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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.”

This article appears in April 8-15 2013.