03/02/12 Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.) spoke on the Senate floor today regarding the administration’s rule requiring church-affiliated groups to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs despite religious beliefs. Coats called on his colleagues to support an amendment introduced by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to protect the conscience rights of entities who have moral or religious objections to the contraceptive and sterilization mandate.
Click here or on the image below to view Senator Coats’ speech.
Below are excerpts from Coats’ speech:
“This debate is really about whether Congress is going to sit by and idly allow this administration to trample freedom of religion – a core American principle – or whether we will stand up and protect what our founding fathers put their lives on the line for and what millions of Americans today will defend.
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“We cannot pick and choose when to adhere to the Constitution and when to cast it aside in order to achieve political prerogatives. We must consistently stand for our timeless constitutional principles. The debate that is taking place is a stand to protect an inalienable right – the right of conscience – established in our nation’s founding days and sustained for over 200 years.
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“We stand to protect the liberties that are granted to us by our Constitution and regardless of the political consequences, we will continue to do that.”
