ObamaCare a drain on freedom: plumbing supply co.’s suit enters pipeline

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri-based plumbing products manufacturer is the latest company to challenge the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate in court.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of Sioux Chief Manufacturing Co. against the mandate, which forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties.

“Americans should be free to honor God and live according to their consciences wherever they are,” said lead counsel Jonathan R. Whitehead, one of nearly 2,200 allied attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom. “They have the God-given freedom to live and transact business according to their faith, and the First Amendment has always protected that. Forcing Americans to ignore their faith just to earn a living is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys are co-counsel in the case, Sioux Chief Manufacturing v. Sebelius.

“The Constitution does not allow the government to involve itself in religion by deciding what faith is, who the faithful are, and when and where their faith may be lived out,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “Confining our faith to our homes and our churches is not the job of Washington bureaucrats. Freedom is God-given, not government-driven.”

Sioux Chief Manufacturing, located near Kansas City and founded in 1957 by Martin E. “Ed” Ismert, Jr., is a leading manufacturer and wholesaler of plumbing products and supplies. Members of the Ismert family, who are Catholic, continue to own the business, led by president Joseph P. Ismert.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and allied attorneys are also litigating seven other lawsuits against the mandate on behalf of Annex Medical, Grote Industries, Tyndale House Publishers, Grace College and Seminary and Biola University, Hercules Industries, Geneva College and The Seneca Hardwood Lumber Company, and Louisiana College. The lawsuits represent a large cross-section of Protestants and Catholics who object to the mandate.

• Pronunciation guide: Sioux (SOO’), Theriot (TAIR’-ee-oh), Ismert (IZ’-mert)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

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