Leftist Dems Beat The Abortion Drum
To a Democrat the only good baby is
an aborted or illegal baby.
LOS ANGELES, (ChurchMilitant.com) - A group of California churches are suing the state for mandating that churches pay for elective abortions as part of their health insurance coverage.
The federal lawsuit — filed Friday against the California Department of Managed Healthcare (DMHC) — claims the mandate is an "unsupported and unnecessary requirement" that forces those with religious convictions to "violate their religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines and penalties" by actively participating in the destruction of "innocent human life."
The case, Foothill Church v. Rouillard, was brought by the Christian conservative law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in the name of three listed plaintiffs: the Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, Los Angeles; Foothill Church in Glendora; and Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino.
"Churches should not be forced to pay for the killing of innocent human life," says ADF senior legal counsel Erik Stanley. "The government has no right to demand that church health insurance plans contain coverage for abortion — something that violates these churches' most sincerely held religious beliefs. California is violating the Constitution by strong-arming churches into having this coverage in their plans."
"Elective abortions are not part of 'basic health care,'" asserts ADF litigation staff counsel Jeremiah Galus. "They have no business being forced into the medical coverage provided by churches that do not wish to support terminating lives due to very real, sincere and well-known faith convictions. We hope the court will require California to follow the Constitution and respect these churches' fundamental freedoms."
The ADF had filed formal complaints with the federal government after the abortion mandate policy took effect in August 2014. ADF's senior legal counsel Casey Mattox maintained that states accepting federal funds — such as California — are prohibited from singling out health care plans that do not provide abortion coverage; he also asserted that ignoring the complaints of the churches would lead to a lawsuit.
"Because Obamacare requires health insurance coverage, and the California mandate requires abortion coverage in any health plan, these churches are truly left with no way to opt out of paying for abortions," says Galus. "What's absurd, though, is that the same government that rightfully does not require California churches to pay for contraceptive coverage requires them to pay for elective abortion coverage. Californians should not be forced to choose between following their deepest convictions and submitting to unlawful and unnecessary government mandates."
The senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, Jack Hibbs, stated in an interview last year that both his religious liberties and the Constitution were "under attack" and declared he would rather go to jail than be an accessory to abortions.
Speaking of the mandate, he claimed he felt "violated" and "forced." "I love America and I love American history, and I have a lot of invested interest in defending the unborn," he said.
According to ADF, the concern over pro-life organizations being mandated by the government to fund abortions has only increased following the authenticated exposé videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that show Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the sale of body parts obtained from aborted babies.
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