Picture a world in which we are required by the government to pay for people’s abortions. Guess what? We’re there. The abortion industry has been allowed a back- door entrance to get mandated abortifacient coverage for the nation and violated the rights of all pro-life Americans.

What some thought was a Catholic issue has instead proven itself to be an issue of religious liberty. The Obama administration's mandate for employer funded birth control violates the First Amendment rights of every pro-life American. We must respond to this crisis in our nation’s history.

One of the FDA approved contraceptives is actually an abortion pill. Ella (which chemically resembles RU-486), effectively, turns this birth control mandate into an abortion mandate.

Although many Catholics have taken the lead in fighting this, this is not a Catholic issue but a matter of religious freedom which threatens to violate the very rights on which our nation was founded. In fact, other religious leaders are weighing in:

“I'd go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do. Would you?” Acts 5:29- Rick Warren

"This is bad news for freedom of conscience and for respect for the freedom of religion protections guaranteed in the American Constitution.” – Southern Baptist leader Richard Land

Some say it’s a woman’s “right” to have birth control; however, nowhere in the Bill of Rights is birth control mentioned.

The American Center for Law And Justice reported:

“With this rule, hundreds of religious colleges and hospitals, for example, will now be required –in fact, coerced — into providing insurance coverage for practices they believe to be morally wrong and violate of their religious beliefs. These institutions, which have educated citizens and cared for the infirm for hundreds of years, will now have to cave into the federal government or close their doors.”

Last year the health care bill the president signed required insurance companies to cover “preventative care” at no cost and, President Obama later accepted a recommendation that “preventative care should include contraceptive services.” Important issues must be noted here:

• Birth control isn’t preventative medicine because a baby isn’t an illness.
• Ella is an abortion pill; therefore, the birth control mandate actually becomes an abortion mandate.
• Many of the covered contraceptives act as abortifacients which violate the conscience right of virtually every pro-life person in the nation.

This mandate led to backlash when the president announced religious organizations would also be required to provide even abortifacient coverage, without exemption for the most part.

Responding to the objections, last week President Obama announced a “compromise” which shifted from the organization paying for the abortifacient coverage to the organization paying the insurance company for the abortifacient coverage, that Archbishop Timothy Dolan summed it up as “a hill of beans.” Indeed, the compromise was revealed to be only a political shell game because the organization still ends up paying for coverage with no opt-out.

More disturbing is that Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, was actually in on White House meetings where even Vice President, Joe Biden and White House Chief-of-Staff Bill Daley advised the president against this decision. Since the original announcement, Planned Parenthood has sent its followers many emails about how it thinks the president has made a good decision.         

The president’s abortifacient mandate has created a tipping point for the pro-life movement and for people of prayer at every end of the religious spectrum who see abortion as a biblical issue. As other notable leaders have said, there comes a point where loyalty to God must take preeminence over loyalty to a government.

On Wednesday a group of 50 members of Congress held a press conference, demanding conscience protections from the mandate. Meanwhile, Senator Roy Blunt (MO) has introduced an amendment that could be voted on soon. This amendment would be one that, according to this fact sheet, “simply restores conscience protections that existed before President Obama’s flawed health care law – the same protections that have existed for more than 220 years since the First Amendment was ratified.”

Ultimately, that’s the issue at play here. It’s not about a pill but about the liberty of Americans to continue to enjoy freedom of religious expression.  The First Amendment of our Constitution is abundantly clear:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

Congress passed this health care plan. Only a meaningless executive order holds back a full-throttle of abortion, and Obama’s mandate to add free birth control to the preventative care aspect of the plan has already allowed a back-door abortion fund to violate the First Amendment rights of Americans.

Fasting and prayer are the tools that revere the course, no matter how fast it seems to be going. This is our answer, and God’s holy prescription for a nation in crisis. Please commit to fast and pray in this hour; let’s ask God to change the heart of a leader and the course of our nation.

For a well-written summary of all that’s happened thus far, click here.