Obama Admin Forces Churches to Pay for Abortions

Abortion seems to be a holy sacrament to the Left. Not only do they want to murder unborn babies clear up to when they are about to be born or are even partially born, they also insist that everyone must join in on the barbaric act. However, over the years they have made “concessions” to those with religious convictions and stated that they would not be required those with objections of conscience to finance the practice, and they even codified through the Weldon Amendment that groups and individuals could be exempt from supporting abortion of all forms. We should not be surprised, however, that they lied and had no intention of respecting or upholding the conscientious objection to the bloody procedure.

Churches in California are officially subject to an onerous state regulation that requires them to pay for abortions, thanks to a ruling by the Obama administration.

The troubling situation began in 2014 when the California Department of Managed Health Care reclassified abortion as a “basic health service” under the Affordable Care Act and ordered all insurance plans in the state to begin covering surgical abortions immediately. Even churches are not exempt from funding abortions.

The churches filed a lawsuit against the regulation last October, and it has been moving through the courts.

They also asked the Obama administration to uphold the Weldon Amendment — federal law that protects conscience rights. But, today, the HHS Office of Civil Rights released the results of its investigation into the California abortion mandate, stating it found no violation and is closing its investigation of the complaints without further action.

OCR’s decision is based on a flawed reading of the Weldon amendment.  They argue that the Weldon amendment only protects health insurance plans, and not the purchasers of such plans, and state that the insurance companies have not complained.  To say that a previously existing plan that excluded abortion must be discontinued is discriminatory against the life-affirming abortion-free plan.  Whether the insurance company objects or not, the mandate is discriminatory.

Furthermore, OCR states that the insurance companies do not hold a religious or moral objection to covering abortion.  The Weldon amendment is not limited to religious or moral objections.  It is not even based on an objection being raised.  It simply states no funds may be made available to a government that subjects a health care entity (health plan in this case) to discrimination on the basis that the entity “does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion.”

Pro-life leaders in Congress are furious with the Obama administration.

“Nearly two years after California imposed its draconian mandate that requires all insurance companies to pay for abortion the Obama Administration has reached a new low — reinterpreting the Weldon amendment to allow the mandate to continue,” said Rep. Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus in comments to LifeNews.com. “This means that Californians, including churches, will continue to be forced to pay for elective abortions in their insurance plans.”

Smith continued, “The Weldon amendment – named for the Florida Congressman Dave Weldon who authored it – has been renewed and signed into law annually, including by President Obama. The Weldon Amendment protects against state-imposed abortion mandates. But Obama’s Administration has again shown blatant disregard for the rule of law. This decision illustrates the far reaches of Obama’s radical pro-abortion ideology – forcing churches and communities of faith that have pro-life convictions to participate in and pay for a practice that dismembers and chemically poisons unborn children.

The Obama administration once again shows its complete disregard to the rule of law and disrespects millions of citizens who have a strong moral objection to abortion. But progressives are determined to batter down the moral standards and ethics held by anyone who would oppose the sacrament of abortion that the Left seems to worship. It is an evil tyranny administered by blunt force, and somehow Left half of the nation seems absolutely fine with this type of abuse. This has nothing to do with ideology, and everything to do with proving that force will prevail. Perhaps only a civil war will rescue this nation from the tyrants that now rule.

Source: lifenews.com