Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan has created a video message directed at fellow Catholics, reminding them that religious freedom will be a central issue in the Romney-Ryan administration.
The video particularly targets the ObamaCare HHS mandate that requires all employers to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients, free of charge, through their employee health insurance plans. Minor children also have access to free coverage of these items and procedures under their parents’ health insurance plans and, in some states, can access them without parental permission.
Tyndale House Publishers, a Christian Bible publishing company, has become the latest of nearly 100 plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against the mandate on grounds that it violates religious liberty.
“The mandate adopts a particular theological view of what is acceptable moral behavior with respect to provision of abortifacient coverage and imposes that view upon all adherents of religion who must either conform their consciences or suffer penalty,” the lawsuit argues.
“We need a president who will support our God-given rights, not try to circumvent them,” Ryan says in the video. “We celebrate the unique role our Church plays in caring for Americans of all faiths, or of no faith at all. Catholic charities and hospitals offer services that hold our society together.”
In his video presentation, Ryan asserts that President Obama has “attacked these indispensable institutions since virtually the moment he took office.”
The Obama campaign is countering Ryan’s outreach to Catholics with its “Catholics for Obama” committee that includes Victoria Reggie Kennedy, wife of deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD).