BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) - A Catholic television network claims rules on contraception coverage in President Obama's Affordable Care Act unconstitutionally require it to subsidize contraception and sterilization coverage for its employees.
In a federal lawsuit, Eternal Word Television Network claims the law forces it to "fund, promote and assist others to acquire services which EWTN believes involve gravely immoral practices, including the destruction of innocent human life."
The network sued the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury and the departments' secretaries.
Founded in 1981, Irondale, Ala.-based EWTN calls itself "the largest Catholic media network in the world," providing programs to more than 217 million homes globally. Its TV and radio stations are tailored to a Catholic audience.
The network says the Department of Health and Human Services' preventive care mandate, is part of the 2010 health-care reform, forces it to offer employees coverage for contraception and sterilization procedures. Calling the rule "a deliberate attack by the defendants on the religious beliefs of EWTN and millions of other Americans," the network claims the services contradict its Catholic beliefs and those of its audience and donors.
"Based on the teachings of the Catholic Church, and its own deeply held beliefs, EWTN does not believe that contraception, sterilization, or abortion are properly understood to constitute medicine, health care, or a means of providing for the well being of persons," the complaint states. "Indeed, EWTN believes these procedures involve gravely immoral practices, including the intentional destruction of innocent human life.
"With full knowledge of these beliefs, defendants issued an administrative rule ('the mandate') that not only forces EWTN to treat contraception, sterilization, abortion, and related education and counseling as health care, but that also subverts the expression of EWTN's religious beliefs, and the beliefs of millions of other Americans, by forcing EWTN to fund, promote, and assist others to acquire services which EWTN believes involve gravely immoral practices, including the destruction of innocent human life.
"The mandate unconstitutionally coerces EWTN to violate its deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines and penalties. The mandate also forces EWTN to fund government-dictated speech that is directly at odds with its own speech and religious teachings. Having to pay a fine to the taxing authorities for the privilege of practicing one's religion or controlling one's own speech is un-American, unprecedented, and flagrantly unconstitutional.
"The defendants' refusal to accommodate conscience is also highly selective. A patchwork of seemingly arbitrary exemptions from the Affordable Care Act announces that defendants do not believe every insurance plan in the country need cover these services. For instance, defendants have issued thousands of waivers from the Affordable Care Act altogether for groups, such as many large corporations, purely for reasons of commercial convenience. Other exemptions have been awarded based on how old a plan is or how large an employer is. Missing, however, is any exemption for employers whose religious consciences instruct them that certain mandated services are ethically repugnant. In other words, the defendants' pattern of exemptions reveals a massive blind spot for groups exercising their fundamental First Amendment freedoms. ...