Plan B, the emergency contraceptive that has been the focus of court battles involving the Affordable Care Act, has been shown to work by causing an abortion according to the medical data reviewed in The Linacre Quarterly.
The drug is one covered by the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Health and Human Services Administration officials claimed that the drug is not an abortifacient drug and should be covered by all businesses.
The Hobby Lobby case at the Supreme Court had the justices ruling those drugs did not need to be covered. Now, there is scientific proof backing up the claims of Hobby Lobby and other businesses that the drugs produce abortions.
The most recent scientific and medical evidence proves that Plan B “quite often” causes an abortion if taken before ovulation which is how women do not get pregnant after taking the emergency contraceptive.
The Linacre Quarterly is the official journal of the Catholic Medical Association.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, told the Christian Post she agreed with the article’s conclusions.
“Catholic bishops have been assured, by Plan B proponents, that the drug does not cause an abortion,” Brown said. “We now know this is not true. There is a grave risk that preborn human lives are being killed by Plan B, and Catholic hospitals need to immediately halt dispensing these drugs and review their policies.”
For years Democratic candidates and spokesmen have been slamming Republicans for saying that the Affordable Care Act provides funding for abortions.
Now, in a roundabout way, they are finally admitting it after Republicans passed a bill that would ban funding for abortions through the ACA. The No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act passed 242-179 and says that any insurance plan that receives government funding cannot pay for abortions.
Democrats says that the bill raises taxes on small businesses because they currently receive a tax credit from the government if they provide abortion coverage to employees. Without the tax credit, employers are less likely to cover employee abortions.
Republicans say that the bill does nothing to employers. All that would happen is that employers would no longer automatically cover abortions because of the government’s funding the tax credit. If an employer wants to cover employee’s abortions, they can choose to pay that out of their own company profits.
The Family Research Council said on a website, ObamacareAbortion.com, that the abortion tax credit is another way the lack of transparency is hurting Christian business owners who do not want to pay for abortion.
With the tax season about to begin and many people concerned about the way they have to handle Affordable Care Act changes, the IRS is making it more difficult for taxpayers to obtain help.
A report from the IRS blames Congress for budget cuts.
The official who represents taxpayers within the IRS, Nina Olson, warns that customer service will be at an all time low with less help on the phone, less help with tax preparation, and more obstacles when disputing an IRS mistake.
“I think that for taxpayers they will not be able to get assistance from the IRS; they will not get their questions answered,” Olson stated.
The IRS has refused to answer questions about what the IRS considers helplines for taxpayers.
The birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act is failing in courts even after revisions made by the Obama administration.
The U.S. District Court in Fort Myers ruled that Ave Maria University will receive a temporary exemption from the Health and Human Services mandate.
“Upon consideration of the record, the submissions of the parties, and the relevant law, it is the Court’s conclusion that Ave Maria’s motion for preliminary injunction should be granted,” read the Court’s ruling. “This preliminary injunction takes effect immediately, and shall remain in effect pending entry of final judgment in this matter or further order of this Court.”
The school had brought suit against the mandate in February 2012.
“It is a sad day when an American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its own government in order to exercise religious liberty rights guaranteed by our nation’s Constitution,” said Ave Maria President Jim Towey to The Christian Post. “Allowing a U.S. president of any political party or religious affiliation to force conformance to his or her religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action, is a perilous precedent.”
The lawsuit had initially been dismissed because the administration said they would be revising the rules to be more tolerant of those with faith but the court found the revised rules are also violations of religious belief.
One of the companies involved in the Supreme Court case striking down parts of the Affordable Care Act has finally received a permanent injunction against the law.
Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation, which has over 950 employees, said the law violated the Mennonite beliefs of their owners. The owners said abortion is “an intrinsic evil and a sin against God” and they should not be forced to pay for abortions via drug in the law.
U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg had ruled against the Hahn Family who owns the company in 2012, which sparked the case heading to the Supreme Court. Now, the same judge has issued a permanent injunction.
“[I]t is hereby ordered that Defendants are permanently enjoined from enforcing against Plaintiffs, their group health plan, and the group health insurance coverage provided in connection with that plan, the statute and regulations that require Plaintiffs to provide their employees coverage for ‘[a]ll Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity,’” the judge wrote in his order.
The Alliance Defending Freedom praised the injunction, saying that they hope other judges will not infringe on the religious freedom of Americans.
Contrary to claims made by the President and his supporters when they were pushing the Affordable Care Act through Congress, the law actually does pay for abortions.
A report from the General Accounting Office has revealed that many insurers receiving the government subsidies put no restrictions on abortions. The report shows 15 of 18 Qualified Health Plans ignored the rules that abortions are not to be covered except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother.
“Of the 18 issuers offering QHPs that cover non-excepted abortion services from which we obtained information, all but three issuers indicated that the benefit is not subject to any restrictions, limitations, or exclusions,” noted the GAO.
“These 18 issuers offered a total of 246 unique QHPs that covered non-excepted abortion services — or 24 percent of the total number of QHPs covering non-excepted abortion services in the 28 states with no laws restricting the circumstances under which abortion services can be provided as a covered benefit.”
The National Right to Life Committee had warned in 2011 that the ACA was full of loopholes that allowed violations of right-to-life principles.
“As enacted, the PPACA contains multiple provisions authorizing federal subsidies for abortion, and additional provisions on which future abortion-expanding regulatory mandates may be based,” charged the NRLC.
Another Christian college has been exempted from the nation’s healthcare laws.
Louisiana College in Pineville filed suit in 2012 over the healthcare mandate’s requirements regarding abortion-inducing drugs. The Alliance Defending Freedom brought the suit on the school’s behalf.
“This is bigger than a preliminary injunction — they already had won that,” said Focus on the Family Judicial Analyst Bruce Hausknecht. “This is a decision ‘on the merits’ of the college’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim, which they won at the district court level. But this is big because it’s apparently the first such decision in either the nonprofit or for-profit cases that actually decides the substantive issue — not just the temporary reprieve.”
The Department of Justice tried to get the case initially dismissed but it’s now likely in light of the recent Supreme Court decision the case would not be appealed by federal prosecutors.
So far, 56 injunctions against the law have been put in place by various federal judges.
The Obama administration is working on a plan that will allow religious non-profit organizations that object to paying for abortion causing drugs and also signing forms to allow third-party groups to cover them to completely opt-out.
A White House spokesman said they are “developing the alternative” to the original plan that “won’t involve shifting the costs to employees.”
The Obama administration was ordered by the Supreme Court to revise the rules after a 6-3 vote by the Supreme Court that Wheaton College could not be required to cover abortion-causing drugs. The case will have trickle down impact on other cases including one involving the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The court said the rule in the healthcare law violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A source told the Associated Press the new rules will come out in about a month.
A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate by a pair of anti-life Senators to overrule the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case has failed.
Washington Senator Patty Murray and Utah Senator Mark Udall introduced what they called the “Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act” that would have stripped people of faith in the United States from owning and operating their own business unless they provided abortion causing drugs to their employees.
The bill failed in the Senate because the Democrats could not obtain 60 votes to bring debate to cloture and move to a full vote. The bill failed 56-43 along mostly party lines to keep the bill from advancing.
Christian organizations celebrated the fact 43 Senators still believe Americans have the right to religious freedom.
“While the Senate rightfully rejected this unjust bill, today is a reminder of the need to stand vigilant in defense of our God-given freedoms against those who would take them away,” Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Casey Mattox said.
