For Immediate Release PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Gregg Wooding, Cell: 214.558.9455, Office: 972.941.4453,
FEDERAL COURT GRANTS INJUNCTIVE RELIEF: CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE MINISTRIES NOT FORCED TO DISPENSE ABORTION-INDUCING PILL
Liberty Institute Applauds Federal Court’s Ruling In Favor of
Ministries That Care For Seniors and Educate Future Religious Leaders
FT. MYERS, FL, February 4, 2015 – Today, United States District Court Judge John E. Steele issued an order halting enforcement of the HHS Abortion Pill Mandate against six Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) ministries that would otherwise be forced to assist the federal government’s provision of abortion-inducing drugs and devices. Liberty Institute and volunteer attorneys Christopher A. Roach and Stephanie M. Martin represent four retirement community ministries of the CMA and two of its affiliated colleges. Today’s ruling provides these ministries relief from the federal government’s Abortion Pill Mandate that requires even CMA church-affiliated ministries to facilitate insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and devices.
“Today’s ruling reaffirms our government’s responsibility to never force any religious ministry to violate the very faith that motivates their ministry,” said Matthew Kacsmaryk, Liberty Institute’s Deputy General Counsel. “This is an important victory for CMA ministries dedicated to protecting innocent human life from conception to natural death and training Christian students for lives of service. Under the Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the federal government may not force these ministries to abandon the sincerely held religious beliefs that motivate their service to God and man.”
An online copy of the ruling will be available at LibertyInstitute.org/CMA.
The ministries granted relief from the burden of the Abortion Pill Mandate today include:
(1) Shell Point Retirement Community, (2) The Alliance Community for Retirement Living, (3) Chapel Pointe at Carlisle, and (4) Town and Country Manor, all retirement communities affiliated with the CMA denomination, and (5) Crown College and (6) Simpson University, CMA-affiliated colleges.
Liberty Institute is a national nonprofit legal group dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America—in our schools, for our churches, inside our military, and throughout the public arena. Liberty’s vision is to reestablish religious liberty in
accordance with the principles of our Founding Fathers. For information, visit
www.LibertyInstitute.org.
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