Christian Heritage News

 By Michael Foust - Posted at Christian Headlines: A federal appeals court delivered a major victory to religious liberty advocates Friday by ruling that the Biden administration cannot force religious doctors and hospitals to perform abortions and gender-affirming procedures under Obamacare. The issue was the much-debated “Section 1557” of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability by medical professionals. The Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — like that of the Obama administration — interprets Section 1557 to also prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Further, Biden’s HHS says discrimination on the basis of sex encompasses “pregnancy termination” — that is, abortion. Continue here...

By Shane Vander Hart - Posted at Caffeinated Thoughts : The Trump Administration through the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor announced today two companion interim final rules that provide conscience protections to Americans who have a religious or moral objection to paying for health insurance that covers contraceptive/abortifacient services. Under the existing Obamacare regulatory requirements, employers, unless they qualify for an exemption, must offer health insurance that covers all FDA-approved contraception, which includes medications and devices that may act as abortifacients as well sterilization procedures. Under the first of two companion rules released, entities that have sincerely held religious beliefs against providing such services would no longer be required to do so. The second rule  applies the same protections to organizations and small businesses that have objections on the basis of moral conviction which is not based on any p

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network: WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 217 to 213 on Thursday to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, reducing—but not completely eliminating—funding for the abortion and contraception giant Planned Parenthood for one year in the process. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) will strip Planned Parenthood of $390 million of the more than $450 million it receives in federal funding each year. Speaker Paul Ryan said in January that the funding would be redirected to community health centers, which do not perform abortions. “[W]e think it’s better to send these dollars to those clinics that do a very good job of giving women the services they need—the preventative services—without all the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood,” he said. The remaining $60 million will continue to be provided through the National Family Planning Program under Title X, reports state. Rea

Posted at The Federalist: The Supreme Court has decided to take up all seven of the cases challenging the Obamacare mandate that requires workplaces to provide birth control to female employees. Read more here...

Posted at Culture News : Despite President Obama's Executive Order 13535 of March, 24 2010 promising that taxpayer dollars wouldn't fund abortion, government reports have documented that ObamaCare is indeed funding abortion, and this week, the Obama administration announced new grants to Planned Parenthood of over a million dollars as just a first-year down payment — as though the current >$500 million dollars from taxpayers isn't enough. Read more here...

By Tom Strode - Posted at Baptist Press: WASHINGTON (BP) -- GuideStone Financial Resources and the ministries it serves must abide by the Obama administration's abortion/contraception mandate or pay crushing fines, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday (July 14). A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver declined to grant an injunction blocking enforcement of the rule, rejecting arguments by GuideStone and a host of other religious non-profit organizations that the controversial mandate and its accommodation for such entities violate their religious freedom. The mandate requires employers to provide not only contraceptives for their workers but drugs and devices that can potentially cause abortions. GuideStone -- the Southern Baptist Convention's health and financial benefits entity -- and its attorneys are considering an appeal to the full 10th Circuit Court or to the U.S. Supreme Court, it said in a news release. Read more here...

By Jack Bouboushian - Posted at Courthouse News Service: CHICAGO (CN) - Wheaton College, a private evangelical college, must offer emergency contraceptive drug coverage to its employees and students, the Seventh Circuit ruled. Students and faculty of Wheaton College are required to sign a "community covenant" in which they pledge to "uphold the God-given worth of human beings, from conception to death." The school implements this covenant by excluding coverage of emergency contraception and intrauterine devices, which both destroy a fertilized ovum after sexual intercourse, from its health plans. The school does not opposed traditional contraception methods that prevent fertilization. However, under the Affordable Care Act, students and staff may still have access to these contraceptive methods -- and the school's insurer must pay for them directly. Read more here...