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Posted by Eric Scheidler (August 27, 2014 at 7:30 pm)
After losing in the Hobby Lobby v Burwell Supreme Court case earlier this summer, the Obama administration has just issued new rules for the notorious “HHS Mandate,” the Obamacare provision that requires all employee health plans to include free contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
This marks the eighth time the Obama administration has modified the HHS Mandate. Once again, they’re refusing to listen to the American people—or even the U.S. Supreme Court—and truly respect the employers’ conscience rights.
The new rules are nothing more than a slight variation of the so-called “accommodation” first announced in February 2012, whereby some “third party” will provide the objectionable services. I called that scheme a shell game at the time, and the description still fits. Others have called it an “accounting gimmick.”
All that’s changed is the paperwork involved in the process, which still requires employers to cooperate in providing contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans—or face annual fines up up to $36,500 per employee for refusing to go along. [Continue reading …]
Posted in Court Battles, News and Commentary | Comments Off on Obama Administration Shell Game on HHS Mandate Continues
Posted by Eric Scheidler (March 28, 2014 at 10:24 am)
It was my great honor to speak at a rally held Tuesday outside the Supreme Court as oral arguments were being heard in the Sebelius v Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v Sebelius HHS Mandate cases. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga are challenging the mandate, enacted under Obamacare, which compels them to provide free abortion-inducing drugs through their employee health plans.
Other speakers at the rally included Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life, Lila Rose of Life Action and Meg McDonnell of Women Speak for Themselves, and several more articulate, outspoken women. The only men to speak were Fr Frank Pavone and me—a point I remarked on in my comments, which you can hear in full in the above video.
Father of Six Daughters Speaks Out
After declaring that women’s wellbeing is especially important to me as the father of six daughters, [Continue reading …]
Posted in Court Battles | Comments Off on Eric Scheidler speaks at Rally for Hobby Lobby outside Supreme Court
Posted by Eric Scheidler (November 12, 2013 at 2:43 pm)
Last week another court sided with plaintiffs seeking to stop enforcement of the HHS Mandate against them for refusing to provide free contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to employees.
This time it was the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Chicago, which instructed a lower court to enter a preliminary injunction to prevent the federal government from enforcing the HHS Mandate against Cyril and Jane Korte, and their southern Illinois construction company, Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, Inc.
The Kortes are devout Catholics who say the HHS Mandate requires them to violate their religious faith. But a district court judge refused to grant a preliminary injunction to prevent the federal government from imposing huge fines on them while they fight the HHS Mandate in court.
A court can grant such a preliminary injunction when a judge determines that plaintiffs are likely to prevail—as the Seventh Circuit clearly thinks the Kortes are.
Attorney Edward White of the American Center for Law and Justice, who argued on behalf of the Kortes at the Seventh Circuit, offers more details about the case here.
Here’s hoping that the Kortes will prevail in their lawsuit against the HHS Mandate, which can not proceed without destroying their business, and that all employers will soon see their religious freedoms protected from this kind of government intrusion.
Posted in News and Commentary | Comments Off on Yet Another Court Rules against the HHS Mandate
Posted by Eric Scheidler (February 1, 2013 at 4:21 pm)
Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced proposed new rules allegedly intended to accommodate the moral objections of religious employers to the HHS Mandate.
Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally co-directors Eric Scheidler and Monica Miller, who coordinated over 250 individual rallies coast-to-coast last year in opposition to the HHS Mandate, issued the following statement in response:
Nearly a year after promising to provide an “accommodation” for religious employers who object to the HHS Mandate, the Obama administration has finally issued proposed new rules. While we await a full analysis of these proposed rule changes from legal experts, a first look at what the Obama administration is offering makes it clear that the objections of religious employers have not been taken seriously.
The Obama administration is now offering a complicated scheme whereby employers can “self-certify” to the insurance provider they’ve contracted with that they are “exempt” from the contraceptive mandate, and leave it to the insurer to arrange free contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs for employees, or students, in the case of educational institutions.
At the end of the day, religious institutions like Catholic hospitals and Christian universities are still being forced by the federal government to participate in a scheme whereby their employees are provided free contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
It’s unconscionable that employees and students at an institution like Ave Maria University, which upholds the unchanging Catholic doctrine that contraception assaults human dignity, would receive free contraceptives thanks to their employment or enrollment there.
More disturbingly still, businesses like Hobby Lobby, which are not dedicated to specifically religious purpose but which nevertheless operate upon a basis of faith, are offered no protection whatsoever for their religious and moral objections to providing these services. The Obama administration is still claiming the right to decide who gets to exercise freedom of religion in the public square.
We encourage all who have been opposing the HHS Mandate to object to these unacceptable proposed rule changes during the public comment period before final rules are issued in April. Meanwhile, our public protest and education efforts will continue unabated.
Posted by Eric Scheidler (November 30, 2012 at 10:00 am)
Note: Stand Up Rally co-director Eric Scheidler published this article on the Pro-Life Action League website shortly after the 2012 election. Since the pro-life and religious freedom movements are so closely allied, readers of this site may be interested in Eric’s remarks.
