Priests for Life announces it will defy HHS mandate: goes into effect today
NEW YORK, August 1, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The HHS mandate goes into effect today for businesses and non-religious employers, but one organization has already announced it will not comply.
Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said that while that organization “advocates the observance of all just laws…I want to make it clear to you today that we will disobey this mandate.”
In a letter setting forth official policy on the matter, Fr. Pavone wrote, “Neither Priests for Life as an organization, nor any one of our administrative team or Board of Directors, nor I personally, consent to provide, pay for, advocate, counsel, refer, or in any way tolerate or cooperate with any process, plan, exchange of money or services, or any other activity that would enable a person to engage in the use of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, or sterilization.”
The group does not qualify for a one-year exemption available to religious organizations to “adapt” to the mandate. “We are not ‘religious’ enough for this administration,” he said.
Faced with the option of violating its conscience or incurring fines up to $100 a day per employee beginning today, Priests for Life is standing by its convictions.
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