Dec. 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Earlier this week, famed Christian radio host and psychologist Dr. James Dobson filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s HHS mandate, which requires employers to provide insurance coverage that pays for contraception, steriliazations, and abortifacient drug.
The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of Dobson’s “Family Talk” radio show and ministry, a Christian non-profit organization that is currently subject to the mandate.
Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, and Family Talk say they object specifically to providing coverage for abortion drugs and devices.
“Our ministry believes in living out the religious convictions we hold to and talk about on the air,” said Dobson. “As Americans, we should all be free to live according to our faith and to honor God in our work.
“The Constitution protects that freedom so that the government cannot force anyone to act against his or her sincerely held religious beliefs. But the mandate ignores that and leaves us with a choice no American should have to make: comply and abandon your religious freedom, or resist and be fined for your faith.”
The lawsuit was filed for Dobson by Alliance Defending Freedom. “The government shouldn’t be able to punish Americans for exercising their fundamental freedoms,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “Any government willing to force a family-run Christian ministry to participate in immoral acts under the threat of crippling fines is a government everyone should fear.”
The lawsuit, Dobson v. Sebelius argues that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
A total of 88 lawsuits challenging the mandate are currently wending their way through the court system across the United States.