WASHINGTON (February 9, 2012)--Southern Baptist leader the Rev. Richard Land says the nation's largest Protestant group stands "100 percent" with Roman Catholic bishops in opposing the Obama administration's contraceptive coverage mandate.

Land, who heads the Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says President Barack Obama should not be ordering church-affiliated institutions to ignore their consciences and pay for treatments they consider "unconscionable."

He’s urging Congress to outlaw such mandates, because Mr. Obama could withdraw them under election-year pressure, only to re-impose them if he's re-elected in November.

"Once they no longer have to face the voters again,
Lord knows what they'll get up to. So we want legislation that will protect us by the force of law from this kind of intrusion on the consciences of American citizens,’ he said.