Catholic, evangelical colleges rally to reject abortion pill mandate
Twenty-two Catholic institutions, four Protestant colleges submit legal objections to HHS
Attorney sound bite: Matt Bowman
The mandate forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to facilitate insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.
“Christian colleges and academic institutions should be free to operate according to their faith,” said Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman. “The Obama administration claims ‘unwavering’ support for religious freedom, but the abortion pill mandate demonstrates that the only thing unwavering is the administration’s tenacious opposition to that freedom.”
Alliance Defending Freedom authored both legal comments to explain that the Christian academic institutions oppose the mandate and are urging the Obama administration “to exempt all those with a religious or moral objection.” The memo highlights that “no other federal rule has so narrowly and discriminatorily defined what it means to exercise religious conscience….”
The comments also explain that the mandate and its subsequent “accommodation,” “blatantly violate the right to religious freedom protected throughout federal law, including under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act…and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
The Obama administration has lost a total of 17 federal court decisions against the mandate. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys are currently litigating 10 lawsuits against the mandate, representing a large cross-section of Catholics and Protestants who object to it.
- Pronunciation guide: Bowman (BOH’-min)
Legal Documents
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ABOUT Matt Bowman
Matt Bowman serves as senior counsel and director of regulatory practice for Alliance Defending Freedom, where he leads the team focusing on the impact of administrative law on religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and family. From 2017 to 2020, Bowman was a senior executive service appointee in the Trump administration, serving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as Deputy General Counsel, and then in the Office for Civil Rights. Prior to joining HHS, Bowman was an accomplished litigator at ADF for over ten years. Before joining ADF in 2006, Bowman served as a law clerk for Judges Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Michael A. Chagares, at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and for Judge John M. Roll at the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Bowman earned his J.D. summa cum laude and was first in his class at Ave Maria School of Law in 2003. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and Michigan and is admitted to practice at the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal appellate and district courts.