State of Alabama joins EWTN in new suit against HHS mandate

From Catholic News Agency: 

EWTN Global Catholic Network has been joined by the state of Alabama in a new lawsuit against the Obama administration’s contraception and sterilization mandate.

“EWTN has no other option but to continue our legal challenge to the mandate,” said chairman Michael P. Warsaw in an Oct. 28 statement announcing the suit.

The network had originally filed a suit against the federal government Feb. 9, 2012 and was later joined by Alabama through the state’s attorney general, Luther Strange. That suit was dismissed, but in the new suit, Alabama has joined EWTN at the start.

“I am proud to stand with EWTN to oppose this unconscionable mandate. … the freedom of religion, and to believe as one sees fit, is our ‘first freedom’ under the United States Constitution,” Strange said regarding the new lawsuit.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing both EWTN and Alabama in the suit.

“Version 2.0 of the mandate is just as bad as version 1.0,” Lori Windham, senior counsel at the Becket Fund said. “It would still force the world’s preeminent Catholic network to betray publicly the very teachings it was founded to promote, and which it promotes on a daily basis.”

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