Depending on the outcome of Tuesday’s election, lawsuits like this could become a thing of the past.

Bob Allen of APB News reports.

Criswell College sues over health mandate

Criswell College, a Southern Baptist Bible school with informal ties to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, sued the federal government Nov. 1, claiming the contraceptive mandate in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act violates the school’s opposition to abortion.

Criswell College, named after its founder, W.A. Criswell — longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and spiritual godfather of the “conservative resurgence” movement that shifted the Southern Baptist Convention rightward in the 1980s and 1990s — joins more than 30 other plaintiffs in lawsuits aimed at blocking enforcement of the administration’s 2010 overhaul of the nation’s health-care system, often known as Obamacare.

Like other Baptist schools in previous lawsuits, including Louisiana College and Liberty University, Criswell objects to being required to pay for contraceptive drugs for female employees that they believe induce abortion.

The coverage mandate exempts churches but not faith-based institutions with more than 50 employees, that may or may not share the organization’s religious tenets, and with purposes broader than “the inculcation of religious values.”

The lawsuit says that means the government finds Criswell – described as a “Christ-centered institution of higher learning” that affirms biblical inerrancy – not “religious” enough to be entitled to constitutional protection.

“It would require us to obtain insurance that would cause us to violate our religious beliefs,” Criswell College Jerry Johnson said in a press release. “For us, this is a religious-liberty issue. We don’t want to have to pay for something that we have a religious conviction against.”