Secular Employers: Obamacare Threatens Our Religious Liberty, Too

The fact that the Obamacare anti-conscience mandate undermines religious liberty for faith-based organizations has been well-documented. Attracting less attention is the fact that many other organizations will be negatively impacted as well.

As one report makes clear, the mandate—even with the Obama Administration’s proposed “accommodation”—runs afoul of the religious liberty of citizens who run secular organizations—citizens such as Dr. Michael Ebertz.

Ebertz runs five dermatology clinics in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. As a person of faith whose moral principles run contrary to the anti-conscience mandate, Ebertz wrestles with what he should do if the mandate is not overturned. He wonders if, in a worst-case scenario, he would have to consider dissolving the company he helped found in 1988.

Ebertz views the mandate as “a direct attack on the tenets of our faith and our individual freedoms and liberties,” he says. “I’m really at a very difficult crossroads.”

Kevin Hostutler shares that feeling. He serves as CEO and president of ACGI Software inColumbia,Maryland.

Until now, Hostutler has been able to run his company according to his religious principles. That includes choosing not to do business with industries that he morally objects to, such as companies that publish pornography.

The Obamacare mandate, however, will undermine Hostutler’s ability to live and work in accord with his moral and religious views concerning health care. “I can’t opt out of it,” he told one reporter. “[I’m] boxed into a corner. … It’s definitely coercion.”

These are but two examples of the threat that Obamacare poses to employers across the country—people who work hard to run successful companies and create jobs in the local community. These are the kinds of citizens whose First Amendment rights will be trampled if Obamacare is not repealed.

And the anti-conscience mandate is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of other Obamacare mandates that will be issued in the future. To restore religious liberty and protect the basic freedoms of all citizens, regardless of where they work, Obamacare must go.

This Friday, March 23, nationwide rallies for religious freedom will be held outside federal buildings, congressional offices, and historical sites across the country. The theme is “Stand Up for Religious Freedom—Stop the HHS Mandate!” For rally locations, see the rally Web site here.