Last week, President Donald Trump announced that his administration will exempt employers who have religious or moral objections to providing contraceptives, including drugs that can cause abortions. This is an important action to restore religious liberties that were stripped away in the Obamacare HHS mandate.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties brought the Obamacare violation of religious freedom to the national spotlight when they fought the mandate at the U.S. Supreme Court. The sincere religiously informed consciences of the owners of Conestoga Wood and Hobby Lobby played heavily into the opinion of Justice Samuel Alito, which upheld religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

“Our legal team went to court in 2012 to fight this unjust mandate on behalf of the Hahns, a Mennonite family and owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties,” said Michael Geer, President of the Pennsylvania Family Institute. “Thankfully, in 2014, the Supreme Court victory granted relief for the Hahns and the Green family (owners of Hobby Lobby) in a landmark ruling. We’re glad now to see that other religious employers and ministries will be protected as well, thanks to the President’s actions.”

“President Trump deserves to be thanked for upholding his promise on religious freedom,” said Paul Weber, President of Focus on the Family’s Family Policy Alliance. “And we’re grateful for the team of attorneys brought together by the Pennsylvania Family Institute that paved the way to this victory through their outstanding work that led to the Supreme Court win.”

Randall Wenger, Chief Counsel for the Independence Law Center, was interviewed by a local Fox affiliate outside of Conestoga Wood to discuss this policy improvement. “The first liberty in our Bill of Rights is the free exercise of religion, and what this mandate is doing is protecting the rights of conscience not only for religious people but for non religious people.”

In response to Leftist hysteria over this minor change, National Review’s David French explains that “Totally ignored by these borderline-apocalyptic assessments of what was, in fact, a modest rollback is the reality that birth control has only very recently come to be viewed as an entitlement.”

IFI joins other pro-family groups across the nation in applauding this important action by President Trump. Moreover, we stand in full agreement with his statement on the issue: “No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the federal government and the tenets of their faith.”

Oct. 27th – IFI Annual Banquet with Lt. Col. Allen West

Join us in Hoffman Estates for IFI’s annual banquet on Friday, Oct. 27th.  This year we are celebrating our 25th Anniversary with American hero Lt. Col. Allen West as our keynote speaker. Space is limited, don’t miss this special event. Click HERE for more information.

Call (708) 781-9328 for more information.

Following the recent Supreme Court decision in favor of the religious liberty of the owners of Hobby Lobby, there’s been a lot of handwringing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth over a mythical war on women that warrants a closer look.

Sandra Fluke has a right to eat. Her right to eat is even more fundamental than her right to contracept. She actually must eat.  Does her employer have an ethical or Constitutional obligation to pay directly for her food? And does her employer have an obligation to pay directly for whatever food she chooses to eat—even if that food is expensive and lethal?

This may shock those who believe that it takes a village to raise a child and to subsidize the frisky sexcapades of adult women, but Fluke’s employer has an ethical obligation only to pay her for services rendered. Fluke works; her employer compensates her with a paycheck. With her money, Fluke can make discretionary spending choices. If she can’t afford her first choice of contraceptive methods, she has several options:

• She can cancel her Netflix or HBO subscription in order to pay for her contraceptives.

• She can choose a less expensive contraceptive method (like condoms, which no one gets subsidized).

• She can try to compel her sexual partner to subsidize that for which she is trying to compel her employer to pay.

• Or (horror of horrors), she can forgo sex until such time as she can afford her contraceptive method of choice.

When did the right to access contraception transmogrify into the right to compel others to pay for it? Since when is it a “right” to compel a closely held company (or the government for that matter) to pay for one’s birth control?

The “empowered” Sandra Flukes of the world get the vapors at the mere thought of having to pay  for the costs of their own volitional sexual activity. Apparently, empowerment to them means having the power to compel others to pay for what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms out of which they want people to stay. 

Help us be your voice for pro-family values! 

