"Christian" Family-Owned Gun Parts Firm Wins Reprieve From HHS Mandate

Barbara Hollingsworth cnsnews.com A federal judge in the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday that was requested by a Michigan gun parts manufacturer seeking an exemption to the Obama administration's Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive mandate. Noting that there was a similar case pending before the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Department of Justice decided last week not to defend the administration against the lawsuit filed August 5th by Trijicon, Inc., a Christian family-owned firm that manufactures high-quality optical gun sights for the military and law enforcement. (See TrijiconPImotion.pdf) The company has 257 full-time employees. “Without an injunction, plaintiffs will imminently be forced to include abortion-inducing items in their health insurance plan in violation of their religious beliefs, thereby suffering irreparable harm to their constitutional and statutory rights to freely exercise their religion, ” attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the company in its legal battle against the mandate, successfully argued in their motion for the preliminary injunction. “For right now, the government is enjoined from enforcing the mandate against our client, so it’s a tremendous victory for Trijicon,” Alliance attorney Jeremy Tedesco told CNSNews.com. “The company’s new health plan starts Sept. 1st. Without this injunction, our clients would be facing exorbitant fines or be forced to pay for abortifacients and not be able to exercise their religious beliefs according to their consciences.” The HHS mandate would have triggered a $100 penalty for each employee per day if Trijicon refused to cover abortifacients in its employee health insurance plan. “Trijicon and its owners hold the sincere religious belief that life begins at conception/fertilization, and that any method that functions to prevent or disrupt implantation of a fertilized human embryo is morally wrong and results in the wrongful taking of a human life,” the lawsuit noted. to read more click here: cnsnews.com