“AUL repeatedly urged the Obama Administration to protect the conscience rights of all Americans, but those freedoms are bulldozed in the healthcare law – the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade,” said AUL’s Dr. Charmaine Yoest.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (05-21-12) – Following news of multiple lawsuits by the Catholic Church, Catholic colleges and universities, and prominent faith-based organizations across the country, Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest said the lawsuit was “more evidence that the healthcare law is extremely flawed in its bias for abortion and abortion-inducing drugs. This lawsuit is only beginning, as many Americans are deeply troubled by the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.”
Dr. Yoest noted, “Today’s lawsuits against the Obama Administration’s abortion-inducing drug coverage mandate underscore the fact that nothing has changed since the Administration first announced its coercive, anti-life mandate that will begin affecting insurance plans as early as August this year.”
The Archdiocese of New York, headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan; the Archdiocese of Washington, headed by Cardinal Donald Wuerl; the University of Notre Dame; and 40 other Catholic dioceses and organizations around the country announced on Monday that they are suing the Obama Administration for violating their freedom of religion, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The dioceses and organizations, in different combinations, are filing 12 different lawsuits in federal courts across the country.
AUL remains deeply concerned about the guidelines and regulation regarding preventive services for women that were issued by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on August 1, 2011.
The HRSA exceeded and abused the discretion it was granted under the Affordable Care Act by mandating that insurance plans fully-cover “all Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptives, sterilization procedures… .” Contrary to the stated intent of the preventive services provision of the Affordable Care Act, the HRSA mandate includes drugs and devices with known life-ending mechanisms of action, including the abortion-inducing drug ella. The mandate will coerce the consciences of many Americans by requiring them to pay for drugs and devices to which they have an ethical, moral, or religious objection.
“AUL urges HHS to immediately rescind its mandate that inappropriately forces coverage for drugs and devices with known life-ending effects, including the abortion-inducing drug ella,” said Dr. Yoest.
For more information on the abortion mandate, click here.