Several liberal commentators and even a few conservatives are gleefully reporting exit polls for last week’s election showing 59% of voters say they believe abortion should be legal in “most or all cases,” a sure sign that the pro-life movement is losing and that the advantage on social issues has swung to Democrats.
That’s one way to add up the numbers, recruiting the 30% of voters who say abortion should be legal in most cases to legitimize the more hard-core pro-choice position that there should be legal in all cases, as 29% of voters polled believe.
But here’s another way to do the math: add that 30% who believe abortion should be legal in most (but not all) cases to the 24% who believe it should be illegal in most cases and the 13% who believe it should always be illegal, and you find that 66% of voters believe abortion should be illegal in at least some cases.
2012 Exit Poll on Abortion
Which comes closest to your position? Abortion should be:
Legal in all cases: 29%
Legal in most cases: 30%
Illegal in most cases: 23%
Illegal in all cases: 13%
Source: Fox News
In other words, fully two-thirds of thirds of the electorate holds a position on abortion contrary to that espoused by either President Obama or Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, who will not name a single case in which abortion should not be a woman’s choice. [Continue reading …]
Posted by Eric Scheidler (November 1, 2012 at 12:39 pm)
Today, drawing on the themes of today’s Feast of All Saints, the Roman Catholic bishops of Pennsylvania issued a strong statement on the duty of Catholics to bring the traditions of their faith to bear when they go to the polls next week. In recent weeks, Pennsylvania has emerged as a battleground state in presidential election.
Here’s an excerpt:
Today it is no longer the case, as it was for our country’s Founders, that religion can provide a shared moral framework and vocabulary for a pluralistic democracy. In fact, Americans would do well to realize that many of our country’s leading thinkers in law, higher education, and the social sciences simply no longer believe in the idea of inalienable natural rights guaranteed by a Creator higher than the State—one of the cornerstone principles of the American experiment.
This has serious implications because many of our most urgent political issues—ranging from the economy, immigration, and abortion to global security—raise profoundly moral questions. These questions cannot be resolved without a common understanding of right and wrong. Consider today’s aggressive efforts to redefine the nature of marriage, to exclude parental authority in the choice of the best education for their children, and to force Catholic healthcare and social services to end their ministries unless they violate their religious identities through mandated support of practices contrary to the very sanctity of human life.
Religious liberty itself—”our first, most cherished freedom”—is no longer secure. At first glance, this may seem otherwise because religious freedom is so deeply ingrained in our national history. But democracy has no special immunity to losing its soul by little steps.
Read the whole thing, and then share it with your friends and family in Pennsylvania and other battleground states where heeding the bishops’ call could make a difference on Election Day.
Posted in Election 2012 | Comments Off on Catholic Bishops of Pennsylvania Issue Strong Statement on the Elections
Posted by Eric Scheidler (October 31, 2012 at 8:00 pm)
Rally Captains all across the country have been reporting in with their attendance numbers, and with 140 cities tallied, the headcount for the October 20 Stand Up Rally has hit 28,077! Stay tuned to this blog post for updated numbers as reports come in.
Here’s the city-by-city tally. If you have numbers for a Rally city not listed here, please let me know in the comments.
[Continue reading …]
Posted by Eric Scheidler (October 24, 2012 at 4:54 pm)
Just like the March and June Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies, the October Stand Up Rally has garnered significant news coverage in markets large and small. Hundreds of stories show up on a search of Google News.
Here are a few examples that illustrate how our carefully crafted media strategy has played out both nationally and locally:
Posted in October Rally Report | Comments Off on Stand Up Rally Media Strategy Garners Great Coverage
Posted by Eric Scheidler (October 19, 2012 at 2:00 am)
World renowned evangelist Billy Graham has added his voice to the chorus of religious leaders calling on Americans to vote in accordance with their values on Election Day.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will publish ads in key locations around the country over the coming weeks featuring Graham’s familiar image and his strong statement for Christian voters:
On November 6, the day before my 94th birthday, our nation will hold one of the most critical elections in my lifetime. We are at a crossroads and there are profound moral issues at stake. I strongly urge you to vote for candidates who support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and woman, protect the sanctity of life, and defend our religious freedoms. The Bible speaks clearly on these crucial issues. Please join me in praying for America, that we will turn our hearts back toward God.
Let us pray that voters will heed the words of this great evangelical leader, one of the most respected religious leaders in the world, whose ministry over the past seven decades has exemplified the value of religious faith playing a special role in the public square.
Posted by Eric Scheidler (October 10, 2012 at 2:29 pm)
As the date for the third Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally approaches, the number of lawsuits being filed against the HHS Mandate continues to rise. The most recent was filed yesterday: East Texas Baptist University & Houston Baptist University v. Sebelius.
And it’s not just explicitly religious institutions like these Baptist universities or the Catholic Charities that are fighting the HHS Mandate in court. Several private businesses are doing so, too, including the craft goods chain Hobby Lobby.
According to the Becket Fund, which is tracking these cases—and litigating some of them—there are now 33 lawsuits against the HHS Mandate. [Continue reading …]
