The Constitutionality of Abortion-Inducing Drugs in Obamacare

Floor Speech

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I want to thank the gentlelady from Missouri for hosting this Special Order hour this evening.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Illinois talked about people who come to this country in fleeing religious persecution. As the gentlelady may be aware, my mother emigrated from Ukraine. She was, in fact, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic. As the gentlelady probably knows of the history, when the Soviet Union took over Ukraine, they persecuted the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, burning them to the ground. It is ironic that we are discussing this here--and that the Supreme Court will be taking up this issue--as we are seeing what is going on with religious persecution in Ukraine this week and last week, where the church in Dora, for instance--the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church--burned to the ground because, you see, the Russian Government didn't agree with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's beliefs.

So what do they do? They burn churches to the ground.

It is interesting. We have to learn the lesson, though, because they tried that. After World War II, the Soviet Union tried to destroy churches that way, but they learned the lesson that the church is not the building. The church is the group of believers who share common, deeply held religious beliefs. That is why when the Soviet Union fell, the churches that they thought they had burned to the ground rose up.

I would suggest that what is going on in Oklahoma City with Hobby Lobby and in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with Conestoga Wood Products is a church burning without a match. In fact, it is even more insidious because you can't see something. You can't see the ashes. But in fact, if the government has its way with these two employers, they will attempt to persecute them for their religious beliefs and attempt to destroy them. That is not the way it is in America.

As the gentleman from Illinois said, there are plenty of places in the world where that may be true, but we do have a First Amendment. We have a First Amendment that doesn't protect church buildings, it protects religious believers in whatever walk of life they are in, whatever they are doing, from the government imposing their belief system, whether it is the case of a belief of a religious body or a belief that you shouldn't provide life-destroying drugs. Because that is what is at issue in these cases.

And I would hope that the Supreme Court realizes that this country does have a First Amendment and that its job, its duty, our duty is to protect the religious beliefs of every individual, including those owners of Conestoga Wood Products and Hobby Lobby, who deserve the right and freedom in America to believe their religious beliefs and not have the government impose theirs.

So I thank the gentlelady from Missouri.

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