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A car dealership in Hastings, Minnesota, will not be forced to provide coverage for abortifacient drugs after a federal judge ruled that ObamaCare’s HHS birth control mandate is a violation of the owners’ religious rights.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson granted an injunction blocking government officials from enforcing the mandate against Douglas Erickson, who owns Hastings Ford and Hastings Chrysler Center.  The mandate requires that employers provide full, co-pay free coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and the so-called “morning-after pill,” which can cause early abortions.  But Erickson says that any drug, device, or procedure that causes a fertilized egg to fail to implant in the uterus is a violation of his religious belief that life begins at conception.

Last summer, the Supreme Court agreed with a similar argument in the Hobby Lobby case, the first challenge by a for-profit business owner to make it before the court.

“We must next ask whether the HHS contraceptive mandate 'substantially burden[s]' the exercise of religion,” the justices wrote at the time. “We have little trouble concluding that it does.”

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Erickson and his attorneys praised Judge Magnuson for his decision to follow the precedent set by the Supreme Court.

“The court’s ruling reaffirms the constitutional principle that every American is free to live and work according to their beliefs, without fear of punishment by their government,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for Liberty Institute, which represented Erickson. “The government should never coerce faith-based, for-profit businessmen to violate their religious beliefs.”

“It has long been my conviction to run my business according to the teachings of my faith,” said Doug Erickson. “I am grateful that the court’s ruling today allows me to remain obedient to the convictions of my faith without compromising my beliefs to obey government.”