2017 Victories: HHS Abortion-Pill Mandate Resoundingly Defeated

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ACLJ.org

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November 17, 2017

3 min read

Pro Life

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This is the latest installment in a year-end series looking back at a few of the numerous victories by the ACLJ in 2017.

After a more than six year legal battle the ACLJ helped finally defeat the Obama Administration’s anti-religious liberty HHS abortion-pill mandate once and for all.

Following the passage of pro-abortion ObamaCare, President Obama’s administration concocted the abortion-pill mandate. The abortion-pill mandate required that employers pay for and provide abortion pills through their health insurance plans, even if it went against their firmly held religious beliefs.  If the employer refused to comply they would face ruinous financial penalties.

The ACLJ took immediate action filing seven lawsuits on behalf of Christian owned and operated businesses. After years of litigation – including a case at the Supreme Court – we secured monumental religious liberty court victories for our pro-life clients. Then we filed numerous amicus briefs in companion cases to defend the religious liberty of pro-life charities – including Christian nuns – who were forced to participate in this pro-abortion scheme. Again we helped win a significant victory at the Supreme Court.

Following these Supreme Court decisions, the ACLJ submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) urging new rule changes that would provide key conscience exemptions, arguing that no one should be forced to violate their faith whether you are a for-profit businesses, like our clients, or a non-profit entity, like the Little Sisters of the Poor. In response, the Trump Administration took definitive action in defense of religious liberty, and now our recommendations are being implemented as the Departments of HHS, Labor, and the Treasury have now issued the “interim final rule” which effectively eviscerates the abortion-pill mandate.

This action is a tremendous pro-life victory religious liberty. The new rule-making does not just vindicate the rights of our clients — for whom we fought in federal court over the course of many years — it vindicates the rights of every employer (whether a business, a charity, or a political organization) to carry out their endeavors in accordance with their religious and moral principles.

Because of our relentless legal advocacy and your critical support – including hundreds of thousands of petition signatures religious liberty has been protected and countless lives could be saved.

To help the ACLJ continue to have the resources we need to make these victories possible and continue these fights, please consider making a Tax-Deductible donation to the ACLJ through our year-end Matching Challenge. Your gift will be DOUBLED dollar-for-dollar through the end of the year.

You can read more in the ACLJ’s 2017 Victories series here.

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