Bill Introduced on Capitol Hill to Protect Business Owners’ Conscience Rights

Several Members of Congress have introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act. HCCRA, as its known, would protect Americans’ First Amendment rights and would stop the Obama Administration’s HHS mandate from forcing religious groups to pay for drugs that may cause abortions in their employee health care plans.

The bill’s sponsors complain that under the health care coverage mandate issued back in 2011, organizations and their managers are now facing potentially ruinous financial penalties for exercising their First Amendment rights, as protected by law. Hobby Lobby, a family business that was denied injunctive relief from the mandate and faces fines of up to $1.3 million dollars a day, unless its owners agree to fund potentially abortion-inducing drugs.