Dr. James Dobson Wins Religious Freedom Battle Over Abortifacient Mandate

Dr. James Dobson Wins Religious Freedom Battle Over Abortifacient Mandate

A federal district court ruled on Tuesday that the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute and its “Family Talk” radio program will not be required to provide abortion-related drugs and services under the Affordable Care Act because of the organization’s religious, pro-life beliefs.

The legal battle had been raging on for the last five years, with the religious organization being threatened with $22 million in fines levied by the government under the Obama Administration.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn oversaw the case and decided Dobson’s Family Institute and “Family Talk” faced “irreparable harm in the form of violation of their rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

The ruling exempts Dobson from having to subsidize “devices, procedures, or related education and counseling that may destroy human life after fertilization of the egg of a mother either before or after the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus of the mother.”

“Because of this ruling, every religious institution—not just ours—has greater legal standing to combat the threats of extinction unless they provide a health plan that includes abortion-inducing drugs,” Dobson said. “In addition, precedents are now set in the law that will make it much harder for governments, whether federal, state or local, to attempt to so brazenly disregard our religious liberties in the future.”

Religious organizations have the freedom to peacefully operate according to their beliefs without the threat of punishment by the government, said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Dobson.

Dobson celebrated the victory, thanking God and the many supporters of the ministries, but warns the fight is not over: “We have won this battle and give God all the glory in it, but the forces arrayed against us are still fighting an ongoing war. There will be more battles. Now, more than ever, we must stand together with those defending life and the freedom of religion in the public square.”

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