In accordance with new healthcare reform, Health and Human Services recently announced that faith-based hospitals and universities, such as Ascension Health and DePaul University, have until August 1, 2013 to provide employees with free birth control as part of their insurance coverage. The mandate also requires such groups to pay for sterilizations. Worst, because the FDA has classified some abortifacient drugs (e.g. "Ella") as contraception, the mandate effectively requires coverage of chemical abortions induced by so-called "contraceptives."
The terms of this mandate are unconscionable. It is a clear violation of religious freedom, requiring people to violate their consciences and be complicit in what they believe to be immoral.