A Colorado federal court ordered a
halt to the Obamacare abortion pill mandate for the Fellowship of Catholic
University Students (FOCUS) due to the statute’s direct violation of FOCUS
sincere religious beliefs.
The group filed the lawsuit in
December explaining:
FOCUS holds, as a matter of religious conviction, that it is
immoral for FOCUS to intentionally participate in, pay for, train others to
engage in, enable or otherwise support or facilitate access to contraceptives,
sterilization, abortion, abortion-inducing drugs, devices, and services.
Plaintiffs claimed the mandate
therefore directly violates the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, which forbids the government from “substantially
burdening a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a
rule of general applicability.”
They also demanded their free exercise,
establishment, and free speech rights be respected per the 1st Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, and called into play their guaranteed liberties of due
process and equal protection under the 5th Amendment.
In 1998, the year FOCUS co-founder
Curtis Martin launched the group, he met Pope John Paul II. According to their website, the Pope listened to
Curtis’ vision for the Catholic campus outreach and “simply told Curtis, ‘Be
soldiers.’” Little did he know how true
to life the imperative statement would become.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
explicitly condemns abortion or taking any part in assisting an abortion:
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from
the moment of conception … Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a
grave offense. The Church attaches the
canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.
More than two dozen catholic
organizations have filed suit decrying the unconstitutional nature of the
Obamacare abortion pill mandate.
The federal court’s preliminary
injunction will stand until the Supreme Court makes a ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. The decision is expected next month.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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