Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma has introduced legislation to protect the conscience rights of any organization with a moral objection to participating in abortion-related health insurance coverage, Breitbart reports.
According to Lankford, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act would forbid the federal government as well as “any state or local government receiving federal financial assistance” from fining or otherwise punishing any “health professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, an accountable care organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of healthcare facility, organization, or plan” that opts not to cover abortion or abortifacient drugs.
“The fabric of America is built on the First Amendment rights of free speech and the free exercise of religion,” Lankford declared, noting that “people with opposing views” can only “live together in peace” if all Americans and the federal government “respect our different beliefs.”
Live Action News has previously reported that despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Health and Human Service Department contraception mandate in Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius, the Obama Administration is still attempting to force the mandate on religious organizations under revised “accommodations” that supposedly account for religious objections yet ultimately still constitute participation in services to which they object. Such cases involving Catholic Charities and several Christian colleges in Oklahoma are currently working their way through the courts.
