Northeast Ohio churches speak out against President Obama's birth control policy

BRUNSWICK, Ohio - Catholic churches in northeast Ohio are on mission to have their message heard after President Obama announced a federal mandate regarding health care coverage for contraception.

The regulation requires faith-based institutions to provide insurance for things like contraception. It’s been revised so churches can opt out of providing coverage, but that doesn’t matter much to some local church members, like Mike Ruffing. He’s been a member of St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Brunswick for eight years.

"Regulating some type of aspect of providing insurance for something that is against their conscience is more than just a Catholic issue, that's a government infringing upon people's religious freedoms," he said.

Ruffing has been emailing lawmakers, other church members and anyone who’ll listen. His pastor, Father Bob Sec, is taking action, too. He’s been keeping his parishioners up to speed on the topic and telling them where the church stands on the issue.

"I think we've been called to faithful citizenship and faithful stewardship what that means is that we need to be participants in the conversation of shaping out society, shaping our culture, and shaping the laws of the land."

Other churches feel strongly something has to be done. St. Thomas More Catholic Parish has created a petition against the new mandate and members at the Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Uniontown can pick up postcards to mail to lawmakers.