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.
