Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced that his state has opted to become a co-plaintiff with the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in its suit against plans by the Department of Health and Human Services to impose a contraception and sterilization mandate.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange
“We are grateful to Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange for taking such a strong stand on this issue,” said Michael P. Warsaw, EWTN president and CEO in an announcement made after Strange filed in federal court as a co-plaintiff on March 22.
“This suit demonstrates that the Alabama motto, ‘We dare to defend our rights,’ is no mere slogan,” Warsaw observed.
“The state could simply have chosen to file a brief advising the court of the impact of the case on its citizens. Instead, it is intervening in the suit as a co-plaintiff with EWTN.”
The move sends a message “that this unjust, unconstitutional mandate hurts not only EWTN, but the entire community,” Warsaw said.
Strange explained to EWTN News that under current Alabama law, religious ministries are permitted to exclude controversial services from their insurance coverage.
“Alabama’s government and people have a long tradition of respect for religious freedom and the right to conscience,” Strange said in his motion to intervene as co-plaintiff.
The state constitution “has always declared ‘that the civil rights, privileges, and capacities of any citizen shall not be in any manner affected by his religious principles.’” In 1998, Alabama voters amended their state constitution to include the provisions of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
However, under the administration’s rule, formulated under the 2010 health care law, many non-exempt religious groups would lose these rights.
This clash between the mandate and state constitutions is just “another massive problem caused by the HHS mandate,” says Becket Fund General Counsel Kyle Duncan who is assisting EWTN in their suit.
“The mandate, which is a command from the federal government, prohibits a state like Alabama from protecting its own citizens’ religious liberties as it manages its own healthcare market in response to the Affordable Care Act,” Duncan told reporters during a conference call yesterday.
As a result, Alabama’s state government “can’t comply with the federal law without violating its own constitutional guarantees of religious freedom for all of its citizens,” Duncan said.
In addition to these concerns, Strange is also worried that the mandate will burden his state financially because if employers are forced to drop their health insurance for reasons of conscience, this will force their employees onto public programs such as Medicaid.
The law will also imperil the religious nonprofits that operate in the state under his protection because it would effectively destroy them with crushing fines and penalties.
Religious liberty is our first freedom under the U.S. Constitution, Strange reminded.
“The people of Alabama have recognized the importance of this freedom and have enshrined it in their constitution as well,” he noted. “Alabama law does not allow anyone to be forced to offer a product that is against his or her religious beliefs or conscience.”
The issue is simple, he says. “Either Alabamians and Americans around the country will be allowed to exercise their religious freedom to say ‘no’ to something they disagree with, or they won’t. . . . We hope the Obama Administration will listen, and adopt a position that supports our first freedom rather than undermines it.”
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