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Yesterday, 43 religious groups filed 12 separate lawsuits against Obamacare and the mandate that forces employers to provide and pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilization – regardless of the employers’ moral or religious objections.

The groups include Catholic charities, which provide services for inner city children, elderly, deaf, disabled, HIV/AIDS patients and homeless.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington stated: “For the first time in this country’s history, the government’s new definition of religious institutions suggests that some of the very institutions that put our faith into practice—schools, hospitals, and social service organizations—are not ‘religious enough.’

“The First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, however, was not meant to protect merely the right to worship, but also the right to contribute the fruits of our faith to the common good. And until now, our government had chosen to honor that guarantee.… But [the Administration’s] conception of what constitutes the practice of religion is so narrow that even Mother Teresa would not have qualified. We know that such a law cannot stand.”

Learn more about this case at The Heritage Foundation and PreserveReligiousFreedom.org.