Detroit — Archbishop Allen Vigneron, joining in spirit with the U.S. Conference for Catholic Bishops, last week denounced a decision by theU.S.Department of Health and Human Services not to revise a religious exemption to the requirement that all health plans cover contraceptives and sterilization free of charge.
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The Obama administration turned down repeated requests from Catholic bishops, hospitals, schools and charitable organizations to revise the exemption.
“With its edict on contraception and sterilization coverage in all health insurance plans, the Department of Health and Human Services is forcing insurers and purchasers to choose whether or not to violate their moral and religious beliefs,” Archbishop Vigneron said in a statement dated Jan. 21, “The inalienable rights guaranteed in our country’s founding documents are being trampled.”
During the week, Archbishop Vigneron took the message to secular media, appearing on several local major news outlets to put forth the his and the bishops’ objections to the decision.
Though their decision failed to satisfy objectors, the Department of Health and Human Services did acknowledge that religious liberty was a concern.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the department, announced Jan. 20 that nonprofit groups that do not provide contraceptive coverage because of their religious beliefs will get an additional year “to adapt to this new rule.”
“This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty,” Sebelius said. “I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”
Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the Obama administration had “drawn an unprecedented line in the sand” with the decision.
“The Catholic bishops are committed to working with our fellow Americans to reform the law and change this unjust regulation,” he added. “We will continue to study all the implications of this troubling decision.”
Sebelius announced the mandate and a narrow religious exemption to it Aug. 1, 2011. Under the plan, after Aug. 1 of this year, new or significantly altered health plans will be required to provide all FDA-approved contraceptives, including some that can cause abortions, without co-pays or deductibles as part of preventive health care for women.
The only religious organizations exempt from the requirement would be those meeting four specific criteria — “(1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a nonprofit organization” under specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code.
Those sections “refer to churches, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches, as well as to the exclusively religious activities of any religious orders,” according to a footnote to the rule.
Catholic groups, including the USCCB, the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA, called that exemption too narrow, saying it would require Catholic groups to stop all services to those who were not Catholic and would inappropriately involve the government in decisions about whether an organization is “religious enough” to be exempted.
Sebelius’ announcement brought an outcry from Catholic leaders and a sigh of relief from groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, which had opposed any moves to weaken the contraceptive mandate or strengthen the religious exemption.
In a video posted on the USCCB website, Cardinal-designate Dolan said the decision put the Obama administration “on the wrong side of the Constitution” and should be rescinded.
“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” he said in a separate statement. “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom.”
Franciscan Sr. Jane Marie Klein, who chairs the board at Franciscan Alliance, a system of 13 Catholic hospitals, characterized the decision as “nothing else than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights.”
