Unacceptable.February 27, 2012 The Obama administration has offered what it has styled as an ―accommodation‖ for religious institutions in the dispute over the HHS mandate for coverage (without cost sharing) of abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. The administration will now require that all insurance plans cover (―cost free‖) these same products and services. Once a religiously-affiliated (or believing individual) employer purchases insurance (as it must, by law), the insurance company will then contact the insured employees to advise them that the terms of the policy include coverage for these objectionable things.This so-called ―accommodation‖ changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It is certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services.It is no answer to respond that the religious employers are not ―paying‖ for this aspect of the insurance coverage. For one thing, it is unrealistic to suggest that insurance companies will not pass the costs of these additional services on to the purchasers. More importantly, abortion-drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives are a necessary feature of the policy purchased by the religious institution or believing individual. They will only be made available to those who are insured under such policy, by virtue of the terms of the policy.It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform the employee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying ―five day after pill‖ pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains the terms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers.The simple fact is that the Obama administration is compelling religious people and institutions who are employers to purchase a health insurance contract that provides abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization. This is a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand. It is an insult to the intelligence of Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other people of faith and conscience to imagine that they will accept an assault on their religious liberty if only it is covered up by a cheap accounting trick.Finally, it bears noting that by sustaining the original narrow exemptions for churches, auxiliaries, and religious orders, the administration has effectively admitted that the new policyT2(like the old one) amounts to a grave infringement on religious liberty. The administration still fails to understand that institutions that employ and serve others of different or no faith are still engaged in a religious mission and, as such, enjoy the protections of the First Amendment.Signed:

http://www.becketfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Unacceptable-2-27-11am2.pdf

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Obama Administration Attacks . . . Again; Catholic Medical Association and the Bishops Respond

In a follow up to its October attack on a successful program run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops , the Obama administration launched an unprecedented assault, not only on every Catholic institution in America, but also on the religious liberty American citizens have enjoyed since the Founding.

In a press release dated Jan. 20, 2012 , HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the HHS mandate forcing all insurance plans and providers to offer and completely subsidize all FDA-approved contraceptives (including abortifacients classified as “emergency” contraception), sterilizations, and reproductive counseling would be enforced against all religious institutions that do not meet her very narrow definition of “religious employers.” This will include all Catholic schools, universities, hospitals, and social service agencies just for starters. Catholic institutions were given an additional year to come into compliance with the new rule.

The CMA responded immediately with a strong statement of condemnation and a call for Catholics and all people of good will to join together to overturn this malicious mandate. USCCB President Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan and hundreds of other religious bodies also issued similar statements

Analysis:

As the CMA has noted in several statements in the course of 2011 as HHS prepared to craft and announce its mandate, this “preventive services” rule constitutes bad logic (in defining pregnancy as a disease to be prevented); bad medicine (in holding that providing oral contraceptives and sterilization will enhance women’s health); and bad public policy (in thinking that this strategy will prevent unplanned pregnancies, lower health-care costs, etc.).
Apart from the mandate itself, the decision to impose this requirement even on institutions which have an ethical objection to providing contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacients is an unprecedented attack on the Catholic Church and on religious freedom more generally. Never in our history has the federal government demanded that private insurance plans include benefits that violate an institution’s conscience.
Finally, one condition of the 1-year delay granted to Catholic institutions by HHS is that these institutions tell their employees where such proscribed services can be obtained. This attempt to compel speech, and make Catholic institutions complicit in the referral process, is a violoation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
Finally, it is important to remember that this entire effort is ultimately an attack on the rights of all citizens, for all of us as individuals will be forced pay, with our premium dollars, to subsidize these unethical services.
There are, then, many levels on which this mandate is wrong. The fact that HHS went ahead and imposed it, despite thousands of comments and direct communication with the USCCB, demonstrates the Obama administration’s complete lack of regard for religious freedom and/or an animus toward the Catholic Church.

