Category: Religion

Committee hearing held on HHS mandate

Representatives of Judaism and Christianity appeared before the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to explain the reasons for their opposition to the Obama administration’s plan to force employers to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs.

Some committee members protested because only two women appeared as witnesses.  However, Dr. Laura Champion explained, “This is not about politics, this is not about contraception, and this is not about depriving women of health care. Rather, this is personal. This is about my daily life as a physician, a Christian, and a Medical Services Director.”

John H. Garvey, President of the Catholic University of America, said that the regulation “makes hypocrites of us all, in the most important lessons we teach.”  Dr. Allison Garrett of Oklahoma Christian University told the Committee that the alternative scheme proposed by the administration “does not present a workable solution. The Administration has not yet proposed anything new. . . All the Administration has offered to do is to discuss the issue further.”

The Committee heard from ten witnesses.

Archbishop: HHS mandate “belligerent, unnecessary, and deeply offensive”

The Archbiship of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, has described the Obama administration’s plan to force universal insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs an “aggressive attack on religious freedom in our country.”  He warns that debate about the details of the plan and the administration’s  promises of accommodation, while useful, risk obscuring that fundamental issue.  Reflecting on a pattern of prejudicial conduct of the administration, he suggest that it is “to put it generously – tone deaf to people of faith.” [philly.com]

 

American Catholic Medical Association questions offer of accommodation

The Catholic Medical Association states that the proposed accommodation being offerd by the Obama administration to employers who object to providing insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives, and embryocidal drugs “appears to fall far short of addressing the fatal flaws in the original rule.”  [CMA news release]

 

US Catholic bishops question promised HHS revision

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement responding to President Obama’s announcement that the HHS regulation that stirred a firestorm of protest will be modified.  The bishops note that they were not consulted by the administration, that the details of promised modification are unclear, and that it will require “careful moral analysis”.  However, based on their initial  understanding of the proposal, they state that it “continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions.”  They insist that only the revocation of the HHS mandate will afford “the only complete solution to this religious liberty problem.” [USCCB statement]

Priests for Life and Catholic televsion network sue federal government

Eternal Word Television Network, a Catholic broadcasting corporation founded by a nun, Mother Angelica, has sued the US federal government because the Obama administration’s birth control mandate will force it to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives and embryocides.  Priests for Life, a Catholic group dedicated to pro-life work, including support for Catholic teaching against contraception, has announced that it will sue for the same reason.