The Administrative Committee, the highest authority of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops outside the semi-annual sessions of the full body of bishops, has issued a statement asserting that the Conference will continue to resist efforts by the federal government to require objecting religious believers to provide insurance coverage surgical sterilization, contraceptives and embryocides. The Conference objects to an unprecedented and unwarranted “government definition of religion,” which “has precipitated this struggle for religious freedom,” the bishops said.