Dr. James Dobson, Christian founder of "Focus on the Family" and host of "Family Talk" radio show, recently filed suit against the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate of the Affordable Care Act, which forces employers to provide contraception and abortive drugs to their employees. Dobson's formal complaint states that his non-profit Christian ministry should be exempt from the mandate, though they do not qualify for the "extraordinarily narrow religious exemption from the regulations," which excuse churches and religious orders.
Dr. Dobson is a Christian author, psychologist, and radio show host. He was called one of the nation's top evangelical leaders by Time Magazine and has been portrayed as a successor to evangelist Billy Graham. His radio show, "Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson," focuses on spreading the Gospel, encouraging and strengthening families.
Dobson joined the Alliance Defending Freedom organization and filed suit against the HHS mandate last week, as his ministry believes strongly in "the religious convictions we hold to and talk about on the air." Dobson says the mandate "ignores [religious freedom] and leaves us with a choice no American should have to make: comply and abandon your religious freedom, or resist and be fined for your faith."
According to LifeSiteNews, the lawsuit contends that the HHS mandate violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The formal complaint states that "Family Talk holds, as a matter of religious conviction, that it would be sinful and immoral for the organization intentionally to participate in, pay for, facilitate, enable, or otherwise support access to abortion or early destruction of human life ... One of the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments ('thou shalt not murder") precludes them from facilitating, assisting in, or enabling the coverage of arrangements for payments for drugs that can and do destroy very young human beings in the womb."
Many other Christian-based organizations, such as Hobby Lobby, Notre Dame University, and the Priests for Life organization, have also filed suit.
