Hobby Lobby challenges federal mandate to provide 'morning-after' pills to employees

The lawsuit claims the federal Health and Human Services mandate, part of the Affordable Care Act adopted in 2010, violates the business owners' freedoms of religion and speech. Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green said the law places his family and company in an untenable position.

“Our family is now being forced to choose to between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families,” Green said Wednesday during a conference call. “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”

The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby and Mardel retail stores, have long been public about their religious beliefs, reflected in the Sunday closings of their stores, the purchase of full-page Christian-themed newspaper ads on Easter and Christmas, the use of full-time chaplains to minister to employees and using profits to fund ministries and missions around the world.

The Affordable Care Act, labeled Obamacare by opponents, requires insurance companies to offer several preventive care services, including contraception, to women at no cost. The rule took effect Aug. 1, and the requirement would kick in with Hobby Lobby, which is self-insured, on Jan. 1.

The lawsuit is seeking an injunction to allow the company to avoid potential penalties of more than $1 million a day, said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel for the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed the action on the company's behalf.

The lawsuit also seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the mandate's enforcement against the Green family and its businesses, “and other individuals and organizations that object on religious grounds to providing insurance coverage for abortion-causing drugs and devices, and related education and counseling.”