Does President Obama really think there can be "compromise" on religious freedom?
In the wake of the announcement that religiously-based organizations would be compelled to provide a number of services and medical coverage related to reproduction — including sterilization, contraception, and even abortion-inducing drugs — to all of their employees, we launched a petition to stand up for the immutable right of Americans to respect their religious conscience and their religious freedom.
After several days of public outrage at their decision, the Obama Administration offered a rather baffling "compromise."
The so-called compromise maintains the mandatory coverage requirement for these religiously-based organizations, but shifts the burden to insurance companies — thus to ALL consumers — to provide all of these services to the same employees at "no additional cost."
Who exactly does President Obama think is going to end up paying the bill?
But this is all beside the point. The freedom to practice one's religious beliefs free from government intrusion is one of our nation's fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.
And even more important: This fight isn’t really about contraception, much as that’s what the media wants us to think.
It’s about a bill whose very architecture is an anti-choice assault on ALL our liberties: Our freedom of conscience, our economic choices, even our most basic rights to the pursuit happiness and life itself. ALL those individual decisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are waived away by those who believe they are anointed to make those decisions for us.
Just as there could be no compromise on the fundamental right of free speech or the fundamental right of freedom of the press, there can not be a "compromise" on religious freedom.
These rights are not granted by the State through waivers or faux “compromises” to indulge our whims of conscience. They are immutable freedoms, integral to our human dignity, possessed by each and every American citizen.
President Obama's Chief of Staff Jacob Lew has said the administration has "set out our policy" and that they're ready to "finalize it in the final rules."
Indeed when on FOX News Sunday, Lew and host Chris Wallace had the following exchange:
LEW: Well, Chris, just to be clear — the president has the authority under the Affordable Care Act to have these kinds of rules take affect.
This Administration’s blatant contempt for our fundamental rights needs to be confronted head on.
Sign our petition today to tell President Obama that there can be no compromise on religious freedom. And please share this with your friends and family via email, Facebook or Twitter.
Tell President Obama that freedom is not license granted to us by the State. It is something we all possess that government cannot deny us.
And on that, there can be no compromise.