This morning, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down a highly anticipated ruling that affirmed First Amendment  protections of religious liberty and freedom of conscience.  In this particular ruling it means that our government does not have the authority to force family businesses like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods to provide abortifacient drugs and contraceptives in their health care plans.

The Illinois Family Institute celebrates this important decision in favor of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. The Court ruled that private companies cannot be forced to comply with onerous federal government mandates that violate their religious beliefs. 

Read or download the entire SCOTUS decision HERE.

No one in America should be forced to violate their deeply held beliefs in order to keep their jobs or run a business.  We should be free to live and work according to our religious beliefs, not the government’s religion.  To put it more bluntly, our government has no business compelling pro-life citizens to bow at the altar of Leftism.  It is a foundational principle on which this country was founded.

In a free, diverse and tolerant society, the government should respect the freedom of citizens to live out their convictions, not just in private but in the way citizens conduct their lives in public as well. 

It must be noted that this was a 5 to 4 vote on ideological lines, which means that barely a majority of the Justices understand that government shouldn’t suppress religious freedom.  On some level it is distressing to know that it took three years and millions of dollars of legal action to affirm what the First Amendment clearly states: that people have a right to live by the dictates of their faith. And in this case, the right not to partake in the destruction of an innocent human life.   While the victory is important and one for which we should be thankful, the fact is that we were within one vote of a significant loss of religious liberty for individuals who own their own business. Don’t misunderstand, I’m very grateful for this victory, but his vote was too close for comfort.

Key to the decision was the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).  This federal law does not give license to discrimination, as many on the Left have mistakenly claimed.  Today, the SCOTUS directly repudiated this false notion and specifically reiterated that RFRA provides no defense to discriminate in hiring. No federal or state RFRA has ever been used to discriminate against someone.  In fact, RFRA is actually about preventing discrimination against any American due to their religious beliefs.

Locally, reaction was swift and jubilant.   “I am proud that our Supreme Court has upheld the fundamental religious liberties of American citizens to engage in the free exercise of their religious beliefs, not only in their houses of worship, but also in their day to day lives, in business as well as at home,” said Thomas Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society.  “Our Justices have affirmed that Americans must not be compelled to put aside their religious beliefs and values as a pre-condition to their entering into the sphere of commerce and making a living for themselves and their families.”

“This ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby is a victory for all who cherish religious freedom,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League and one of the national directors of the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies. “The movement that began with hundreds of protest rallies outside federal court buildings has just won a great victory inside the nation’s highest Court.”

Response from national organizations was no less enthusiastic.  Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council had this to say:

The Supreme Court has delivered one of the most significant victories for religious freedom in our generation. We are thankful the Supreme Court agreed that the government went too far by mandating that family businesses owners must violate their consciences under threat of crippling fines.

All Americans can be thankful that the Court reaffirmed that freedom of conscience is a long-held American tradition and that the government cannot impose a law on American men and women that forces them to violate their beliefs in order to hold a job, own a business, or purchase health insurance.

The unfair HHS mandate gave family businesses two non-choices: either violate your deeply held moral beliefs and comply by paying for drugs and services to which you object, or pay crippling fines of up to $100 per day, per employee, for non-compliance. This mandate threatened the jobs, livelihood and healthcare of millions of Americans and forced those who stood up for their conscience, like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, to either comply or be punished.

Thankfully, the threat the HHS mandate imposed on Americans has been deemed unlawful today as a violation of core religious freedom rights.  While we celebrate this landmark decision, it is our hope that lower courts will follow the Supreme Court’s lead and protect non-profits like Little Sisters of the Poor, Priests for Life, and Wheaton College from the unfair HHS Mandate.

Dr. Russell Moore of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission sums it up well, “Hobby Lobby [and Conestoga Wood Specialities] refused to render to Caesar what belongs to God: their consciences. The Supreme Court agreed.” 

Help us be your voice for pro-family values! 

