Posted on 08/22/2014 10:58:24 AM PDT by wagglebee
After losing to Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court in a case about whether certain businesses who object to paying for abortion-causing drugs for their employees must follow the HHS mandate, the Obama administration has revised the HHS mandate rules.
The revisions target religious nonprofits and those pro-life companies like Hobby Lobby.
The Obama administration released a fact sheet on the newly-proposed HHS mandate rule pertaining to non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit entities, like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties. The factsheet on the new rules makes it clear that the HHS mandate violates the conscience rights of non-profit organizations and family businesses across the country.
According to the factsheet, the Obama administration will publish two new regulations relating to the HHS preventive services mandate. One is an interim final rule regarding an additional mechanism for non-profits to provide notification of their objection to the mandate. The second is a proposed final rule and request for comment on applying an accommodation procedure to for-profit businesses, like family-owned companies Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood.
The upshot of the new rules? As Arina Grossu, Director for the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, tells LifeNews, it’s “the threat of crippling fines on non-profits who stand up for their freedom of conscience.”
“What remains an insulting accounting gimmick does not protect the rights of Americans with sincere conscientious objections. It is simply another clerical layer to an already existing accounting gimmick that does nothing to protect religious freedom because the employer still remains the legal gateway by which these drugs and services will be provided to their employees,” she said. “It’s very disappointing that the Obama administration is doubling down on its plans to punish charities and non-profits that assist the poor and homeless, who in some cases have nowhere else to turn for assistance.”
“Effective immediately, this latest rule still orders charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor, non-profit Christian colleges like Wheaton College, and religious broadcasters like EWTN to violate their consciences simply because they legally contract for health coverage,” Grossu continued. “The government uses their contract as the basis to force their insurers to provide their employees with free contraception and drugs that can kill human embryos, against their sincere conscientious beliefs.”
“If these charities and non-profits follow their conscience and decline to participate in the meaningless accounting gimmick, the administration will make them pay huge penalties accruable on a daily basis — one hundred dollars per employee per day,” she said.
“Additionally, the government is also soliciting comment on new ways to force family businesses to violate their deeply held moral and religious convictions due to the HHS mandate in an attempt to address and skirt the recent Supreme Court ruling. However, the government’s actions here still force family businesses to be complicit in what they view as morally wrong,” Grossu added.
Per the CMS factsheet, the interim final rule will create an additional option for how religious nonprofits may register their objection to the HHS preventive services mandate. Instead of filling out the self-certification form (created in the July 2013 final rules), a religious nonprofit may notify HHS in writing of its objection.
Then, as the factsheet provided by CMS goes on to explain, “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. Regardless of whether the eligible organization self-certifies in accordance with the July 2013 final rules, or provides notice to HHS in accordance with the August 2014 IFR, the obligations of insurers and/or TPAs regarding providing or arranging separate payments for contraceptive services are the same, as discussed in this Fact Sheet. The interim final rule solicits comments but is effective on date of publication in the Federal Register.”
The accommodation created under the July 2013 final rule remains in effect. Today’s announcement creates another notification procedure, which produces the same effect. There are over 50 cases of religious nonprofits suing in objection to the adequacy of the accommodation created by the July 2013 final rule.
In addition, today’s announcement includes notice of a proposed rule to apply the “accommodation” to certain for-profit companies. This includes a request for comments on a new proposed rule for how to define closely-held corporations and how these for-profit organizations (like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood) will provide notification of their objection to providing contraception coverage.
Grossu, of the Family Research Council, told LifeNews, “The Family Research Council urges the administration to offer a full exemption from the mandate to charities and non-profits that have sincere conscientious objections and to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding family businesses like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties.”
Lori Windham, Senior Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, told LifeNews that charities should not be punished for standing up for their pro-life beliefs.
“Religious ministries in these cases serve tens of thousands of Americans, helping the poor and homeless and healing the sick. The Little Sisters of the Poor alone serve more than ten thousand of the elderly poor. These charities want to continue following their faith. They want to focus on ministry—such as sharing their faith and serving the poor—without worrying about the threat of massive IRS penalties,” she said.
Guess what. He ignores the courts, we ignore him.
Screw him. Wish I had a company, I'd be in their face in disobedience.
And if he shut me down, I'd be monetarily set for life.
ALL compulsion to contract is illegal.
Any compelled contract is void.
There are supposedly several places in the law where it is up to the HHS Secretary’s discretion, therefore Congress has not say. Assuming all that is true, I have not read the monstrosity.
The really good news is that she of the Angry Perm, Little Debbie "Mayonnaise Hair" Wasserman Schultz can waste her time organizing boycotts of every single one of these new stores.
Still payin yer taxes there, Laz? Then you consent to the nonsense.
Still spending those FRN's? Consent.
Submitting to BG check for firearms? Consent.
Applying for permits to build on your land? Consent.
Paying your Ocare dues? Consent.
"Governments derive their just powers from the CONSENT of the governed."
Simply put, this is a “dhimmi” tax to force Christians to renounce their faith in the payment of the tax, or face severe penalties.
Have not complied with a single one of those since Sputnik.
And so the religious persecution begins here in the land of the formerly free and the home of the formerly brave.
Abortion and homosexuality are the two pillars of liberalism.
we the people are the douches for electing him twice and for NOT standing en mass as one force and declaring “NO! We ill NOT comply with your constitutionally illegal healthcare mandate” We as a nation HAVe done that in the past, and a federally mandated unconstitutional law was defeated that way when states banded together and said “NO! We will NOT comply with your unconstitutional law”- We as a nation have simply rolled over and have gone right along with this unconstitutional mandate- I believe Nikki Haley’s state refuses to allow it, so far, but her state I believe is the ONLY one doing so- IF enough states joined her, we could, as a nation defeat the Chicago thuggery and stop it in it’s tracks- but the country as a whole seems unwilling to stand up for their constitutional rights any logner
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. - Ayn Rand
Not even the FRN's? How do you do that? I'm not being facetious, I really want to know. I even asked my boss if they could just go ahead and pay me in gold or silver. =D
“LET THEM DIE AND DECREASE THE SURPLUS POPULATION.”
...might’ve been Bill Gates...can't remember...
What if everybody got together and said that we are not going to pay any fines connected to illegally made up laws?
The government supremacists would spend more time in court than on the golf course.
I'm not convinced that he's ever been inside a vagina.
Nah bro I am kidding around. I participate in the system (to a point) SO FAR... but they have me at the breaking point. For example, if I have health insurance through an employer (which I do), cool. If that changes, I am NOT signing up on their insecure identity-theft website, and I am NOT paying a fine.
With you there. We've been paring down to having as little as possible to do with em. I'm on the verge of not renewing any gov't issued ID's, I've gotten rid of the cell phone service, grew a decent garden this year, with plans for much bigger next year. My job provides the health insurance, although I don't use it as I don't want my stuff headed to the IRS. As you can tell, I'm working awful hard on going Galt. That's my goal.
ME TOO! OMG, the silence is beautiful. I may just stay with this, or if I do re-up, it will be (CELL PHONE BATTERY OUT AND AT HOME) most of the time, use it very occasionally and only when necessary. The NSA revelations were very disconcerting to me.
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