This third attempt, or new “option,” is more of the same. How do I know it’s more of the same? Because HHS says so right on its fact sheet. Here’s HHS’s own conclusion about the affect of the new “option” for the nonprofit accommodation, “Regardless of whether the eligible organization self-certifies in accordance with the July 2013 final rules, or provides notice to HHS in accordance with the August 2014 IFR, the obligations of insurers and/or TPAs regarding providing or arranging separate payments for contraceptive services are the same . . . .”
Wait, religious nonprofits can opt out, but their insurance provider, that they have contracted with, and who they are paying to provide health insurance is required to give their employees free abortion pills? Precisely. Nothing changes. You can dress it up. You can call it what you like, but the Obama Administration is still forcing religious non-profits to provide abortion pills for their employees.
What’s even worse is the Obama Administration’s second proposal. They now want to force closely held for-profit businesses like Hobby Lobby and our numerous clients – each of which have court rulings saying they don’t have to comply with the unlawful mandate – to well … comply with the unlawful mandate under the ruse of the same “accommodation” as it has proposed for nonprofits.
The Obama Administration lost. The Supreme Court was clear. Religious employers can’t be forced to violate their faith by paying for, providing, or facilitating abortion pills for their employees. Yet that’s what the Administration is attempting to do, again. Rename it and roll it back out.
It must not stand.