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled today that the Christian-run Hobby Lobby doesn’t have to obey the HHS mandate that is a part of Obamacare that requires businesses to pay for abortion causing drugs in their employee health care plans.

The Obama administration was attempting to make Hobby Lobby and thousands of pro-life businesses and organizations comply with the HHS mandate that compels religious companies to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their employees. However, the U.S. Supreme Court today issued a favorable ruling in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a landmark case addressing the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of business owners to operate their family companies without violating their deeply held religious convictions.

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Samuel Alito handed down the decision for the high court, saying, “The Supreme Court holds government can’t require closely held corporations with religious owners to provide contraception coverage.”

“HHS’s contraception mandate substantially burdens the exercise of religion,” the decision reads, adding that the “decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to mean that all insurance mandates.” The opinion said the “plain terms of Religious Freedom Restoration Act” are “perfectly clear.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion saying that government itself could provide the coverage for contraception and the abortion-causing drugs if a company declines to do so.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a dissent that claims the decision is “of startling breadth,” a claim the majority denies. The major decision indicates it applies to the abortion mandate, not blood transfusions or other practices to which people may have religious objections.

The Hobby Lobby decision only applies to companies, including Conestoga Wood Specialties, which had a companion case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Non-profit groups like Priests for Life and Little Sisters are still waiting for a ruling about their right to opt out of the mandate.

The Obama administration said it was confident it would prevail, saying, “We believe this requirement is lawful…and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.”

Responding to the decision, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel David Cortman told LifeNews: “Americans don’t surrender their freedom by opening a family business. In its decision today, the Supreme Court affirmed that all Americans, including family business owners, must be free to live and work consistently with their beliefs without fear of punishment by the government. In a free and diverse society, we respect the freedom to live out our convictions. For the Hahns and the Greens, that means not being forced to participate in distributing potentially life-terminating drugs and devices.”

In July, a federal court granted Hobby Lobby a preliminary injunction against the HHS abortion-drug mandate. The injunction prevented the Obama administration from enforcing the mandate against the Christian company, but the Obama administration appealed that ruling. Hobby Lobby could have paid as much as $1.3 million each day in fines for refusing to pay for birth control or abortion-causing drugs under the mandate.

After the appeals court ruling, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton issued a preliminary injunction and stayed the case until Oct. 1 to give the Obama administration time to appeal the decision.

In an opinion read from the bench, the court said, “There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that no individual or corporation has their legs cut out from under them while these difficult issues are resolved.”

A December 2013 Rasmussen Reports poll shows Americans disagree with forcing companies like Hobby Lobby to obey the mandate.

“Half of voters now oppose a government requirement that employers provide health insurance with free contraceptives for their female employees,” Rasmussen reports.

The poll found: “The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 38 percent of Likely U.S. Voters still believe businesses should be required by law to provide health insurance that covers all government-approved contraceptives for women without co-payments or other charges to the patient.

Fifty-one percent (51 percent) disagree and say employers should not be required to provide health insurance with this type of coverage. Eleven percent (11 percent) are not sure.”

Another recent poll found 59 percent of Americans disagree with the mandate.

The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, grew their family business out of their garage. They now own stores in 41 states employing more than 16,000 full time employees. They have always operated their business according to their faith.

Kristina Arriaga, Executive Director of the Becket Fund, tells LifeNews, “In fact, the Greens pay salaries that start at twice the minimum wage and offer excellent benefits, as well as a healthcare package which includes almost all of the contraceptives now mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Their only objection is to 4 drugs and devices which, the government itself concedes, can terminate an embryo.”

“Their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act should be protected by the government. Instead, the government has threatened them with fines and fought them all the way to the Supreme Court,” Arriaga added.

“The government has already exempted tens of millions of Americans from complying with the mandate that forces employers to provide certain specific drugs and devices. However, it refuses to accommodate the Green family because the Green family’s objections are religious.  We believe that the government’s position is not only extreme and unconstitutional; it presents a grave danger to our freedoms,” she continued.

