Wheaton College, an evangelical liberal arts school in Illinois,
asked a Washington, D.C. federal court on Wednesday for an emergency
injunction against the Obama administration's contraception coverage
mandate because the rule forces the school to cover emergency
contraception, which it believes causes abortions, or pay immediate
fines.

But Wheaton's health plan already covered emergency contraception
when the mandate was announced, a spokesperson for its legal team told
The Huffington Post, and tried to scramble to get rid of that coverage
in order to qualify for the one-year reprieve President Barack Obama put
in place for religious institutions that have moral objections to
contraception.

"In order to be eligible for the safe harbor, the institution has to
certify that it has not covered contraceptives after February 10, 2012,"
said Emily Hardman, communications director for the Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty. Wheaton didn't qualify because "for a short time
after February 10, Wheaton's policies inadvertently covered emergency
contraceptives. Wheaton was in the process of fixing that error in
February, but it was not fixed before the cutoff date."

Wheaton is one of several religious institutions,
including Roman Catholic dioceses, schools, charities and health care
agencies currently suing the Obama administration over the rule, which
went into effect Wednesday.

Hardman did not respond to further questions as to how long the
school had covered emergency contraceptives before the mandate was
issued, and a spokesperson for Wheaton referred The Huffington Post back
to the Becket Fund for comments regarding the school's lawsuit.

Kyle Duncan, general Counsel for the Becket Fund, called emergency
contraceptives "abortion-inducing drugs" in a press release and
suggested that the school was considering dropping its entire employee
health plan over the mandate.

“Everyone knows Wheaton is a school that lives out its faith," Duncan
said. "But today our government is telling Wheaton it is not ‘religious
enough’ to have a conscience, and so can be forced to participate in
abortions or face heavy fines. Wheaton has always provided generous
employee benefits, but now the government is forcing it to choose
between caring for its employees and honoring its faith.”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/wheaton-college-birth-control_n_1734919.html