{"id":2351,"date":"2012-02-19T12:24:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T17:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithandjustice\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2012-02-19T12:24:50","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T17:24:50","slug":"jay-sekulow-pro-abortion-fingerprints-on-hhs-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithandjustice\/2012\/02\/jay-sekulow-pro-abortion-fingerprints-on-hhs-mandate.html","title":{"rendered":"Jay Sekulow: Pro-Abortion Fingerprints on HHS Mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here’s a shocker. In drafting the infamous contraceptive regulation, and the subsequent compromise, there was apparently little or no input from the pro-life community, but plenty of guidance from the pro-abortion crowd. Amazing.<\/p>\n

As you know<\/a>,\u00a0the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its mandate, requiring religious institutions, such as religious schools and hospitals, to include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception in their insurance policies for employees. A so-called “accommodation” was then issued. The fact is both the mandate and compromise violate the deeply held religious beliefs of millions of Americans.<\/p>\n

In testimony before a Congressional panel, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) questioned the Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who admitted that she never sought the input of Catholic Bishops, who opposed the mandate<\/a>\u00a0and the so-called “accommodation”<\/a>\u00a0announced days later.<\/p>\n

“I did not speak to the Catholic bishops,” Sebelius said<\/a>. But when pressed about whether other groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL and other pro-abortion groups participated in advance, Sebelius said she would “assume some of those groups were talked to.”<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s worth watching this exchange by Sen. Hatch, a stalwart defender of religious freedom, and Sebelius, who admitted the measure was never reviewed or analyzed by attorneys at the Justice Department.<\/p>\n