Action Steps:

There are several important action steps CMA members should be taking immediately:

Perhaps the most important action step is to contact one’s Congressmen and Senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179 in the House and S. 1467 in the Senate). A growing list of co-sponsors will show support and result in a favorable vote.  http://www.nchla.org/actiondisplay.asp?ID=292
Educate and motivate your family, peers, friends, and neighbors with explanations as to why this assault on the Catholic Church and religious liberty is dangerous and must be overturned. Write “letters to the editor” and participate in signature campaigns.
Pray and sacrifice so that this decision is overturned. Support the bishops, many of whom have issued strong statements and are now leading impressively on this issue.
CMA members should realize that this mandate is only a first step. Now that these preventive services have been mandated, it will not take long for the federal government to declare that all physicians and health care providers must perform or refer for them. Copy www.cathmed.org  and send it to Catholic physicians you know. Encourage them to join the CMA so that we can fight this mandate more effectively!!

Marci Moffitt
Catholic Physicians Guild Phoenix

A chartered guild of the Catholic Medical Association

http://www.cpgphoenix.com

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FIAMC STATEMENT ON OBAMA AND LIFE ISSUES

“Obama Promised to Be a Force for Positive Change”

U.S. Bishops Vow to Fight HHS Edict
January 20, 2012

Unconscionable to force citizens to buy contraceptives against their will
No change in limited exemption, only delay in enforcement
Matter of freedom of conscience, freedom of religion

WASHINGTON—The Catholic bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today’s announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The cardinal-designate continued, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty.”

The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among “preventive services” coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. “The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” added Cardinal-designate Dolan.

At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.

“This is nothing less than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights,” said Franciscan Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairperson of the board at Franciscan Alliance, Inc., a system of 13 Catholic hospitals. “I have hundreds of employees who will be upset and confused by this edict. I cannot understand it at all.”

Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with the decision. Catholic hospitals serve one out of six people who seek hospital care annually.

“This was a missed opportunity to be clear on appropriate conscience protection,” Sister Keehan said.

Cardinal-designate Dolan urged that the HHS mandate be overturned.

“The Obama administration has now drawn an unprecedented line in the sand,” he said. “The Catholic bishops are committed to working with our fellow Americans to reform the law and change this unjust regulation. We will continue to study all the implications of this troubling decision.”

http://www.usccb.org/

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CMA-USA Reacts to HHS “Compromise”

January 22, 2012

On January 20, 2012, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared that its final rule on preventive services for women will go into effect without any meaningful regard for the conscience rights of health care providers, a decision that will affect Catholic providers disproportionately. In response, the Catholic Medical Association has issued the following statement:

In her January 20 press release, Secretary Sebelius ignored the significant objections raised by many commentators to her narrow exemption for “religious employers” to the preventive services rule, deigning to grant Catholic health care providers merely an additional year before being subjected to government coercion to violate their religious and conscientious beliefs, This is an outrage that cannot be allowed to stand. Fidelity to conscience is not optional based on the month or year, and respect for conscience rights should not be either.

In addition to showing no regard for rights of conscience, the HHS decision threatens to violate free speech rights of health care providers by forcing them to provide, during their year-long stay of execution, notice to their employees about where morally objectionable reproductive services can be obtained.

In a patently disingenuous statement, Secretary Sebelius states that her decision “strikes [an] appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services.”

This decision, and the attitudes toward people of faith and respect for the Constitution, are of a piece with the Obama administration’s war on religion, and Catholics in particular. In a recent unanimous Supreme Court decision on January 11, Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Evangelical Church and School v. EEOC, the Court referred to the Obama administration’s narrow view of religious liberty as “extreme,” “remarkable,” and “untenable.”

This latest attack by the Obama administration on religious freedom and free speech rights should be of grave concern to all Americans because it is destructive of individual rights and of the common good. It should be challenged and resisted by all legitimate means.

Founded in 1932, the Catholic Medical Association is the largest association of Catholic physicians in North America. For more information, go to http://www.cathmed.org.

CONTACT: John Brehany, Ph.D., S.T.L., Executive Director & Ethicist