The Constitutionality of Abortion-Inducing Drugs in Obamacare

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. I thank the gentlelady for hosting this conversation and for standing up for liberty. I have seen you on this floor over and over again, speaking up for what is right in our Nation. I very much appreciate that.

When a family runs their business by the principles of their faith, which those principles used to be protected in America, can a President step in and say: I disagree with your faith, and so I will pass a regulation.

This is very important because some people believe this is written into the law. It is not. This is a regulation that was selected by this President. Can a President step in and say, I am going to create a new regulation that you can no longer practice your faith at work? You can practice your faith at home, but you can't practice your faith at work.

Hobby Lobby is a family-owned business. It doesn't want Washington to be its boss. They believe that abortion takes the life of a child and that every child deserves the chance at life. What is wrong with that?

If a Federal employee disagrees with the faith practice of someone in a company, does that business have to change their faith, change it to the faith of the Federal employee, or can they keep their own faith?

It is now the rule that to open a company or to work in a job or to get health care, you have to have the same religious convictions as the President of the United States.

If you don't, you will be fined until you change your faith practice. That is not what we are founded on; that is not who we are--every faith, every opportunity for every person to live out what they believe at home, at work, and in the community.

Just days ago, the President spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast about the cornerstone right of the free expression of religion. That includes Americans who believe that children are a gift of God and they should be nurtured and cared for, not discarded as tissue.

Washington is not the boss of every American. Our Constitution matters, freedom of religion matters, and, quite frankly, children matter.

This family is not some corporate ogre trying to rule over their employees. They are my neighbor. They live a mile from my house. They are a quiet family. They are a great family that has lived out their faith. They are a tremendous community partner in so many ways in our community and around the country and, quite frankly, around the globe with what they have done to take care of the poor and the needy and the people of faith all over the world.

They are an incredible gift to our Nation, yet they are being told: you cannot practice your faith anymore.

This is not something new that they are doing. The government changed the rules on them. They didn't change their practice. Suddenly, a new administration walked in and changed the rules and said: you can no longer live your faith at work.

Well, I am honored that they have stepped up and they have said not so, not so for their business, not so for businesses around the country. All of us have seen the lists and lists and lists of waivers that this administration has given for the Affordable Care Act, waivers for the employer mandate, waivers for the income and verification requirements, waivers for the Small Business Health Options Program, a waiver just given a month ago.

The administration delayed the requirement for businesses with fewer than 100 employees to offer health insurance until 2016; and then this one, just March the 5th, a few days ago, the administration announced it will allow people to keep noncompliant insurance plans through 2016--that is, noncompliant except in this area.

In this one area, they have said: no, we are not going to give a waiver for that one; instead, we will fine you $36,500. Everyone else that is noncompliant, we will give you a waiver, except for Hobby Lobby and other businesses like them. They get no waiver. They get the hammer.

Is that fair? Is that right? Is this what we have really become as a Nation? I think better of us.

I look forward to the Supreme Court taking up this case and setting things straight because, in this country, we have a constitutional right to speak out and to live out our faith.

With that, I yield back to the gentlelady.

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