Campus Notes

Ave Maria University has joined Belmont Abbey College and the Eternal Word Television Network in the rising tide of lawsuits against the Obama administration’s attempt to force contraception, sterilization, and abortion drugs into virtually every health insurance policy in America. 

Ave Maria President Jim Towey, former head of the Bush administration’s Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives, said, “As an American Catholic, I am in disbelief that I have to choose between being a good Catholic and a good citizen. I will not, and the University will not, accept this false choice.” 

Towey said that the university will not allow any President “to force conformance to his or her religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed the suit in federal court in Florida.

“The federal mandate puts Ave Maria in a terrible bind,” said Kyle Duncan, General Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which filed suit this morning on behalf of the University.  “Either it betrays its faith and covers the drugs, or else it ends employee health benefits and pays hundreds of thousands in annual fines.”

Towey said, he is prepared to discontinue the university’s health plan and pay the $2,000 per employee, per year fine rather than comply with an “unjust, immoral” mandate.

You can read President Towey’s entire statement by clicking here.