Unprecedented Attack On Religious Liberty

September 9, 2011

The federal healthcare law enacted last year requires almost all private health insurance plans to provide coverage of "preventive care for women" and without a co-pay. Last month, the Obama Administration announced that among the "preventive care" services it will mandate are "All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity."

Even worse, the new policy contains an extremely narrow and inadequate religious exemption. It covers only a "religious employer" that has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose, primarily employs and serves persons who share its religious tenets, and is a church organization under two narrow provisions of the tax code.

Plans offered by many religious organizations, including Catholic colleges, universities, hospitals, and charitable institutions that serve the general public, would be ineligible under these terms. Some Catholic leaders have even suggested that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) itself may not qualify under this definition of "religious employer."

In comments submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services, the general counsel of the USCCB, Anthony Picarello, strongly urged DHHS to rescind this mandate calling it an "unprecedented attack on religious liberty." A government mandate to cover "all FDA-approved contraceptives" most of which can cause early abortions, constitutes a "nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchase ‘services’ to which they have a moral or religious objection," the general counsel said.

"Until now," Picarello continued, "no federal law has prevented private insurers from accommodating purchasers and plan sponsors with moral or religious objections to certain services. Plans were free under federal law to accommodate those objections by allowing purchasers to choose not to buy coverage for…procedures that the purchaser or sponsor found religiously or morally problematic.

"Likewise, federal law did not forbid any insurer, such as a religiously-affiliated insurer, to exclude from its plans any services to which the insurer itself had a moral or religious objection. Indeed, the freedom to exclude morally objectionable services has sometimes been stated affirmatively in federal law."

All of these conscience protections will end under this Obama Administration mandate, Picarello said. "Individuals with a moral or religious objection to these items and procedures will now be affirmatively barred… from purchasing a plan that excludes [contraception and sterilization].

"Religiously-affiliated insurers with a moral or religious objection likewise will be affirmatively barred from offering a plan that excludes them to the public, even to members of their own religion. Secular organizations (insurers, employers, and other plan sponsors) with a moral or religious objection to coverage of contraceptives or sterilization will be ineligible for the exemption."

The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting public comments on its new policy through Sept. 30. The U.S. Bishops are asking Catholic individuals, organizations, institutions, business owners, etc. to submit comments urging DHHS to rescind its outrageous contraceptive mandate.

Comments can be submitted very easily through the website of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (www.nchla.org), an affiliate of the USCCB. Background information is provided along with a sample message and the ability to add additional comments. Those who use this service will also be able to send a message to our elected representatives in Congress urging them to support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179/S. 1497) to ensure that such federal mandates do not violate Americans’ moral and religious convictions.