So it begins (cont.)

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Last week, we saw Franciscan University drop its health care coverage for its students and employees rather than be forced to comply with the ObamaCare mandate to provide contraceptive procedures and devices.

This week, 43 plaintiffs, including Notre Dame University and the Archdiocese of New York filed suit against the Obama administration over the contraception mandate.

Some of the most influential Catholic institutions in the country filed suit against the Obama administration Monday over the so-called contraception mandate, in one of the biggest coordinated legal challenges to the rule to date.

Claiming their "fundamental rights hang in the balance," a total of 43 plaintiffs filed a dozen separate federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the requirement. Among the organizations filing were the University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and The Catholic University of America.

The groups are objecting to the requirement from the federal health care overhaul that employers provide access to contraceptive care. The Obama administration several months ago softened its position on the mandate, but some religious organizations complained the administration did not go far enough to ensure the rule would not compel them to violate their religious beliefs.

(italics, ours)

This is nonsense. There was no softening. The regime merely allowed Catholic institutions to pass along the cost of the mandated provisions to the insurer. This hardly solves the core issue of Catholic institutions being forced to provide through their insurance plans, contraceptive devices.

At the end of the day, ask yourself this question: what in the hell is Barack Obama, Kathleen Sebelius or any other person on the face of the planet, outside of the Pope, we suppose, doing in telling what the Catholic Church what they can and cannot do? It's just that simple.

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