Seven states sue government over contraceptives mandate

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Seven states sue government over contraceptives mandate
By Tom Cohen, CNN
February 24, 2012 -- Updated 0054 GMT (0854 HKT)

Washington (CNN) -- Seven states on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the federal government requirement that religious employers offer health insurance coverage that includes contraceptives and other birth control services.

The issue has become a political flashpoint in a presidential election year, and the lawsuit by attorneys general from Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Florida and Texas was certain to keep it prominent.

Private plaintiffs joining the seven states included Pius X Catholic High School, Catholic Social Services, Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America and private citizens Stacy Molai and Sister Mary Catherine.

The 25-page lawsuit named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and the U.S. Department of Labor and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis as defendants.

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Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/23/us/contraceptives-lawsuit/

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Here we go again

Just like all the past state Attorney Generals who sued over the health care law which they always slander as "Obamacare".

[Yooperman]

2. It's unbelievable.... making an issue out nothing...

Don't they realize that most Americans think this a good step for all of society?

Makes me want to

YM

[stanchaz]

3. Why the lawsuit is baseless

These "faith-based institutions" are businesses NOT churches....BIG businesses. Their varied employees should not be made to involuntarily kneel at the altar of religion... a flat-out violation of the First Amendment. The government is trying to protect the freedom of these employees, not to limit it! Seriously: The bottom line is that absolutely NO ONE is coming into our Churches or places of worship and telling believers what to believe.....or forcing them to use contraception. BUT If the Bishops (and other denominations) want to continue running businesses outside of their places of worship...businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no "faith" at all- THEN they must play by the same rules and rights that other workers live by and enjoy (especially if their businesses use our tax dollars, and skip paying taxes, in the process). If the Jehovah's Witnesses church hires me, can they alter my health insurance to exclude blood transfusions? Even worse- what if they operated a hospital by their “rules”? This is not a “war on religion”. Never was. However, it IS a war BY some religions... on women and men who simply want to plan their families, to control their futures, to keep their jobs, and to have health insurance that allows them to do that.

[tsuki]

4. A larger question is does a state, like Florida, have the right

to impose a faith based institution of health care on a community and decree that the monopoly of that faith based institution be maintained without free market restraint?

I am talking about things like living wills which are now being rejected by Catholic hospitals as against their superstitions, against their religious freedom. Where does the religious freedom of the institution end, and the religious freedom of the patient begin? Should the Catholic church, with the backing of the state, be allowed to impose their superstitions as the "law" of the land?

Superstitions our of health care.