Democrats for Life of America has filed an amicus brief in two cases relating to the HHS mandate and, specifically, the inclusion of abortifacient drugs on the list of those preventive services that must be covered. I am agnostic on whether these drugs are truly abortifacients, having read articles on both sides of the issue that made sense to my biology-challenged brain. But, if the situation is murky, legally I think the courts should give the benefit of the doubt to those of us whose horror at abortion justifies an exceedingly generous conscience exemption. As I have said before, one of the political difficulties I have had with the USCCB's campaign against the contraception mandate is that I think we want to keep the focus of our claims to conscience exemption on abortion, not because of the fervor of our beliefs or their First Amendment protections, but because of the nature of the act itself.
