A federal court Friday stopped enforcement of the Obama administration's abortion pill mandate against Tyndale House Publishers, a Bible publisher represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the ADF reports. The administration opposed the order, arguing that Tyndale wasn't "religious enough" for an exemption from the mandate -- a component of Obamacare that forces employers to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception. Obama administration rules say for-profit corporations are categorically non-religious, even though Tyndale is strictly a publisher or Bibles and Christian materials and is primarily owned by the non-profit Tyndale House Foundation. The court, however, wrote in its opinion accompanying a preliminary injunction order in Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius that "the beliefs of Tyndale and its owners are indistinguishable." ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman said: "Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish. The court has done the right thing in halting the mandate while our lawsuit moves forward. For the government to say that a Bible publisher is not religious is startling. It demonstrates how clearly the Obama administration is willing to disregard the Constitution's protection of religious freedom to achieve certain political purposes." The court's order is the third nationwide against the mandate and the second obtained by ADF attorneys.
