On Friday, Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte will be in court, fighting the Obama administration’s blatant and willful attack on the right of Americans to exercise their religious beliefs. Obamacare, of course, is designed to force religious Americans to bow to the government and help fund abhorrent procedures, including abortion, that violate religious teaching and belief that all human life is valuable and has dignity that must be respected and protected.
A Catholic college founded by Benedictine monks, Belmont Abbey is challenging a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision concerning contraception coverage. The provision requires employers’ group health insurance plans to pay in full for all government-approved contraceptive services sought by plan participants, including sterilization, emergency oral contraception and counseling.
Even with some regulatory flexibility offered by the Obama administration, Belmont Abbey officials say the mandate violates their school’s “pro-life” religious principles.
“If they wish to continue offering employee health insurance without violating their religious beliefs, they must do so in violation of federal law and under threat of severe fines, penalties and private lawsuits,” Becket Fund attorneys wrote in an appellate brief.
