In 2012, the Obama administration issued regulations related to the health care reform law which force religious employers to violate their consciences or face staggering fines. The regulations, known as the HHS Mandate, require employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and drugs which might end the lives of unborn children. The only employers who don’t have to comply with the HHS Mandate are houses of worship.
Throughout 2012, various employers, including Christian colleges, Catholic hospitals and numerous business owners filed lawsuit after lawsuit against the HHS Mandate because it violates their First Amendment rights. There are now more than 40 organizations and businesses suing the government over the HHS Mandate.
In response to these suits over a right as basic as religious freedom, the Obama administration has proposed what they call an accommodation or revision to the rules. This “accommodation” was released on February 1, 2013, and was roundly criticized by prolife groups while being praised by pro-abortion organizations, including Planned Parenthood, America’s leading abortion provider.
National Right to Life issued a statement which reads, in part:
“In proposed revisions to the preventive services mandate issued today, the Obama Administration once again employs changes in packaging in an attempt to conceal continuity in substance. This latest revision continues to compel countless employers to purchase health plans that will pay for drugs and procedures to which they are opposed on moral and religious grounds. For a nonprofit organization that ‘holds itself out as a religious organization,’ the Administration claims that it is relieving the employer of the moral conflict by obligating the insurer to pay for the objected‑to drugs and services. This is a subterfuge, since the employees would not be getting the objected‑to services if the religious employer was not paying for the health plan.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the prolife Susan B. Anthony List blasted the compromise by saying, “Once again, President Obama’s so‑called ‘compromise’ is unacceptable – religious and moral freedom is not up for negotiation. There must be no religious ‘test’ by the government as to whom, and what type of entities, are entitled to a conscience. We demand respect for non‑religious entities such as the Susan B. Anthony List that recognize the taking of human life is the antithesis of health care.”
Many prolifers fear the process which is being used to force religious employers to violate their consciences could also be used in an attempt to force employers to provide insurance coverage for abortion. The original HHS Mandate policy was recommended by an Institutes of Medicine committee which is filled with pro-abortion activists
Our nation was founded on the idea that individuals have certain basic rights and these rights don’t come from the government. The government’s role is to protect these rights. Unfortunately, some in our government have instead pursued an agenda which insists upon violating these rights.
Learn more about efforts to defend basic human rights at Right to Life of Michigan’s web site,
www.rtl.org.
