Center for Public Justice Joins Letter to President Seeking Protection for Faith-Based Employers

December 22, 2011

The Center for Public Justice has joined more than 60 leaders and allies of faith-based organizations in signing a letter sent to President Obama yesterday opposing the narrow exemption for religious employers in the federal health insurance regulations. The current exemption fails to protect most faith-based organizations from having to provide insurance that covers abortion-inducing drugs. 

The letter says, in part, "We believe that the Federal government is obligated by the First Amendment to accommodate the religious convictions of faith-based organizations of all kinds, Catholic and non-Catholic. We respectfully ask that your administration, should it maintain the current contraceptives mandate, devise an exemption for religious employers that accurately defines such employers and exempts them from being required to offer to their employees (and students, if they are among America’s many religious colleges and universities) health services to which they have deep religious objections."

The letter was organized by Stanley Carlson-Thies, a Center for Public Justice fellow who is president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance.