Washington D.C., Jul 11, 2012 / 02:53 am
Two U.S. representatives have introduced a bill to stop the federal government from taxing religious employers that decline to cover contraception and abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.
The legislation will protect religious groups, as well as private businesses with "moral and religious objections," from being heavily taxed for refusing to pay for insurance "that violates their religious or moral views," Representative James Sensenbrennner (R-Wis.) said on July 10.
Rep. Sensenbrenner is joined by Representative Diane Black (R-Tenn.) in sponsoring the "Religious Freedom Tax Repeal Act." The "tax" it would repeal is part of the federal health care reform law, whose regulatory fines were upheld in the June 28 Supreme Court decision that cast them as a form of taxation.
At Tuesday's press conference, they explained that the law known as "Obamacare" would allow the Internal Revenue Service to collect $100 per day for each employee of an organization that fails to cover services such as contraception and sterilization without a co-pay.