“My family and I are encouraged that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide our case,” said Mr. Green, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO.  “This legal challenge has always remained about one thing and one thing only: the right of our family businesses to live out our sincere and deeply held religious convictions as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law.”

This article was originally posted at the LifeNews.com blog. 

This week the U.S. Supreme Court hears a critically important religious freedom case. The Court will determine whether Hobby Lobby must provide contraceptive coverage to its employees, which would entail violating the religious beliefs of the company’s owners on a matter of no small import: the killing of the unborn.

Judy Waxman, a vice president of the National Women’s Law Center, asserts that “The key question is whether a corporation can have a religion.”

That strikes me as a dishonest framing of the question in that the “corporation” consists of individuals for whom their faith is central.

I would argue that the key question is whether the free exercise of religion protects the right of citizens to allow their faith to shape the means by which they make a living. The key question is whether an individual has the right to have their religious beliefs inform their livelihood decisions. Many Americans spend most of their waking hours working. For Christians, every aspect of life should be lived in submission to God and shaped by biblical truths. Christians should not lose their right to freely exercise their religion in all areas of life just because they have used their gifts and labor to create successful businesses.

The First Amendment does not merely protect the right of people of faith to freely exercise their religion within the confines of their churches. It protects the right of people of faith to exercise their religious convictions in all areas of life, not the least of which is our work. Shaping business decisions in accordance with one’s faith does not constitute a violation of the separation of church and state. Not subsidizing the provision of abortifacients to women does not constitute establishing a religion or imposing a religious practice on others. If the government declares that commerce is an area of life in which individuals have no right to exercise their religion, the First Amendment is gutted.

Take ACTION:  Our friends at the Pro-Life Action League are asking that we join the “Tweet Storm for Religious Freedom” from 8 a.m. to Noon.  People of faith across the country will be tweeting with the hashtag #ReligiousFreedomForAll during that time, when the Justices will be hearing oral arguments in this case.

 Click HERE to support the work and ministry
of Illinois Family Institute.

From the Liberty Council

Washington, DC—Two federal courts of appeal have dealt a setback to the ObamaCare Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. Yesterday a federal appeals court in Denver, sitting en banc, sided with the preliminary injunction request of Hobby Lobby, a Christian, family-owned arts and crafts chain with 500 stores in 41 states.

Hobby Lobby Founder and CEO David Green drew a line in the sand and said, “We believe people are more important than the bottom line and honoring God is more important than turning a profit.” The court of appeals sent the case back to the lower district court to review the request for the injunction, but based on how the opinion is written, the lower court will almost certainly issue the preliminary injunction.

Last week a federal district court in Pennsylvania granted a preliminary injunction for Geneva College, the first relief granted to a nonprofit college. Federal Judge Joy Flowers Conti ruled: “Three Supreme Court decisions support Geneva’s argument that there is a likelihood of success on the merits with respect to its assertion that it will suffer a substantial burden under the [Religious Freedom Restoration Act] RFRA.”

Based on its religious beliefs, Geneva College refused to provide the so-called contraceptive mandate, which includes abortion-inducing drugs and devices, as well as sterilization.

Liberty Counsel’s case, on behalf of Liberty University and two individuals in Liberty University v. Geithner, is still pending at the Forth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, presented oral argument in that case on May 17, 2013.

The Liberty University case presents the nation’s broadest challenge to ObamaCare, challenging (1) the entire employer mandate, (2) the HHS abortion mandate for employers, (3) the abortion funding forced upon individuals, and (4) the failure of ObamaCare to comply with the Origination Clause.

“The ObamaCare contraception and abortion mandate is the most serious violation of religious liberty,” said Staver. “ObamaCare is a train wreck with the natural right to the free exercise of religion. ObamaCare forces Christians and people of faith to either violate their deeply held religious beliefs to comply with the law or violate the law to comply with their faith. The government has lost its way when it forces this kind of choice upon its citizens,” concluded Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.

