Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
Liberals aren’t content merely to infringe on our religious freedom. They expect us to pay for the privilege.
WORLD reports that House Republicans are attempting to preserve religious freedom with the Health Care Conscience Rights Act.
This measure would permanently protect businesses, organizations, and individuals from state or federal government coercion to pay for or offer health insurance plans that include abortion coverage and allow them to file lawsuits.
The Hyde Amendment, which became law in 1976, purportedly bars taxpayer funds from being used for abortions, but it doesn’t go far enough. I’ve blogged about the California mandate ordering all health insurance companies in the state to offer abortion coverage in group plans — no religious exemption. And we all know about Obamacare’s birth control mandate. Some of the so-called emergency birth control drugs could induce abortions.
Rep. Diane Black, who co-sponsored the measure, said that “Religious freedom is a bedrock value of our society but, on President Obama’s watch, this time-honored principle is under assault. From Obamacare’s coercive HHS mandate to the unlawful, pro-abortion directive by the state boards in California, it is clear that Congress must act where the White House will not and reverse this infringement of our First Amendment rights.”
Alliance Defending Freedom has been at the forefront of these issues, representing individuals and businesses. Senior attorney Casey Mattox said, “It’s nothing new, the idea of protecting [conscience] rights in the abortion context. But it’s somehow become a controversial decision to say people should not be forced to pay for abortions.”
With growing support for homosexual “marriage,” the homosexual lobby’s push to now normalize “transgenderism,” the continued devaluing of unborn life, and other alarming facts, Christians, especially, need more room to maneuver as we try to retain and strengthen our freedom to practice our faith without penalty.
