The Obama administration has decided even in light of the Hobby Lobby ruling from the Supreme Court to continue their action to force nuns to pay for abortion causing drugs.
The administration filed a “supplemental brief for the government” Monday in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in their lawsuit with the Little Sisters of the Poor. The order sued to not be forced to pay for abortion causing drugs because it violates the Christian faith.
“This Court should proceed with oral argument in these cases,” the administration wrote in the brief. “Because of the injunctions issued in these cases, the women employed by the plaintiffs have been and continue to be denied access to contraceptive coverage.”
The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which is overseeing the case for the Little Sisters, told the Christian Post they were disappointed that the government is going to continue to target the nuns.
“We’re disappointed that the government still insists on picking religious winner and losers and exempting church while telling the Little Sisters of the Poor they’re not religious enough,” Adele Keim said.
The Obama administration responded to the Supreme Court’s striking down of the abortion mandate on religious employers by changing the rules to put the burden for abortion causing drugs onto insurance companies.
The HHS announced the changes on Friday for non-profit agencies.
“Under the interim final regulations, an eligible organization may notify the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in writing of its religious objection to contraception coverage,” it outlines. “HHS will then notify the insurer for an insured health plan, or the Department of Labor will notify the TPA for a self-insured plan, that the organization objects to providing contraception coverage and that the insurer or TPA is responsible for providing enrollees in the health plan separate no-cost payments for contraceptive services for as long as they remain enrolled in the health plan.”
The administration is currently considering whether to extend the plan to for-profit companies.
Those who were supporting Hobby Lobby and others who object to being forced by the government to pay for abortions via drugs say that the new rules do nothing to protect the rights of conscientious objectors.
“The government should not force religious organizations, family businesses, or individuals to be complicit in providing abortion pills to their employees or students,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Gregory S. Baylor. “We will consult with our clients to determine how the government’s actions affect their sincere objections to the mandate.”
The Obama administration has taken steps to weaken Israel’s ability to defend itself against the Islamic terrorist group Hamas and other Islamist threats in the region by blocking a scheduled arms shipment.
An official told the Wall Street Journal that the move by the White House and the State Department stopped the transfer and said it was because they wanted to increase pressure on Israel to make concessions to Hamas. The White House also said they will have greater oversight of anything that might be shipped to Israel.
One unnamed Israeli official told the WSJ that the move could be in part because the Israeli government didn’t support the re-election campaign of President Obama. The move is being seen as revenge for saying Mitt Romney would be a strongrer supporter of Israel.
The report says that the President and his inner circle are “persuaded that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy.”
“Today, many administration officials say the Gaza conflict — the third between Israel and Hamas in under six years — has persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy,” the Journal report said. “Israeli officials, in turn, describe the Obama administration as weak and naive, and are doing as much as they can to bypass the White House in favor of allies in Congress and elsewhere in the administration.”
Sources inside the Israeli government say that Prime Minister Netanyahu is counting more on the support of members of Congress and not counting on support from the President.
Leaders within the terrorist group Hamas have been celebrating the statements and actions of President Barack Obama that show his administration moving into a more hostile relationship with Israeli leadership.
The Obama administration has started restricting arms shipments to Israel, in an attempt to weaken Israel’s defenses against the Islamic terrorist group. According to the Times of Israel, sources inside the administration say they’re hoping to drive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of power so they can find a more liberal leader for Israel that will give up land to the Palestinians.
The news of the Obama administration actions comes after British Prime Minister David Cameron allowed the British Ministry of Trade to announce they will not send more arms to Israel if Hamas attacks Israel again.
Hamas leadership is attributing the withdrawal of Britain and the backing away of the U.S. to their blocking the media in Gaza from showing any of their terrorist attacks on Israel or any wounded Israelis. They also credited the social media and broadcast campaign to control the words used by those expressing news to make it appear Israel was the aggressor instead of the truth that Hamas was making terrorist attacks.
Hamas leaders plan to increase their social media and media manipulation, believing it is their best chance to destabilize the Israeli government through the use of western leaders like Obama and Cameron.
The Obama administration is working on a plan that will allow religious non-profit organizations that object to paying for abortion causing drugs and also signing forms to allow third-party groups to cover them to completely opt-out.
A White House spokesman said they are “developing the alternative” to the original plan that “won’t involve shifting the costs to employees.”
The Obama administration was ordered by the Supreme Court to revise the rules after a 6-3 vote by the Supreme Court that Wheaton College could not be required to cover abortion-causing drugs. The case will have trickle down impact on other cases including one involving the Little Sisters of the Poor.
