A federal appeals court issued an injunction on Wednesday that temporarily blocks President Barack Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services from implementing Obamacare’s contraception mandate.

The mandate requires employers to provide their employees with health care plans that include coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

Missouri business owner Frank O’Brien, who employs 87 people at O’Brien Industrial Holdings, alleged in the lawsuit that led to the injunction that the mandate unconstitutionally infringes on his religious beliefs...

Pledging to run a "national campaign" and denying he faces a do-or-die "Alamo" moment in Texas -- whose April 3 primary will award 155 delegates -- Newt Gingrich accused newly minted frontrunner Rick Santorum of being a "Big Labor Republican" who has attacked the Tea Party and amassed a voting record conservatives will find "dubious."

In an impromptu interview at the Fox News Washington bureau, the former House speaker claimed Santorum's clean sweep of this week's nominating contests in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri shows that the Republican presidential primary is a "wide open race" he can still win. Asked if Santorum's ascendancy deprives Gingrich's own candidacy of oxygen, Gingrich maintained that he appeals to a wider and deeper constituency in the GOP electorate.

"Among Tea Party members, I have a much stronger following than Rick does.

WASHINGTON – Former Sen. Rick Santorum moved into second place Tuesday in the race for delegates with wins in Republican presidential caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota.

Santorum picked up at least 28 delegates while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got at least six.

Overall, Romney has 107 delegates, including endorsements from members of the Republican National Committee who automatically attend the party's national convention and can support any candidate they choose. Santorum has 45 delegates, Newt Gingrich has 32 and Ron Paul has nine.

The race for delegates is still in the early stages. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination.

Santorum also won the Missouri primary Tuesday, but the party is not awarding any delegates based on the results. Instead, Missouri will award its 52 delegates through a system of caucuses and conventions, starting March 17.

The Kansas Supreme court is allowing a 107-count indictment against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri to go forward.

It is a criminal case that began two district attorneys ago, the latter one being forced to resign amid a sex and abortion corruption scandal. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman is pleased with the final decision, but points out it has been six years since the investigation that led to the charges against the taxpayer-supported abortion provider.

"We're hoping that once and for all, the respectability façade that Planned Parenthood has enjoyed over the years will be stripped from them and that they will be prosecuted for their crimes," says the pro-life leader...

Democrats have a mountain to climb in West Virginia.

The latest Fox News battleground state surveys of five key states shows Republicans in good position to gain two seats and hold two seats left open by GOP retirements. Democrats, meanwhile, are well-positioned to hold only one.

The polls in West Virginia, Connecticut, Nevada, Missouri and Ohio show varying degrees of success for Democrats in dealing with low approval ratings for President Obama and his policies...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new slate of polls conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for Fox News finds pro-life candidates for U.S. Senate seats in four states faring well. The states have some of the biggest matchups in the November 2010 elections as pro-life advocates hope to take control of Congress or reduce the pro-abortion advantage.

The polls show good news for pro-life advocates in West Virginia, Nevada, Ohio and Missouri.

In West Virginia, even popular Gov. Joe Manchin can't escape the very high negative ratings pro-abortion President Barack Obama has accumulated there...

DENVER | After taking a beating at the hands of Missouri voters in August, "Obamacare" could be roughed up once again at the ballot box in November.

Following the lead of the successful Missouri initiative, which passed with 71 percent of the vote, Arizonans, Coloradans and Oklahomans will decide this fall whether to approve proposed constitutional amendments that would allow them to opt out of key provisions of President Obama's signature national health care law.

The three initiatives prohibit the government from forcing individuals to buy health care insurance - a "mandate" that critics say violates the U.S. Constitution - and would allow patients and employers to pay providers directly without penalty. The idea is to protect state residents from "the ongoing takeover of health care by government," backers of the Colorado campaign say...

While Washington is obsessing over what the results of Missouri’s anti-health care reform ballot initiative mean for President Barack Obama, the state’s political insiders are debating whether it’s Democratic Senate nominee Robin Carnahan who needs to be worried.

A staggering 71 percent of Show-Me state primary voters cast ballots Tuesday opposing the new federal health care law — a symbolic yet resounding message that places Carnahan on the opposite side of a supermajority of the electorate.

The overwhelming vote in favor of Proposition C, a measure crafted to reject a portion of the law that requires most people to carry health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine, is the first tangible demonstration of how unpopular the president’s signature achievement remains in the Midwestern state...

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-abortion health care bill President Barack Obama signed received a major blow on Tuesday from voters in Missouri. They voted overwhelmingly to reject a federal mandate to purchase health insurance -- important because some of the plans in the program will pay for abortions with federal funds.

Proposition C passed by almost a 3-1 ratio as Show Me State residents voted to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law.

Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican who was one of the prime sponsors of the measure, lauded the vote afterwards...

Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) - More than 1 million people are expected to participate in what amounts to the largest-ever public opinion poll on the nation's new health care law.

Missouri on Tuesday will become the first state to the test the popularity of President Barack Obama's top policy accomplishment with a statewide ballot proposal attempting to reject its core mandate that most Americans have health insurance.

The legal effect of Missouri's measure is questionable, because federal laws generally supersede those in states. But its expected passage could send an ominous political message to Democrats seeking to hang on to their congressional majority in this year's midterm elections...