The inevitable conclusion from last week’s statement from Ave Maria University has arrived, perhaps a little more quickly than most would have imagined. Six days ago, the Catholic university followed in the footsteps of Franciscan University, which explicitly dumped its student coverage because of the HHS contraception mandate. Ave Maria also objected to the HHS mandate, but said that large cost increases might end up driving their decision. Today they announced that the 15% of their student body that relied on their relatively inexpensive health insurance would have to look elsewhere, and the university made clear the full extent of the cost increases...
More here. Meanwhile (although I'm a bit tardy on this one):
Some of the most influential Catholic institutions in the country filed suit against the Obama administration Monday over the so-called contraception mandate, in one of the biggest coordinated legal challenges to the rule to date.
Claiming their "fundamental rights hang in the balance," a total of 43 plaintiffs filed a dozen separate federal lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the requirement. Among the organizations filing were the University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and The Catholic University of America.
The groups are objecting to the requirement from the federal health care overhaul that employers provide access to contraceptive care. The Obama administration several months ago softened its position on the mandate, but some religious organizations complained the administration did not go far enough to ensure the rule would not compel them to violate their religious beliefs.
