Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Heads to Court to Fight HHS Mandate

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 5, 2013   |   4:54PM   |   Washington, DC

The pro-life niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is heading to court Monday as one of the plaintiffs in a case to take on the HHS mandate that is a part of Obamacare. The mandate forces religious groups, colleges, and companies to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their employees.

Priests for Life is one of the groups objecting to the mandate in a lawsuit against the Obama administration and Alveda King, as an employee of the pro-life group, is one of the plaintiffs in the case.

Priests for Life’s legal challenge to the HHS mandate will be on the docket Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The attorneys for the pro-life group from the American Freedom Law Center and attorneys for the Obama administration are asking the court to decide on the constitutionality of the HHS mandate. Plaintiffs in the case are Priests for Life as well as individual plaintiffs Fr. Frank Pavone, Janet Morana, and King.

Priests for Life contends that forcing the ministry to authorize coverage for contraception, abortifacient drugs and sterilization services to the participants and beneficiaries of its healthcare plan is a violation of its constitutional right to religious freedom and of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“With this mandate contained in the Affordable Care Act, the government is not only violating our religious beliefs; they are also taking it upon themselves to tell us what the boundaries of those religious beliefs are. It is not up to the government to tell us when our conscience hurts; on the contrary, it’s up to us as believers to tell the government.”

Father Pavone is confident in the outcome of this case, and the judgment, which is expected before January 1, when the Priests for Life insurance plan is renewed, could be among the very first judgments rendered for religious non-profits on the merits of the arguments.

As he has said since filing the initial lawsuit in February 2012 – the fourth to be filed against the mandate – Father Pavone reiterated that, regardless of the judge’s findings, “We will not obey this mandate. We do not adapt to injustice. We oppose it.”

“The government is using the same kind of arguments it has used in other lawsuits against the mandate brought by religious groups, namely, that because they have a religious exemption and in the light of promised changes in the mandate, these groups really aren’t being harmed, have nothing to worry about, and therefore no basis to sue the government.

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“The case of Priests for Life is different from that of the other religious entities, however. We were not covered by the ‘religious exemption,’ and therefore the mandate was to be effective for us this past January 1.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Americans oppose the mandate on a 51-38 percentage point margin. Another recent poll found 59 percent of Americans disagree with the mandate.