Like this one by the the M.K. Chambers Company, a Michigan firm with 120 employees. Here is the scoop,
NORTH BRANCH, MI — A North Branch company has joined the legal battle challenging the so-called “Obamacare” mandate the company claims would force them to purchase insurance that covers contraception and abortion despite their religious beliefs.
The M.K. Chambers Company, a machining, engineering and prototyping company that employees more than 120 full-time employees, filed the lawsuit March 28 in Detroit Federal District Court.
Company president Gerald Chambers and vice president Robert Chambers are the company’s only shareholders.
The lawsuit challenges President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act mandate that requires all insurers to provide contraception by 2014. Employers can face a fine if they attempt to circumvent the mandate by not offering insurance.
M.K. Chambers and its owners, who are Catholic, claim in the lawsuit that the mandate’s coverage of contraception violates “some of their deepest held religious beliefs and moral values” by forcing them to pay for an insurance plan that includes coverage for abortion and drugs like the “morning after pill.”
“… (T)heir Christian religious beliefs forbid them from participating in, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting contraception or the killing of people by abortion,” the lawsuit claims.
Troy-based attorney Daniel Chapman, who represents the business and its owners, said the mandate boils down to an “immoral attack on expression of religion” by the Obama administration.
“What we’re talking about is religious freedom,” said Chapman.
You may have read that Kathleen Sebelius is going ahead with implementation, and enforcement, of the HHS Mandate come August 1, 2013. I don’t think one has to be a raving optimist to come to the conclusion that, given the number of lawsuits that are outstanding, it’s not likely that she will make that deadline. The Administration may not have the opportunity to do anything until the Supreme Court weighs in on the issue.
Back on April 11th, the Heritage Foundation noted that,
Instead of upholding its duty to protect the fundamental freedoms of all Americans, the Administration persists in bureaucratic tinkering with a mandate that is deeply flawed and currently threatening the faith, work, and livelihoods of countless businesses, individuals, and organizations. The Obama Administration should heed the recommendations of many Americans to rescind its offensive, coercive mandate.
So hang in there with your prayers, folks. The HHS Mandate is far from being a sure thing.