WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 19, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Illinois-based Christian publisher has become the third company to win a reprieve from the controversial HHS mandate that requires employers to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs.
On Friday, Tyndale House Publishers won a preliminary injunction against the Obamacare mandate in DC’s federal court as they pursue their lawsuit against the administration. Friday’s hearing was the first in the suit, which was filed Oct. 2.
The company says its insurance plan already covers some contraceptives for its 260 employees, but that it objects to covering abortifacients like Plan B and Ella, which act in part by preventing newly-conceived embryos from implanting in the mother’s womb.
“The contraceptive coverage mandate affirmatively compels the plaintiffs to violate their religious beliefs in order to comply with the law and avoid the sanctions that would be imposed for their noncompliance,” wrote U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.
The Obama administration has argued that the Bible publisher does not qualify for exemption under the mandate’s strict definition of a religious employer.
Based in Carol Stream, Ill., Tyndale House Publishers is the world’s largest privately held Christian publisher of books, Bibles, and digital media and directs 96.5 percent of its profits to religious non-profit causes worldwide. Though it is a for-profit enterprise, it is primarily owned by the non-profit Tyndale House Foundation, which provides grants throughout the world to people in spiritual and physical need.
The publishing company is represented by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish,” said Matt Bowman, ADF’s Senior Legal Counsel. “The court has done the right thing in halting the mandate while our lawsuit moves forward. For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is startling. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes.”
ADF attorneys won the first court order against the mandate on July 27th for Colorado’s Hercules Industries, a heating ventilation and air conditioning company owned by a Catholic family.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in Michigan also issued a preliminary injunction against the mandate on behalf of the Weingartz Supply Company. That suit is being argued by Ann Arbor’s Thomas More Law Center.