Pro-life group to defy government mandate to fund birth control and abortion

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, has stated on numerous occasions that he will refuse to pay any fines or submit to government edicts that require Priests for Life to pay for abortions and birth control under the ObamaCare HHS mandate.

On Friday, a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit sided with the radical pro-abortion Obama administration in ruling that requiring an opt-out form for religiously-affiliated non-profits in the abortion/contraception mandate does not count as a substantial burden on religious liberty.

Priests for Life, which brought the ObamaCare challenge called the opt-out mechanism objectionable because it still allows women to obtain abortion inducing drugs under insurance that they are required to provide.

In a statement published on their website, Priests for Life responded, “In the interim, the government has provided what it calls an ‘accommodation’ by which we opt-out of the obligation to provide such coverage. In principle, of course, this moves in the right direction. The conscience of every American should be accommodated by law, so that government never forces anyone to violate his or her conscience.

“If the government is sincere in wanting to enable us to opt out of something because it violates our moral conscience, it is reasonable for us to insist that we be given a way to opt out that does not itself violate our moral conscience. And whether it violates our conscience is for us to say, not the government.”

The national pro-life group continues, “What it boils down to is this,” they write,”the government finds it hard to believe that we are objecting precisely to an action that lets us opt out of its plan to make it easier for our employees to get contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs”.

“We refuse to take actions that are necessary to help the government “fill the gap” to provide drugs that kill babies and harm women. This decision admits that the action they are asking us to take does precisely that and is in fact necessary for that to happen. Therefore we will continue to refuse to obey the regulations, and we will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court,” Priests for Life writes in their statement.

Life Dynamics president and host of Life Talk TV, Mark Crutcher calls the Affordable Care Act the “abortion industry bailout”.

Crutcher responded to the decision by calling the Obama administration pathological liars, “We knew for a fact that the Obama administration was lying through their teeth when they stated from day one that ObamaCare would not cover abortion. Now they are even saying that pro-lifers have to pay for other people’s abortions. These people are a collection of pathological liars.”

Following the ruling, Fr. Frank Pavone also a host of Life Talk TV reiterated the religious pro-life organization’s commitment to never fund abortions, “As we have said from the beginning, Priests for Life will not obey the HHS mandate. To ask a group of priests to cooperate in the government’s plan to expand access to birth control and abortion-inducing drugs is about as contrary to religious freedom as you can get.

Priests for Life will now appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court.