Pro-life and religious leaders are sharply criticizing the Obama Administration’s revised contraceptive and abortion drug mandate, saying that it still requires religious employers to finance abortifacient drugs in their health insurance plans. 

“With another phony compromise, the Obama Administration continues to insult the intelligence of the American people and trample our constitutional rights,” reacted Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United for Life.  “Our First Amendment freedom of conscience has been violated by Obamacare and these new regulations do not resolve the offense.”  

Under the “compromise” plan proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, only organized churches, associations of churches, and their “integrated auxiliaries” are exempted from the contraceptive and abortion drug mandate. 

That means religious hospitals, religious educational institutions, and many other non-profit religious ministries that are not formal departments or subsidiaries of a church, will not be included in the religious exemption.    

The federal contraceptive regulation requires that every health insurance policy issued in the United States must include coverage without co-pays for all “contraceptive” drugs and devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration.  This includes drugs like Ella and Plan B, which have both contraceptive and abortifacient qualities.  It also includes intrauterine devices that operate as abortifacients. 

Under the new scheme developed by the Obama Administration, religious non-profits will supposedly not have to include contraceptive coverage in their insurance policies or their self-insurance plan.  However, their insurer or third-party administrator will have to provide separate insurance policies to each of their employees that does include contraceptive coverage regardless of whether the employee wants it or not.      

The proposed “compromise” states that insurers must provide this supplemental contraceptive coverage at no cost to the employee.  This is a ludicrous concept, as the cost of such coverage will obviously be absorbed into the insurance company’s overall expenses, and be charged back to policyholders. 

“This is nothing but an accounting gimmick that forces religious organizations…to be the gatekeeper to objectionable services for their employees,” says a statement from American United for Life.  “The contraceptive coverage is legally required to piggy-back onto the insurance plan, regardless of the employer’s objections.” 

The sham compromise concocted by the Obama Administration still leaves for-profit religious employers at the mercy of the punitive mandate.  Christian business owners will still have to include coverage of abortifacient drugs in the health insurance programs they provide to their employees.  They will still face exceedingly harsh fines of $100 per day per employee if they fail to comply. 

“All Americans, not just those in church organizations, are guaranteed freedom of conscience in their daily lives and in their work,” commented Matt Bowman, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.  “The government has no business putting religious freedom on the negotiating table, or picking and choosing who is allowed to exercise their faith.” 

“This country’s laws and constitution protect the religious freedom of all Americans, whether organized into religious bodies or not,”  says Francis Manion, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.  “Religious believers who want to conduct their businesses in a manner consistent with their religious beliefs have the same right to religious liberty as everyone else.” 

Christian medical authorities are also deriding the latest version of the mandate.  “Many employers, regardless of whether they carry a religious label or not, maintain strong conscience objections to participating in any plan that pays for pills that can cause the demise of a living human embryo,” says Dr. Gene Rudd, Executive Vice President of the Christian Medical Association. 

One of those employers is David Green, founder and President of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores.  Green says his company will not comply with the mandate despite the failure of a lawsuit filed in federal court to protect his religious liberties.  Hobby Lobby faces fines of $1.3 million per day under the penalty provisions of the mandate. 

While Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius continues to play games with the religious freedoms of the American people, legal challenges to the abortion drug mandate continue to accumulate.  At last count, there have been a total of 44 lawsuits filed in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the mandate on religious freedom grounds. 

One of the latest to weigh in is the Drury Development Corporation, which operates the Drury chain of hotels.  Drury was founded by devout Catholic Charles Drury, and is now managed by his son Tim.  Drury has filed a friend of the court brief in a lawsuit filed by K&L Contractors, a construction firm located in Highland, Illinois. 

“The Drury family are adherents of the Catholic faith and wish to conduct their business in a manner that does not violate the principles of that faith,” reads the brief authored by Americans United for Life.  “The Drury family believes that life is a sacred gift from God and that they are not permitted to cause or pay for the direct, intentional termination of human life.  The Drury Corporation is forced to choose between conducting business in a manner consistent with its religious principles or pay ruinous fines and penalties.” 

