Steven Ertelt   Mar 28, 2018   |   2:16PM    Washington, DC The Obama HHS abortion mandate has suffered another massive defeat.

After the Obama Administration put it in place and attempted to force Christians across the country to fund abortion drugs in their employee health care plans, it faced major lawsuits from organizations like Little Sisters of the Poor to businesses like Hobby Lobby. Now an association of Catholic employers is the latest organization to win a victory in court against the Obama administration’s abortion agenda.

The Obamacare Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate forcing Catholic non-profits to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs was dealt a lethal blow by U.S. District Court Judge David Russell. He issued a permanent injunction stopping the federal government from enforcing the mandate against the Catholic Benefits Association (CBA). He also issued a declaratory judgment, holding that the mandate was illegal and asserting it violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The ruling also eliminates $6.9 billion in fines that have accuмulated against CBA members.

The judgment means that the government cannot force Catholic employers who are members of the CBA to cover abortions. The decision also declares the Mandate is illegal as applied to CBA members. While an injunction stops the federal government from enforcing the CASC Mandate against CBA members, the declaratory judgment speaks directly to the illegality of what the federal government has been trying to do to CBA members for years. The court stated that the federal government “violated RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act)” by trying to coerce members into providing CASC services.