ANCHORAGE - Dozens of protestors were at Town Square Saturday to speak out for what they call standing up for their religious freedoms.
The group of ralliers were joined by doctors and several speakers from religious affiliations around Anchorage yesterday afternoon.
Their message is to protest the Department of Health and Human Services mandate in President Obama's health care plan.
The “HHS mandate” requires employers to cover contraception on their employee's insurance plans.
The mostly Catholic crowd said they were against the plan because they say it forces companies and organizations with religious affiliations to go against their beliefs.
The rally brought out people like Catherine Neumayr, the principal of Holy Rosary Academy.
She says the HHS mandate is something President Obama and the federal government is trying to levee on institutions who might have moral differences with birth control, contraception, and sterilization.
“It seems like its over very much over reaching the federal government's role and its usurping one of our fundamental rights with religious liberty and the right to act according to your conscience what you know to be true and not to be coerced by the government,” Neumayr said.
The rally was one of 140 such demonstrations taking place across the country.
Last month the president offered a compromise following uproar among some Christians over the new health care bill's provision for contraceptives by shifting the cost to health insurance companies, if charities or other organizations with religious ties object to contraception.
