In what can be considered as a victory for all Christians advocating the right to life, a federal court has barred the Obama administration from imposing on a pro-life group its policy that requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception and abortifacient drugs and devices.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia sided with the pro-life group March for Life Education and Defense Fund when it asserted that the government cannot force the group to act against its belief about the sanctity of life.
The group March for Life is best known for organising the annual pro-life march in the US capital.
The federal court maintained that the pro-life group should be respected if it chooses not to follow the government's Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception mandate based on its beliefs.
"If the purpose of the religious employer exemption is, as HHS states, to respect the anti-abortifacient tenets of an employment relationship, then it makes no rational sense – indeed, no sense whatsoever to deny March for Life that same respect," the court said.
March for Life President Jeanne Mancini welcomed the federal court's ruling, saying it maintained the "balance of powers" in government.
"We are delighted that the court has ruled in our favour on this crucially important case. The government should not be allowed to force organisations like the March for Life to have health insurance with drugs and devices that can cause an abortion," Mancini said in a statement.
The pro-life group leader nevertheless said the fight is not yet over, admitting that she expects the Obama administration to appeal the court ruling.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which represented March for Life in the case, said pro-life groups should never be "forced into betraying the very values they were established to advance."
"The government has no right to demand that organisations provide health insurance plan options that explicitly contradict their mission," ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said in a separate statement.
