After retaking control of the United States House of Representatives in last week’s midterm elections, Democratic representatives are now focusing their attack on reversing the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision that kept the Christian chain, Hobby Lobby, from being forced to provide healthcare coverage funding abortion.
With the Democrats’ House takeover slated for January, liberal lawmakers are preparing legislation to do away with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) – which SCOTUS used to base its Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cakeshop rulings affirming Christian employers’ right to not be forced to run their businesses contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs – according to the Washington Examiner.
Beware: Dem abortion push
Fearing a possible overturning of Roe v. Wade with conservative SCOTUS Justice Brett Kavanaugh now on the bench, Democrats are pulling together all their weapons to keep abortion alive – and killing – in America.
“As they prepare to take over the chamber, 50 Democrats have agreed to co-sponsor legislation that would effectively cripple the 25-year-old Religious Freedom Restoration Act … bring[ing] the total number of Democratic House legislators supporting the bill to 172,” CBN News reported. “RFRA – which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993 – is designed to protect employers from being forced to cover abortion-inducing forms of contraception.”
Taking aim at pro-life gains for those advocating the sanctity of human life, Democrats’ move to pass the controversial H.R. 3222 bill is reported by the Washington Examiner to ensure that LGBTQ rights and other leftist policies would trump the religious rights of Christians – which the daily says are regarded by progressives as a mere “smokescreen for bigotry and hate.”
Ultra-left activists – such as Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – claim that the beleaguered pro-religious freedom legislation runs contrary to Americans’ wellbeing.
“Today, RFRA is being used as a vehicle for institutions and individuals to argue that their faith justifies myriad harms – to equality, to dignity, to health and to core American values,” Melling wrote in a blog back in 2016.
It was contended by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) during last month’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the U.S. Constitution that RFRA takes aim at freedoms enjoyed by Americans, with the Hawaiian senator stressing that preserving conscience protections is not her primary concern.
“[I am more concerned about an emerging] school of thought that weaponizes religious liberty,” Hirono said, according to NRB.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) – who won his midterm race against his ultra-left Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke to keep his seat on the Republican-controlled Senate, which will likely vote against the bill – contends that the Democratic majority of the House is blatantly attacking Americans’ freedom of religion guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
“The purpose of today’s hearing is to learn what happens when an assault on religious liberty reaches its logical conclusion,” Cruz told the subcommittee, as reported by CBN News. “To attack religious liberty is to attack the dignity of a person. It is to deny him or her equal citizenship and to erode that which makes us free.”
Christian businesses on alert
The impending legislative affront on Christian freedoms could resurface a long SCOTUS battle Hobby Lobby won – so that it would not have to provide abortion-inducing drugs for its employees under former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Healthcare Act.
“If the bill passes, it would destroy the U.S. Supreme Court case about Hobby Lobby – the Christian-owned business [that] fought all the way to the high court for relief from the onerous Obamacare HHS mandate,” Life News reported. “The mandate forced the Christian employer to provide contraception that may cause abortions to their employees.”
It was determined by SCOTUS that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could and should not infringe on the religious freedom of Christian business owners – who believe in the sanctity of human life – by forcing them to fund the killing of preborn children.
“The Supreme Court ruled that the government mandate violated the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act because the mandate ‘substantially burdens the exercise of religion’ and HHS did not use the ‘least restrictive means’ to promote this government interest,” Life News’ Micaiah Bilger recounted.
The nation’s highest court also contended that the government would be overstepping its boundaries by punishing American business owners for living out their Christian faith by not providing abortion medical coverage.
“If the owners comply with the HHS mandate, they believe they will be facilitating abortions, and if they do not comply, they will pay a very heavy price – as much as $1.3 million per day, or about $475 million per year – in the case of one of the companies,” SCOTUS judges wrote in the decision, according to Life News. “If these consequences do not amount to a substantial burden, it is hard to see what would.”
Renewed attack on the preborn
The world’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, is aggressively lobbying for the passage of H.R. 3222 – along with other ultra-left groups promoting abortion that helped create Obamacare, including the ACLU, National Organization of Women and NARAL.
Even though the Republican Party still maintain control of the Senate, its loss of the House last week could spell trouble for biblically minded Americans seeking to live out their faith – unimpeded by the government.
“The anti-freedom legislation could pass the U.S. House, but it would almost certainly stop in the U.S. Senate – which still is under Republican control – [and] President Donald Trump also likely would veto the legislation if it reached his desk,” Bilger noted. “Still, this radical push against freedom is a strong reminder that elections have consequences, and the Democratic Party is intent on pushing Americans to accept and pay for the killing of unborn babies.”
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
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