Ted Cruz claim about Democrats and Catholic church unsupported

In the keynote speech to the March 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Democrats are “fighting a war on religious liberty.”

The Texas Republican also equated current events to Democrats telling the Catholic Church, “Change your religious beliefs or we’ll use our power in the federal government to shut down your charities and your hospitals.”

Cruz, we learned, was referring to congressional Democrats who voted for the health care overhaul known as Obamacare, and an outcry from conservative and religious figures criticizing government decisions on how churches and affiliated organizations are to comply with the law’s mandate that insurance plans cover preventive care — including an administration interpretation that this includes birth control without employees paying out-of-pocket costs.

It’s a continuing conflict, perhaps culminating in some church-connected institutions shutting down in the face of federal fines that could be levied for failures to comply with the law. But we came up with no evidence of such a message from President Barack Obama’s administration or congressional Democrats amid indications the administration has been revising rules to accommodate religious groups.

By our analysis, posted to the right above, this claim proved both incorrect and ridiculous. Pants on Fire!