The court said the rule in the healthcare law violated the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A source told the Associated Press the new rules will come out in about a month.
Egypt is calling for Hamas and Israel to sit down at the table and restart the peace talks that have been stalled for years as a way to end the current conflict.
Egyptian Foreign Minster Sameh Shukri met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today, working to find a framework to get the two sides sitting down to negotiate and end to the hostilities.
Shukri told reporters his goal is “to not only resolve this issue but also to set in motion once again the peace process that Secretary Kerry has been so actively involved in so as to end this ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”
Kerry flew to Cairo Monday to see how he could assist with the negotiations. President Obama said that the administration is building in concern for civilians.
“We have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives,” Obama said in Washington. “And that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a cease-fire that ends the fighting and can stop the deaths of innocent civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel.”
Kerry said that $47 million will be given by the United States for humanitarian aid to Gaza at the end of the hostilities.
The White House coordinator for the Middle East is blasting Israel, saying they’re to blame for the ongoing violence in the region.
Philip Gordon, a special assistant to President Obama, took multiple shots at Israel while at the same time claiming to be the country’s strongest defender.
“Israel confronts an undeniable reality: It cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. Doing so is not only wrong but a recipe for resentment and recurring instability,” Gordon said. “It will embolden extremists on both sides, tear at Israel’s democratic fabric and feed mutual dehumanization.”
Gordon called Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a “proven…reliable partner” and singled out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for criticism because he would not restart negotiations with the Palestinians.
“How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank?” Gordon continued. “How will it have peace if it’s unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security and dignity? How will we prevent other states from supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies, if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?”
Gordon’s speech in Israel is the first time a senior White House official had addressed the Israeli people directly since President Obama’s visit in March 2013.
While the Supreme Court ruling for Hobby Lobby was a major victory for Christian business owners, other lawsuits against the mandate continue to move forward dealing with other questions related to the mandate.
The Little Sisters of the Poor are continuing in their case against the Obama administration’s demand the Sisters sign an “accommodation” to the mandate that their employees can use to obtain contraceptive coverage. The Sisters say that accommodation makes them complicit in something that goes against their faith, namely, abortion.
However, the ruling makes the lawyers for the Sisters believe the court will favorably view them.
“The court’s language indicates the accommodation’s days are numbered,” Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told the Christian Post.
Blomberg says that he feels confident the court will carry the logic through to his case.
“When it comes to complicity, the government doesn’t get to decide, the religious believer gets to decide,” Blomberg said.
A federal judge has granted a temporary health care mandate injunction to close to 200 Catholic employers.
The preliminary injunction says the employers do not have to provide coverage for contraceptives, especially those that cause abortions, and will not be subject to all fines and penalties for not providing those items.
The Catholic Benefits Association filed the lawsuit against the Obama Administration’s “Affordable Care Act” in March claiming it violated their religious freedom.
“The harm posed to these plaintiffs absent relief is quite tangible-they will either face severe monetary penalties or be required to violate their religious beliefs,” U.S. District judge David Russell wrote in his ruling.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs were very pleased with the ruling.
“This ruling is especially gratifying because this lawsuit, alone among the HHS contraceptive mandate cases, includes three groups of Catholic employers-“houses of worship” that are, by regulation, exempt; non-exempt ministries like colleges, Catholic Charities, and healthcare institutions; and Catholic-owned for profit businesses,” Martin Nussbaum, CBA General Counsel, told CNS News.
A petition to the White House calling for President Obama to directly respond to the situation in Sudan with Christian mother Meriam Ibrahim is rapidly moving toward the required number of signatures.
The petition needs to gather 100,000 signatures within a month for the White House to be required to respond. Currently, the petition has almost 2/3 of the necessary total in just one week.
“We strongly urge the administration to take action in the case of Dr. Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who with her toddler and newborn baby (who pending the proper documentation are American citizens) is languishing inside a prison in Khartoum,” the petition states. “We urge you to pressure the Sudanese government to release Meriam and her children so she can escape execution and possible death of her children and be rejoined with her husband in the U.S. Please grant her expedited safe haven in the U.S., where she could seek asylum.”
Ibrahim is married to an American, meaning her two children are American citizens. The State Department has been refusing to take action in the case to get her children brought to America despite the evidence of her husband’s citizenship.
Ibrahim has been sentenced to 100 lashes and then being hung to death for her faith in Christ.