ETWN, a global Catholic television network, has filed a lawsuit Thursday against the mandatory free coverage of contraception in ObamaCare. "We had no other option but to take this to the courts," says EWTN president Michael Warsaw.
The mandate forces faith-based organizations such as hospitals to provide the coverage, even though it might violate their religious beliefs. Attorney Mark Rienzi with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty tells OneNewsNow that religious liberty is not just confined to churches and religious orders.
"And essentially the folks at EWTN will refuse to comply with this mandate," the attorney explains, "and [they] have taken the government to federal court to require the government to do what it has to do -- which is follow federal law and provide an exception for anybody who objects on grounds of religion or conscience to providing these drugs."
The government contends most Catholics use birth control and that faith involvement of religious hospitals and other organizations is only nominal. But Rienzi says that is not the government's call.
"The government in our system has no power and no role to decide which organizations and people are 'religious enough' to get the protection of the Constitution," he argues.
"The government can't sit there and say Well, I think you're Catholic enough, but you not so much -- they have no power to do that. And even if it were true that some number of people don't follow a church's teaching, that doesn't give the government the power to force the other people to also violate it."
Priests for Life has filed suit against the mandate as well, and several other organizations intend to follow suit. In addition, there is a report that Nebraska's attorney general is asking other state chief attorneys to join in a lawsuit he intends to file.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
