Contraceptive Mandate Compromise 'Utterly Fails,' Say Pro-Life Leaders

February 10, 2012

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.), co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, says Obama's revised contraceptive mandate continues to be "a serious violation" of religious freedom, OneNewsNow.com reports. Obama said today that the solution "protected religious liberty" as well as ensured that "free preventative care will not discriminate against women," but Smith argued: "The newest iteration of Obama's coercion rule utterly fails because it still forces religious employers and employees who have moral objections to paying for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception to pay for these things -- because it is still the employers who buy the coverage for their employees. ... [The mandate states] that religious employers 'will not' have to pay for abortion pills ... but their 'insurance companies' will. Who pays for the insurance policy? The religious employer." Paul Rondeau of the American Life League added, "This was about Obama willing to defy the Constitution and invade individual, personal sovereignty."