President Obama has stepped up his war on churches.  London's Daily Mail reports that the president has green-lighted new rules that force "church-affiliated institutions to cover all methods of contraception, including sterilisation." 

On January 11, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against efforts by the Obama administration to apply employment discrimination laws to church hirings.  For the first time, the high court recognized a "ministerial exception."  The vote was remarkably unanimous. 

From the Daily Mail account:

The morning after pill, described as an 'abortion drug' by some religious conservatives, will also be covered, but an actual abortion will not.

The news of Mr. Obama's mandate follows the annual March for Life, which occurred on January 23 in Washington, D.C.  The event drew tens of thousands of pro-life Americans.

The new contraception mandate does exempt churches proper, their employees, and other religious institutions that are aimed at promoting religious belief.  But the mandate would apply to a range of church-supported institutions, like hospitals, or chartable services that don't have an express or direct mission in spreading faith.  The new law would take effect on August 1, 2013.

Mr. Obama's contraception mandate is yet another attempt by the left to infringe on religious liberty.Though the mandate is at first peripheral, should Mr. Obama succeed, expect subsequent efforts by liberal lawmakers to impose the mandate directly on churches.  New laws often start small and at the margins only to graduate over time.

The president is making it abundantly clear that no institution - including a church - is off-limits when it comes to Washington's taste for control.  While Mr. Obama and the left are all for "privacy" rights, they evince an ongoing hostility to fundamental, constitutional rights, whether that's the right to bear arms or practice faith unobstructed by government. 

Expect American churches to mount a spirited fight to turn back Mr. Obama's latest anti-church ploy. 

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