The federal court of appeals whose jurisdiction includes Missouri is making it very clear where they stand on the constitutionality of the abortion drug mandate.  For the second time, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the mandate, this time in the case of Annex Medical, a medical device firm located in Minnetonka, Minnesota.  The 8th Circuit had previously issued an injunction preventing enforcement of the mandate against a St. Louis company, O’Brien Industrial Holdings. 

The only hope to halt application of the abortion drug mandate to every health insurance provider and consumer is a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding conscientious objections based on religious convictions.  An ultimate decision by the High Court is not expected before the new regulation becomes effective.  There is a public comment period on the revised mandate through April 3rd, after which the contraceptive edict is expected to take full force and effect.

Written by Michael Foust

The Obama administration proposed a rule change Friday it says will appease the concerns religious organizations have about the abortion/contraceptive mandate, but legal groups who defend religious liberty called the proposal inadequate and said it fell far short of what is needed.

Religious groups had hoped the Department of Health and Human Services would announce that all religious organizations — universities, hospitals and charities — are exempt from the mandate, which requires employers to carry health insurance plans covering contraceptives and drugs that can cause chemical abortions. Churches, for example, are exempt from the mandate. Instead, HHS issued a rule it says allows for employees to obtain contraceptives and abortion-causing drugs without the religious employer taking part in the process. Religious liberty groups say employers still will be involved. 

The proposal also does nothing to help businesses such as Bible publisher Tyndale House or Christian-owned Hobby Lobby or any other for-profit whose owners have religious objections to contraceptives and/or abortion-causing drugs. 

“Having reviewed this proposed rule, we … have to say we’re extremely disappointed,” Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a conference call with reporters. Becket Fund has helped lead the legal charge against the mandate. More than 40 lawsuits have been filed against the mandate. Duncan called the proposal “radically inadequate.”

According to an HHS website, under the proposal, the religious employer “would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.” Employees “would receive contraceptive coverage through separate individual health insurance policies, without cost sharing or additional premiums.” The insurance company would be required to offer the drugs for free, HHS said. 

Religious organizations that are self-insured would have to contact a third party administrator, which would “work with a health insurance issuer to provide separate, individual health insurance policies at no cost for participants.” 

Religious liberty groups had multiple objections to the proposal. First, the groups said, religious organizations still will be required to carry an insurance plan that is tied to coverage of contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Second, religious employers — particularly those who are self-insured — will be acting as “conduits” with health providers to ensure their employees can obtain the drugs. Third, it’s unclear who is paying for the “free drugs.” As some religious commentators were suggesting: Will insurance companies simply raise rates — and thereby pass the cost for the abortion-causing drugs on to the religious organization? 

Duncan said religious organizations are “going to have to carefully consider whether this accommodation really doesn’t change the moral landscape at all. It’s going to be up to them to make that determination. We believe they’re going to have some serious concerns about remaining unacceptably involved in the provision of these drugs and devices.”

Alliance Defending Freedom senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said the proposal still infringes on religious liberty.

“Religious non-profits will, in fact, be forced to provide an insurance plan with a provider that gives the religious group’s employees abortion-pill coverage in direct connection with that plan, the coverage is definitely not free, and the coverage is imposed ‘automatically’ even against the objection of many employees who don’t want free abortion-pill coverage for themselves or their daughters,” Bowman said.

To qualify for the proposal, an organization must self-certify that it “holds itself out as a religious organization,” according to HHS. Ironically that could mean that many of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations — despite being non-profits — won’t qualify for the accommodation because they’re technically not religious organizations.

