The Knights of Columbus filed formal comments with the U.S. government
on Monday, calling for an end to the Health and Human Services mandate
and “a new course” that would not require Americans to cover medical
services to which they have religious and moral objections.
The Knights, a Catholic charitable fraternal organization with 1.8
million U.S. members, invited the Obama administration to “make every
effort to protect the conscience rights and sincerely held religious
beliefs and practice of the American people,” Supreme Knight Carl
Anderson said in an April 6 letter.
“The faith that lies at the heart of our charitable activity and our
defense of human rights is also the same faith that compels us to
oppose participation in a government mandate that would force us to
fund, directly or indirectly, health plans that include objectionable
services such as sterilization, contraception, or abortion-inducing
drugs,” he said.
The federal mandate requires almost all private insurance plans to
offer the objectionable drugs and procedures without a co-pay. Violators
could face heavy fines. Over 150 employers and non-profit
organizations, including Catholic health systems, universities,
charities, and dioceses, have filed more than 40 federal lawsuits
challenging the rules.
The Obama administration has altered the original mandate to require
insurance plans, not employers themselves, to provide the objectionable
coverage. The new proposals also modify religious exemption standards.
However, the change has failed to address many objections.
Anderson said that the new proposals change “some minor details” but do
not address the “critical moral and constitutional offense” of coercing
individuals and organizations with objections to pay for the coverage
directly or indirectly and to initiate coverage..
“The government places itself in the untenable position of deciding
that some consciences are fit for protection, while others are not,”
Anderson said.
He said the newest proposed rules do not expand the religious exemption
and are implemented “in a manner that requires the employer to initiate
and pay for such coverage.” Non-exempt entities “receive no protection
and will lose the right to provide health care coverage that respects
their deeply held religious and moral convictions.”
Anderson cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching that
people may not be forced to act against their convictions. He also cited
James Madison’s defense of the free exercise of religion.
He also cited Thomas Jefferson’s 1804 letter to Ursuline sisters in the
Louisiana Territory , in which Jefferson said that the U.S.
Constitution is a “sure guarantee ... that your institution will be
permitted to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules without
the interference from the civil authority.”
Anderson suggested the Obama administration use principles adapted from
the Church Amendment to the Public Service Act. That legislation, first
passed in1973. That provision bars individuals and entities from being
required to violate their religious beliefs or moral convictions as part
of a government program.
Should the Obama administration refuses to rescind the mandate,
Anderson said, the Knights of Columbus urge an expansion of the
religious exemption to protect individuals and organizations from being
forced to violate their beliefs.
The Knights of Columbus said thousands of its members and their
families have filed comments by the close of the comment period April 8.