Leaders of the U.S. bishops have written to lawmakers insisting on the
importance of including religious liberty protections and the conscience
rights of health care workers as part of government funding
negotiations.
“Protection for conscience rights in health care is of especially great
importance to the Catholic Church, which daily contributes to the
welfare of U.S. society through schools, social services, hospitals and
assisted living facilities,” wrote Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley of Boston
and Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore in a Sept. 26 letter.
The bishops wrote regarding the federal contraception mandate – issued
by the Department of Health and Human Services – which requires
employers to provide employee health coverage for sterilization and
contraception, as well as drugs which can cause early abortions.
While the mandate has a narrow exemption for religious employers, many
Catholic institutions do not meet the government's criteria.
More than
200 plaintiffs across the country have filed lawsuits challenging the
mandate, and some legal analysts believe the Supreme Court will take up
the case in the coming months.
Cardinal O'Malley and Archbishop Lori – who head the U.S. bishops’
pro-life committee and religious liberty committee, respectively –
reminded the nation’s lawmakers that the bishops “strongly support
universal access to health care.”
However, they said, “such access is
threatened by Congress' continued failure to protect the right of
conscience.”
They applauded the provisions of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act,
which was introduced earlier this year by Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.).
Key elements of this bill should be incorporated into “must-pass”
legislation as Congress considers a continuing resolution to prevent a
government shut-down, the bishops said.
On Sept. 29, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a
government spending bill which would delay much of the 2010 health care
law – including the contraception mandate – for another year.
The bill
also includes accommodations allowing employers to decline to provide
insurance coverage for products and procedures to which they morally or
religiously objected.
Harry Reid, a Democrat and the Senate majority leader, maintained that the upper chamber would reject the House bill.
In addition to the issue of funding the federal government, it is
likely that health care and religious liberty will play into debates
over the debt ceiling, which Treasury secretary Jack Lew expects to be
met by Oct. 17.
Several Catholic conferences in states across the nation have
encouraged Catholics to contact their representatives and senators to
ask that they support the inclusion of conscience protections in
legislation on government funding and raising the debt ceiling.
Cardinal O'Malley and Archbishop Lori urged that Catholic institutions
serving the common good “should not be told by government to abandon or
compromise those convictions in order to continue serving their own
employees or the neediest Americans.”
“Nor should individual Catholics or others be told they cannot legally
purchase or provide health coverage unless they violate their
conscience.”
They noted that non-profit religious groups ineligible for the
mandate’s narrow religious exemption are only beginning to have their
cases heard in court, but will be subject to the mandate’s requirements
on Jan. 1, 2014.
“Those who help provide health care, and those who need such care for
themselves and their families, should not be forced to choose between
preserving their religious and moral integrity and participating in our
health care system,” said the bishops.