The HHS announcement did nothing to change the coverage by for-profits. Hobby Lobby, the arts and crafts store whose Christian owners say they will not follow the mandate, apparently will face fines of more than $1 million each day if a federal court does not step in. Its owners always have made their faith a central part of their business. Their stores play Christian instrumental music and are closed on Sundays. Hobby Lobby contributes to Christian organizations and runs full-page ads in newspapers during the Easter and Christmas seasons with Gospel-centered messages.

The good news for Christian for-profits is they are winning in court, having seen 10 wins and only four losses. Hobby Lobby, though, is one of those losses. The issue likely is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The administration fails to understand,” said Gene Rudd of the Christian Medical Association, “that many employers and individual Americans, regardless of a religious label or not, maintain strong conscience objections to participating in any way, shape or form in a plan that promotes pills that the FDA says can cause the demise of a living human embryo — a developing baby in her earliest stage.”

Covered under the mandate are emergency contraceptives such as Plan B and ella that can kill an embryo after fertilization and even after implantation. Pro-lifers consider that action a chemical abortion.

The mandate was announced by HHS in August 2011 as part of the health care law championed by President Obama. Although the Supreme Court upheld the health care law last June, the justices’ ruling did not deal with the religious liberty issues surrounding the abortion/contraceptive mandate. That means the nation’s highest court could yet strike down what has been for religious groups and some business owners the most controversial part of the law.

Michael Foust is associate editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress ) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).

The retail craft store chain Hobby Lobby has become the latest major employer to file suit over the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive and abortion drug mandate — also known as the HHS Mandate. Hobby Lobby has gone into federal court to oppose the forced inclusion of abortifacient drugs in their corporate health insurance plans.

Under the mandate issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, virtually all health insurance policies issued in the United States must include coverage of any and all “contraceptives” approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This mandate requires coverage of drugs and devices that can destroy developing human embryos, including the abortifacient drugs Ella and Plan B, often marketed as so-called “emergency contraceptives.”

“The new government mandate requires that our family business provide what we believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance,” says David Green, the chief executive officer of Hobby Lobby, Inc. “We choose not to cover drugs that might cause abortion, such as the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs.”

“It is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured,” Green adds. “We seek to honor God by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles. We are being forced to choose between following the laws of the country that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported thousands of our employees and their families.”

Hobby Lobby is the first major business owned by evangelical Christians to initiate litigation to block the contraceptive mandate. The company, which had its start in an Oklahoma City garage, now operates 500 stores in 41 states, employing 22,500 people. Hobby Lobby is one of the few retail chains which closes its stores on Sundays, to allow employees to enjoy a day of rest with their families.

Under the terms of the Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate, Hobby Lobby faces fines of $1.3 million per day for refusing to comply with the contraceptive mandate. “We are required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines,” Green says. “The government is telling us we must choose which poison pill to swallow. We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

Nearly 30 lawsuits have been filed against the contraceptive and abortion drug mandate, which took effect on August 1st for all non-religious employers. Religious institutions other than churches, such as hospitals, colleges, and parachurch ministries, have until August 1st of 2013 to comply. Most of the lawsuits to date have been filed by Catholic dioceses and by Catholic and evangelical universities.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has served as legal counsel for many of the above-named plaintiffs, and they are representing Hobby Lobby as well. “Washington politicians cannot force families to abandon their faith just to earn a living,” says Lori Windham, Becket Fund senior counsel. “Every American, including family business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.”

Liberal activists have announced a boycott of Hobby Lobby, launching a Facebook page to generate support. David Green is a poor choice for such a boycott. Green and his wife Barbara are major Christian philanthropists, and donate the majority of their wealth to charity. The company pays salaries to its starting full-time employees which are 80 percent above the minimum wage.

“Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy,” Green observes. “Our government threatens to fine a company like ours that has raised wages four years running during this national recession. It’s just not right.”

Please pray for and support Hobby Lobby and business owners like the Greens, who have the courage to put their faith into practice in the marketplace. Thank God for their willingness to take a stand on behalf of human life despite the financial consequences to them and their families.