Several Catholics known for supporting Obama administration policies
are opposing the lack of religious conscience protections in rules
requiring most new health plans to cover contraception and
sterilization.
In an open letter issued August 26, the
self-described “ad hoc group of Catholic leaders and professors” called
on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius “to extend
conscience protection to religious charities, religious hospitals, and
religious schools in regards to mandated health insurance coverage”
under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
The signatories - many of whom
also signed an earlier letter criticizing House Speaker John Boehner in
May - cited the First Amendment’s protection of religious activity, and
the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban on religious discrimination, to argue
for broader religious exceptions.
On August 1, the Department of
Health and Human Services announced that only certain religious
institutions could opt out of providing contraception, under the heading
of “women’s preventive services,” in their new health plans.
To
be exempt, an organization must have “the inculcation of religious
values as its purpose,” must primarily employ “persons who share its
religious tenets,” and must serve primarily “persons who share its
religious tenets.”
The U.S. Catholic bishops, who oppose the
mandate altogether, have criticized the proposed rules, while also
noting the basic inappropriateness of regarding fertility as a condition
in need of “prevention.”
The St. Gianna Physician’s Guild, a Catholic
medical organization, has pointed out that the mandate will increase the
already substantial demand for abortion due to failed contraception.
In
their letter to Sebelius, the group of Catholic academics and activists
- including Professors Fr. Thomas Reese of Georgetown, Lisa Sowle
Cahill of Boston College, Margaret Steinfels of Fordham, and Nicholas
Cafardi of Duquesne- stopped short of criticizing the mandate itself.
They focused instead on its need for revision, due to religious
guidelines they called “too restrictive.”
“Catholic charities and
Catholic hospitals do not fit the rule’s definition of religious
organization,” they noted. “Catholic schools, colleges, and universities
also might not fit the current definition.”
The letter’s leading
author, who also organized the Boehner letter, is Catholic University of
America Professor Stephen Scheck.
In 2009, Schneck lent his support to a
“Catholics for Sebelius” initiative, supporting the Obama nominee whose
bishop told her not to receive Communion over her abortion record.
Professors
Schneck, Reese, Cahill, Steinfels, and Cafardi all signed a 2009 letter
calling Sebelius “a woman of deep faith” whose “record of building the
common good” made her “an excellent candidate for HHS Secretary.”
Unlike
the recent letter to Boehner - in which Scheck, Reese, Cahill, and many
others accused the Catholic speaker of proposing “anti-life” budget
cuts that contradicted “the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” - the
letter to Sibelius took a restrained tone.
It contains one brief
reference to “the Catholic Church’s ancient mission to the poor and the
sick,” and no reference to Catholic teaching on contraception and
sterilization.
Instead, the authors cited Title 26 of the United
States Code, noting that it offered “appropriate guidance for defining
religious organizations” that should qualify for an exemption from the
birth control mandate.
By this definition, a “non-profit
religious, educational, or charitable organization” that has “bona fide
religious purposes or reasons” and “holds itself out to the public as a
religious organization” should qualify.
The language of Title 26,
they said “more fully reflects the intentions of the First Amendment and
the Civil Rights Act as they pertain to matters of religious
conscience.”
Sebelius’ narrow religious exemptions have also
received criticism from Sister Carol Keehan, head of the Catholic Health
Association, who publicly supported the Affordable Care Act that led to
their drafting.
On August 4, Sr. Keehan said she was “very concerned”
with exemptions that were “not broad enough to protect our Catholic
health providers.”
In terms stronger than those used in the
academics’ August 26 letter, Sr. Keehan said it was “critical” that
Catholic hospitals “be allowed to serve our nation without compromising
our conscience.”