Congressional candidate Matt Doheny is attacking the health care plan approved by Congress as an affront to the First Amendment to the Constitution, and questions the incumbent Rep. Bill Owens' commitment to his Catholic faith.

“As an American and a practicing Catholic, I am alarmed by the Obama administration’s recent decision to require all employers to provide contraception, morning-after pills and sterilization services in their health plans,” the Watertown investment manager and Republican candidate for the 23rd Congressional District said.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services last week issued a ruling that health care plans provided by employers must make women’s health coverage such as contraception available.

“By narrowly defining the religious exemptions while implementing this new ObamaCare mandate, the president has run roughshod over the First Amendment and put Catholic-run schools, hospitals, soup kitchens and poor houses in a quandary. Our government is forcing these religious-based organizations to choose between violating their deeply held beliefs or dropping coverage for their employees and paying a costly penalty,” Doheny said.

“Like the individual mandate, this is another example of how the Obama administration is using its health care package to impose its will and lessen our individual rights. It is a violation of the Constitution and it is wrong.

“Instead of tolerance, our government is pushing its form of morality by fiat.”

Referring to incumbent Owens, a Democrat from Plattsbugh, Doheny said, “Owens is a Catholic, but he’s put his loyalty to ObamaCare first by defending the ruling. I think this is another significant step toward the nanny-state government that President Obama and Bill Owens want.”

He is encouraging supporters to contact Owens.