Scores of Ministries File Class Action Suit Against Contraception Mandate
Over 100 Christian ministries have filed a class-action lawsuit to stop the implementation of the mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requiring employers to provide free contraceptives — including abortion-causing drugs — to their employees. The ministries, which all provide health benefits to their employees through the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) GuideStone Financial Resources, do not qualify for the exemption that HHS offers to churches and a few narrowly defined religious organizations.
Three non-profit religious organizations are named as complainants in the suit against the mandate, filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty: GuideStone, the SBC's benefits arm, which has been providing retirement and health benefits to Southern Baptist churches and affiliated ministries for nearly a century; Reaching Souls International, a nonprofit evangelistic ministry...
