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Religious freedom is a core American principle, one that our Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution and called on future generations of leaders to preserve and protect.

Despite our deeply rooted heritage of religious liberty, the Obama administration recently issued a mandate under ObamaCare that will require church-affiliated organizations to offer their workers private-insurance coverage without out-of-pocket charges for birth control, something they are morally opposed to. In doing so, the administration ignored efforts by numerous faith-based organizations to be granted an exemption on religious grounds.

From a practical standpoint, this will force Catholic organizations to make an unacceptable choice: Ignore a major tenet of their faith, or not provide any insurance to their employees and be punished with a federal fine for violating ObamaCare’s mandate on employers.

As Americans, we should all be appalled by an activist government so overbearing and so obsessed with forcing mandates on the American people that it forces such a choice on religious institutions.

In response, I have introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012, a bill to establish a firm religious exemption to this insurance requirement under ObamaCare. It’s a narrowly focused, common-sense measure that simply says the government can’t force religious organizations to abandon the fundamental tenets of their faith.

This bill, as well as Sen. Roy Blunt’s similar Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, sends a clear message against the Obama administration’s assault on religious freedom.

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Read the full op-ed here.