Two Christian colleges exempted from Obamacare mandate
Less than two months after four Christian universities in Oklahoma won their challenge to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, two more colleges in the Midwest have prevailed in their lawsuit against it.
U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett ruled last week in favor of Cornerstone University of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. The two schools had requested a permanent injunction against enforcement of the rule.
The schools argued that forcing employers to provide coverage for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization violated their religious beliefs. Bennett agreed, saying the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to amend the 1993 bill.
The schools received a boost from the Trump administration’s decline to enforce the mandate. Interim rules adopted last by the Health and Human Services administration abandoned the mandate, first successfully challenged in 2014 by Hobby Lobby.

