One more case against the Department of Health and Human Services, Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Burwell, comes to a Life-affirming end with the Obama administration agreeing to pay a Pro-Life company a $570,000 settlement after trying to force the company to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.
The company, Conestoga Wood Specialties, is run by a Mennonite family in Pennsylvania. The hotly-contested HHS mandate (an anti-Life provision of Obamacare) forced companies like Conestoga Wood to pay for health insurance plans for their employees that covered Life-ending drugs categorized as “emergency contraceptives.” Although abortion proponents repeatedly lied about the Life-ending properties of these drugs, their abortifacient effects are clearly delineated by basic science, and even affirmed by the FDA. Many companies have sued the Obama administration in an attempt to maintain their right to exercise religious freedom by protecting the integrity of their faith and Pro-Life convictions.
Exacerbating the situation, Conestoga Wood faced the government-imposed ultimatum of either paying for this Life-ending drug coverage, or paying the government penalties higher than the fees that would have been levied against them for not providing any health coverage at all. Had the Supreme Court ruled that Conestoga Wood had to comply with the unconstitutional mandate, the company would have faced nearly $3 million per month in fines.
Alliance Defending Freedom is the legal firm that represented Conestoga Wood Specialties (and Hobby Lobby, in the victorious case, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.). ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowmen issued the following statement on the heels of the Conestoga Wood victory:
The government does a serious disservice to taxpayers when it pursues unjust laws that force many of them to defend their constitutionally protected freedoms. While this case is finally over, many others remain. We hope the administration will stop defending its indefensible abortion-pill mandate and end its waste of taxpayer dollars on a fruitless quest to force people to give up their freedom to live and work according to their beliefs.
The government has felt the steadfastness of Pro-Lifers who won’t back down on their moral, Life-affirming convictions. While many cases remain to be decided, we are confident that the unflinching commitment of Pro-Lifers across the United States will continue to see victories against the abortion antics of the Obama administration.