A Republican senator is rolling out a new bill that would protect religious organizations and other groups from having to provide health insurance coverage to employees that poses religious or moral objections, The Daily Signal has learned.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act today. The legislation protects religious organizations, private businesses, higher education institutions, health care providers and insurance companies from having to provide or pay for health insurance coverage that violates their moral or religious beliefs.

“It is possible for people with opposing views to live together in peace, but we all must respect opposing views,” Lankford said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “The federal government should honor freedom and conscience rights for everyone. This bill would assure that happens.”

Co-sponsors include Republican Sens. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, John Boozman of Arkansas, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Dan Coats of Indiana and Steve Daines of Montana.

Republican Reps. Diane Black of Tennessee, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and John Fleming of Louisiana introduced the same legislation in the House of Representatives earlier this year. Their bill has 152 cosponsors, including two Democrats.

Lankford’s legislation comes less than a month after a federal court ruled that Little Sisters of the Poor, a nonprofit religious group serving the elderly, and four Oklahoma Christian universities must abide by Obamacare’s contraception mandate.

The contraception mandate requires employers to provide employees with health insurance plans that cover contraception and abortion-inducing drugs. Organizations that choose not to comply are required to pay a fine to the Internal Revenue Service.

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In the case of Little Sisters of the Poor, refusing to adhere to the contraception mandate would cost the group, which serves 13,000 elderly people in 31 countries, $2.5 million in penalties annually, it estimated.

In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit pointed to an “accommodation scheme” created by the Obama administration as protection for religious groups like Little Sisters of the Poor. The plan, the court said, allowed employees to receive contraception while still keeping organizations and institutions from violating their religious beliefs.

Under the accommodation scheme, groups that object to the contraception mandate on the basis of their religious and moral beliefs must notify the Department of Health and Human Services of their opposition. The government will then work with the insurance company or a third-party administrator, which would provide coverage directly to workers.

Little Sisters of the Poor, though, argued that adhering to the accommodation scheme made them complicit in providing contraception and abortion-inducing drugs to employees and thus violated their religious beliefs.

In addition to making sure groups do not have to violate their consciences, Lankford’s bill also addresses the issue of having to pay a fine for choosing not to comply with the contraception mandate.

The Health Care Conscience Rights Act would instead prohibit the government from imposing a penalty on organizations opposing the contraception mandate because of religious or moral objections.

“Our nation is divided on various issues, but the fabric of America is built on the First Amendment rights of free speech, the free exercise of religion and freedom of conscience,” Lankford said. “This should be something we all agree on.”

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