New proposed regulations governing the contraception mandate under the Affordable Care Act continue to violate basic principles of religious freedom, said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In comments filed on March 20 with the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S.C.C.B. raised a series of concerns, among them being that the new proposals keep in place “an unjust and unlawful mandate” regarding the provision of contraceptive and other reproductive services and that the rules provide no exemption, or accommodation, for “most stakeholders in the health insurance process, such as individual employees and for-profit employers,” who are morally opposed to such coverage. Other objections include: an “unreasonable and unlawfully narrow” exemption for some nonprofit religious organizations, primarily houses of worship, and a limited accommodation for religious employers that continues to require those employers falling outside of the government’s definition to “fund or facilitate objectionable coverage.”
Still Threat to Freedom
Show Comments ()
3
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Larry Farin
12 years 1 month ago
Religious freedom is the the right of the individual to be free to choose whether or not she as the insured individual wants contraceptive services. Employers should not make these decisions.
Louis Candell
12 years 1 month ago
I pray that one of these centuries (not too distant I hope) the Church will realize that its adherence to doctrines based on the Augustinian hatred for the vile but sadly necessary act of copulation is wrongheaded. In this day and age, one would think that the Church would admit that once Augustine had finally put aside his lascivious lifestyle, he apparently decided that if he could no longer enjoy sexual relations then nobody else should either. There's no one more obnoxious than a zealot.
Richard Borowski
12 years 1 month ago
Health care is part of compensation. The money part of compensation is available for use as the individual desires. The church helps us understand how to use money in a moral manner but the choice is ultimately ours. Health care is also compensation and the individual can make choices about how it is used. The bishops have not been effective in convincing much of the catholic population to accept their position on contraception. So, instead of teaching more effectively, they are trying to get the government to enforce their position through law.
The latest from america
President Trump offered a vibrant demonstration of the kind of worst-case scenario Pope Leo may have had in mind about the collapse of critical thinking.
In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
“We were once leaders in petroleum and gas research; now we’re becoming leaders in green hydrogen and carbon capture. This isn’t just a technological shift; it’s a spiritual one.”
A cardinal reflects on his experience of the conclave