Dozens of LGBT groups lend support to abortifacient Obamacare mandate against Catholic Church
A collection of 29 pro-LGBT groups made a move in court last
week to back the HHS Mandate provision forcing Catholic employers
to violate their religious principles.
The
National LGBTQ Task Force joined 28 other pro-abortion and feminist groups
in filing a February 17 amicus brief in the Zubik v. Burwell case to show support for the Obamacare
mandate requiring the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to provide contraception
to its employees.
The head
of the LGBT group dismissed the position held by Catholics and other people of
faith that forcing them to subsidize contraception for their employees violates
their religious values.
"A
Supreme Court decision that allows discrimination under the guise of 'religious
freedom' would drastically restrict the ability of LGBTQ people to control our
reproductive health and sexual lives," said National LGBTQ Task Force Executive
Director Rea Carey in an LGBT Weekly report.
There are
those in the LGBT community who are able to become pregnant, according to
Carey, and may want access to the no-co-pay birth control touted in the
president's health care takeover.
"Many
of us, including cisgender women, transgender men, intersex and gender
non-conforming people, can get pregnant," Carey stated, "and rely on
a full range of reproductive health options, including birth control, in order
to make the best decisions for ourselves."
The Zubik
in the case is Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, and the case is one of
seven to go before the
Supreme Court next
month, when the Court decides whether the Obama administration can force
employers to violate their religious beliefs by forcing the employers to
provide abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception.
Contraception,
sterilization, and abortion all violate Catholic Church teaching, but the
federal government via Obamacare is requiring all employers, including Catholic
employers, to provide contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs
with no co-pay to their employees, regardless whether the employees use them
and despite the fact that doing so would be considered a mortal sin for
Catholics.
Suing the
government along with Bishop Zubik are the Little Sisters of
the Poor; Priests for Life; Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington,
D.C.; East Texas Baptist University; Southern Nazarene University; and Geneva
College.
All have argued that the contraception mandate – and the Obama
administration's subsequent contraception delivery scheme, passed off as an
"accommodation" – failed to relieve them of the burden of violating
their conscience, because they must still participate in a process that will
give their employees drugs that could take an unborn human being's life.
Bishop
Zubik told a
district judge in November 2013 he would not comply with the HHS mandate under
any circumstance, even if it meant closing Catholic schools, because, the
bishop said, the mandate endangers "the integrity of our beliefs."
In 2012,
Bishop Zubik described the mandate as "a slap in the face" that
says, "To Hell with you!" to Catholics and religious freedom.
The Little Sisters of the Poor is an international religious
community of Catholic nuns who
operate group homes and provide daily care for the elderly poor in 30 U.S.
cities.
They have become a symbol of
the attack on religious freedom in the U.S. due to their refusal to compromise
their Catholic values, with more than a dozen briefsfrom
religious and legal groups been filed in their favor.
The
federal government has rejected the
sisters' request for the Obamacare contraception exception on the basis that
they do not qualify because they employ not only Catholics and serve not only
Catholics. The enormous IRS fines the sisters face for noncompliance with the
Obamacare HHS Mandate would threaten their ability to continue their
mission in the U.S.
The
February 17 amicus brief filed against the Catholic bishop of Pittsburgh by the
LGBT coalition is not the first time for pro-homosexual activists to align with
pro-aborts to join in the Obamacare attack on conscience protections.
Two years
ago, almost 50 homosexual activist groups partnered with Planned Parenthood in releasing a statement supporting
Obama's controversial contraception mandate, saying that legislation proposed
in 10 states at the time to ensure conscience protection amounted to
discrimination.
