HHS Mandate: More Legal Hassle, No Religious Liberty Resolution

HHS Mandate: More Legal Hassle, No Religious Liberty Resolution

Yesterday, Wheaton College appealed a federal district court dismissal of its lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its anti-conscience contraception mandate.

The dismissal on technical grounds fails to address the central religious liberty issues created by the offensive policy. The mandate would force the school to cover abortion-inducing drugs or face staggering fines of $1.4 million each year for holding fast to its deeply held religious beliefs and refusing to do so.

Wheaton College is one of the many non-profit religious organizations whose religious freedom has been under assault from the HHS mandate. Because it is not a house of worship, it does not qualify for the mandate’s exceedingly narrow religious exception. Wheaton was also ineligible for the so-called “safe-harbor” provision—a mere temporary one-year reprieve from enforcement that provides religious non-profits with an additional year to determine how to silence their consciences to conform to the government’s mandate.

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