The local Catholic Archbishop has issued a throw down to the Obama Administration over a rule in ObamaCare which he claims is tantamount to blowing up the Constitutional right to religious freedom.

The ObamaCare rule forces all entitities–including religious ones–to cover under their health insurance policies abortion pills, contraceptives and sterilization.

In a letter that is supposed to have been included in the Parish newsletters, the Portland Archbishop says the rule “cast[s] aside the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, den[ies] to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.”

This letter has not been included in Parish newsletters as far as I can tell.

See it after the jump.

In other states a similar letter has been read from the pulpits but my Catholic friends in the Portland have not heard this local letter recited nor included in a Parish publication.

Today during the White House news briefing spokesman Jay Carney called the rule a “balance” of considerations.  As constitutional lawyer and radio host, Hugh Hewitt says, there is no such thing as this kind of  “balance” in religious liberty. He says the White House claims to strike between religious freedom and state forced health care which is unprecedented and deeply repugnant, not to mention unconstitutional.

The Archbishop encourages people to see this video to explain the issue.

When the government requires you to go against your conscience to buy a product it forces upon you that’s tyranny. That the Obama Administration, run by a man who holds himself out as a constitutional lecturer, does this, it shows he either, A) doesn’t know any better, or, B) doesn’t give a rip.