GUEST COMMENTARY: Obamacare tramples Americans' right to conscience

2013-02-14T01:00:00Z 2013-02-18T13:16:05Z GUEST COMMENTARY: Obamacare tramples Americans' right to conscienceBy Amy Brailey nwitimes.com
February 14, 2013 1:00 am  • 

As a U.S. history teacher, I am incredibly disturbed by Obamacare’s trampling of our right to conscience.

When hospitals are forced to offer abortion services or close, businesses are forced to offer contraception for their employees which violates their moral code or pay over $1 million dollars a day in fines, and common citizens are forced to take government health care which triples their current costs or incur a strict fine, this is nothing less than tyranny.

In addition to our own First Amendment rights which offer freedom of religious expression, the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed after the Holocaust of World War II to prevent government’s abuse of its citizens, states in Article 18, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practicing, worship, and observance.” I believe that’s pretty clear.

If we allow government to dictate our consciences, the very core of who we are, what are we left with? If we are forced to receive government medical services we do not desire, does this not far exceed being forced to pay for a beverage we didn't desire?

How much more will the American public take before we stand up and exert the rights for which hundreds of thousands of men died?

Our nation was founded by those who understood the unalienable right of conscience and the necessity of religious liberty. God forbid we return ourselves to a tyrant’s control!

Amy Brailey of Merrillville teaches U.S. history. The opinions are the writer's.

Copyright 2013 nwitimes.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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