The CEO of an electric company in Florida has filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services over the "preventive services" mandate, making it the 50th such suit filed against HHS.

Thomas Beckwith, CEO of Beckwith Electric of Largo, filed the suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.

"This is a case about religious freedom," reads the first point under the "Nature of the Action" section of the 48-page suit. more >>

A seminary in Pennsylvania has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of two Texas universities suing the Department of Health and Human Services over their "Preventive Services" mandate.

Westminster Theological Seminary of Glenside filed the motion Friday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division.

"Westminster claims an interest in the transaction that is the subject of this action. Westminster is a graduate level theological seminary which adheres to the historic Reformed understanding of the Christian faith," reads the motion in part. "As such, it is resolutely opposed, on biblical and First Amendment grounds, to the federal agencies' mandate being challenged here that requires it to provide its employees health insurance coverage for, and thereby encourage its employees to use, abortifacient drugs." more >>

Dr. Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon who made a big splash with his politically incorrect speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in February, gave an interview recently where he gave clues to what he would say in his upcoming speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which will take place in Washington, D.C., from March 14-16.

Carson, head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., said that his CPAC speech will revolve around the topic of America's "upside down" healthcare program, a subject he touched on at the National Prayer Breakfast.

The director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins told NPR's Michel Martin that he believes healthcare can be improved in the country by eliminating the influence of insurance companies, which he describes as "the middle man," and increasing doctor-patient relationships, predominately through Health Savings Accounts, which are started at birth and accumulate as the patient grows older. more >>

Dr. Hannah Gay, the University of Mississippi Medical Center pediatrician whose treatment "functionally cured" a baby girl born with an HIV infection, is a Christian who previously spent years living as a missionary with her husband in Ethiopia.

In the 1980s, Gay worked with her husband as a missionary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and these days she's cultivating the faith of third and fourth graders through the teaching of Bible passages at her church on Wednesday nights, according to the Washington Post.

The very private Gay, who has four children and a grandson, is a devout Christian who puts her faith first and juggles her family and career in between. "She does not like being in the spotlight," her 24-year-old daughter Ruth Gay Thomas told the Washington Post. more >>

A Maryland Catholic leader has voiced support for a recently introduced bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect "conscience rights" for religious organizations.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, welcomed the legislation, titled H.R. 940.

"I am grateful to Congresswoman Black and other sponsors for their leadership today. I welcome the Health Care Conscience Rights Act and call for its swift passage into law," said Lori in a statement. more >>

This past week, health care journalist Charles Ornstein wrote a compelling piece for the Washington Post detailing his personal experience with heart-wrenching end-of-life medical decisions. Ornstein's story of his mother's death highlights the complexity of this little-discussed topic, and should serve as a wakeup call to every American family: End-of-life issues should not be avoided or delayed until the last possible moment. They should be carefully considered and clearly communicated. Even then, as Ornstein discovered, these decisions are never easy or simple.

Americans have always been uncomfortable with the topic of death. We are a youth-obsessed culture, and spend billions each year on products and services designed to slow, stop, or even turn back the clock on aging. On one hand this is understandable. As human beings, we shrink from death because we are beings created for eternity. God created us to rejoice forever in communion with Him, but because of our pride and disobedience, we are separated from our Maker. When we fell, death entered the world, and there's no escaping it. You can hardly blame Americans or anyone else from doing all they can to postpone the inevitable. On the other hand, we too often allow our fear of death to result in a kind of denial. We think if we never talk about death, somehow things will just sort of work out when the time comes. We don't realize that our failure to consider our end-of-life wishes results in unimaginable stress and sorrow for those we love most.

Advance care directives got a bad rap during the Obamacare debates because of a fundamental disagreement over who should be guiding end-of-life care. Proponents of limited government believe that patients in concert with their doctors and families should be allowed to guide the process based on their individual circumstances, while advocates of a universal approach tend to favor standard guidelines and protocols crafted by committee. Apologists would call this "best practices." Critics like myself call it "cookbook medicine." Regardless of what side of the ideological fence you might fall on, however, there can be no denying the wisdom of being prepared. more >>