Catholic Non-Profit Sues Challenging Contraceptive Mandate Compromise

Now that the Department of Health and Human Services has issued final rules providing a compromise for religiously sponsored non-profits such as hospitals and colleges that object to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive coverage mandate, suits challenging those rules are beginning to be filed by non-profits whose earlier challenges were dismissed on ripeness grounds.  Yesterday the American Freedom Law Center announced the filing of this type of action on behalf of Priests for Life, whose earlier suit had been dismissed on ripeness grounds last April. The new complaint (full text) in Priests for Life v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (D DC, filed 8/19/2013) alleges:

... Priests for Life, a Catholic organization, is morally prohibited based on its sincerely held religious convictions from cooperating with evil. Priests for Life objects to being forced by the government to purchase a health care plan that provides its employees with access to contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacients, all of which are prohibited by its religious convictions. This is true whether the immoral services are paid for directly, indirectly, or even not at all by Priests for Life. Contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients are immoral regardless of their cost. And Priests for Life objects to the government forcing it into a moral dilemma with regard to its relationship with its employees and its very survival as an effective, pro-life organization.