Obamacare offends religious conservatives and evangelical charities because some health insurance plans include coverage for the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive that induces abortion, Faith and Freedom Coalition Founder Ralph Reed told Newsmax TV on Friday.
"We have been very critical of Obamacare because of its mandate on religious charities to offer healthcare services that offend their conscience and violate their faith," said the former executive director of the Christian Coalition.
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Certain Christian universities, "are going to be required to provide people on their healthcare plans with things that cause the taking of innocent human life," Reed added in an interview at the Restoration Weekend gathering in Palm Beach, Fla.
The Affordable Care Act requires plans that cover abortion to "provide a notice to enrollees" telling them there's a surcharge for it. The Department of Health and Human services says
no federal funds are used.
Reed also said the Obamacare fallout should give Congressional Republicans the chance to seize the moment on immigration reform, especially modernizing the visa system to allow for more tech savvy people, who can "serve the needs of our growing economy."
"Right now, these visas for people who work in the tech industry, there's a total of 60,000 of them annually, those are gone in three days. The tech industry, which is creating about one-third of the growth in our economy, they need more highly skilled workers and unfortunately our universities right now are just not producing the number of engineers and scientists that we need to remain on the cutting edge. We don’t' want these engineers and scientists to go to China or India or somewhere else."
Turning to the current state of the Republican Party, Reed said the addition of tea party members would only be a positive force, likening it to the biblical metaphor, "pouring new wine into old wine skins."
"We're better off with Marco Rubio and Scott Walker and Rand Paul and Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and others who represent that wave of the party.
"It's my hope that the party can stay united but when it comes to that disagreement, I'm for welcoming new people into the party, including tea party activists who I consider to be good friends."
Reed also had good things to say about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a devout Roman Catholic.
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"I'm not taking a position on who the nomination ought to be in 2016. I'm just simply saying that when I see an elected official who advances my values in the public square and in office, I applaud him.
"Is he as conservative as I am? Probably not."
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