Today the U.S. Senate by a vote of 51-48, defeated the effort led by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. The bill was a challenge to the ObamaCare mandate requiring religious instititions to provide abortion drugs to their employees through the institition’s insurance coverage even though such action goes against the institution’s faith and conscience. Religious leaders have widely condemned the mandate as an assault on religious liberty as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Blunt, of course, voted for the amendment, while MIssouri’s other senator, Democrat Claire McCaskill voted against it. McCaskill is a major supporter of ObamaCare.
“We are outraged by the Senate’s decision to kill the Blunt Amendment,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “If the government can tell its citizens that their First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom and conscience is subject to its dictates, then the First Amendment offers no protection to people of faith.
“Make no mistake, the Senate vote was not about contraception but about the right of people of faith to be able to live out the values of their faith free from government coercion. This insensitive response to our pleas to the Senate to protect religious freedom from government coercion cannot go unchallenged.
“We will continue to press this battle for freedom to the very end. We call on all people who love liberty to join us in this must-win struggle against government tyranny.”