Court overrules religion: Catholic business owners must offer contraceptive services under Obamacare

Friday, November 01, 2013 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: Catholics, contraceptive services, Obamacare mandate

(NaturalNews) Whether "religious" or not, everyone is free to experience, think and believe how they want, especially when it comes to their healthcare and the healthcare services their business offers and pays for.

No individual, no employee, nobody has a universal "right" to any medical service. Just because one group of people want free birth control, and think they have a "right" to it, doesn't mean everyone else has to pay for it. The same principle goes for mammograms, blood pressure tests or obesity screenings.

You don't have a "right" to anything you want, and everyone else and their businesses shouldn't be forced to pay for your medical decisions.

Freedom of religion and thought under attack

Religion is simply an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views. Everyone has their own "religion," so to speak, and many people's beliefs typically converge as one organized religion. The freedom of religion has been secured in America by the Bill of Rights' First Amendment, guaranteeing that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

American government was designed to restrict Congress and the President from mandating a system of thought and religion on people and their property. Sadly, this Constitutional protection has been shattered thanks to the Affordable Care Act. This incredibly lengthy law forces, coerces and fines individuals and their businesses into one system of thought. That system of thought includes many provisions that go against specific religious beliefs.

Catholic religion objects to contraceptive mandate as business owners try to opt out

The Catholic religion, containing an estimated 1.2 billion followers around the world, believes very strongly against abortions and contraceptives. Many other religions and thinkers don't believe in birth control and abortions either, along with not believing in a whole host of current medical practices that do more damage than good.

Yet, the Affordable Care Act mandates that business owners, regardless of their religious beliefs, offer these contraceptive and abortifacient services under the new law, regardless of the owner's individual beliefs.

Questions to consider:

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, has Congress and the President established its own belief system and world view? Are they prohibiting the free exercise of other religious thoughts and beliefs by mandating and fining people for not complying?

Even the non-religious can agree that this is true, that the government has established, respected and signed into law its own mandated belief system of health care. One world view has been established, and anyone in dissent must pay a fine to this system of thought.

Eden Foods President forced to comply against his beliefs

To make matters worse, an American court of law struck down an injunction filed by Eden Foods President Michael Potter, who objects to the "immoral and unnatural practices" involved in "contraception, abortion and abortifacients."

The three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court affirmed that all business owners, including Potter, must comply with rules against their religion, or face heinous fines.

Potter, represented by the Thomas More Law Center, alleges that his rights have been violated under the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

His injunction before a federal judge was denied and turned over recently to a three-judge panel who also ruled against him. Now, Eden Foods faces a penalty of $2,000 per employee per year for failing to comply.

According to the judges, Michael Potter's personal beliefs and religion do not matter, even though the company is his. Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey wrote for the panel, "By incorporating his business, Potter voluntarily forfeited his rights to bring individual actions for alleged corporate injuries in exchange for the liability and financial protections otherwise afforded him by utilization of the corporate form."

Eden Foods, which is a corporation, must comply with the Affordable Care Act, regardless of the owner's beliefs, because according to Judge Daughtrey, "a secular, for-profit corporation" such as Eden Foods "cannot establish that it can exercise religion, and that Potter cannot establish his standing to challenge obligations placed only on the corporation, not upon him as an individual."

What do you think? Should Potter be able to exempt his company from the ACA on behalf of his personal beliefs? Should he be able to project and choose his own path forward for his company's health care and what they pay for?

There are some tough choices ahead for many companies as they prioritize their beliefs. The Affordable Care Act is secretly gutting good moral businesses from America while purging true medical freedom and religious liberty.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.courthousenews.com