Politics & Government

Cuccinelli: Jail 'Logical' Protest to Contraception Mandate

Virginia's Attorney General says health care act is attack on Catholic Church.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said he believes going to jail may be the best way Virginians can challenge President Obama's healthcare mandate for businesses to cover contraception in their health insurance plans. 

"Forcing business owners and businesses to do this is not consistent with our history of preserving religious liberty," said Cuccinelli Wednesday, in an interview with conservative radio talk show host Steve Deace

Cuccinelli, a conservative who is running for governor, said that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an attack on the Catholic Church, and that his local bishop told him he was willing to go to jail over the issue. 

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"I told him, 'Bishop, don't take this personally - you need to go to jail.' What I mean is that people need to see this play out all the way to its logical conclusion," said Cuccinelli. 

Virginia Del. Charniele Herring (D-46), chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a news release: "Virginia women deserve better than an Attorney General who wants employers in this Commonwealth to 'go to jail' rather than comply with the law of the land and offer insurance coverage for contraceptives that experts say are essential to keeping women healthy."

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"Ken Cuccinelli's outside-the-mainstream attacks on FDA-approved birth control should have no place in the office of Virginia's top lawyer and certainly not in the Governor's mansion," Herring said. 

What do you think? Should employers be required to pay for contraception in their employees' health care plans? Tell us in the comments box below. 


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