Hobby Lobby Keeps Fighting Obama’s HHS Mandate in Court

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 19, 2013   |   12:11PM   |   Washington, DC

Hobby Lobby, the Christian crafting store, continues fighting the Obama administration’s HHS mandate in court. After losing its initial bid to stop the mandate from imposing More than $1 million in fines every day for not complying, the company was forced to appeal a judge’s decision and roll back the date of its employee health care plan in order to temporarily escape the fines.

The mandate has engendered strong opposition from pro-life groups and Catholic and evangelical Christian companies that do not want to be compelled to pay for drugs for employees that may cause abortions.

Now, Americans United for Life filed two more amicus curiae briefs supporting legal challenges to the Obama Administration’s unconstitutional “HHS mandate,” siding with Hobby Lobby.

AUL president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews that Obamacare continues to be “the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade compounded by violations of Americans’ First Amendment Rights of Conscience and complained the HHS mandate forces companies and organizations to provide employees with insurance coverage for life-ending drugs and devices against their beliefs and consciences.”

“In these two briefs, we continue the fight to preserve the freedom of conscience in the United States.  It is a complete affront to the Constitution to force private companies to choose between their conscientious beliefs and maintaining and growing their businesses.  This is truly the battle of our time to protect the liberties guaranteed to us over 200 years ago,” she said.

AUL filed the briefs in Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, pending before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Autocam Corporation v. Sebelius, pending before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. In both cases, federal district courts have refused to grant the plaintiffs relief from the draconian HHS mandate, meaning that the companies will face ruinous fines and penalties if they do not provide coverage of so-called “emergency contraception.”

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The briefs, available here and here, demonstrate that “emergency contraception,” life-ending drugs mislabeled as “contraception,” can prevent an embryo from implanting or kill an already-implanted embryo, and that forcing employers to provide coverage for such drugs violates the fundamental freedom of conscience.

The briefs were filed on behalf of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Christian Medical Association, Catholic Medical Association, National Catholic Bioethics Center, Physicians for Life, and the National Association of Pro Life Nurses.