{"id":6946,"date":"2014-07-16T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T02:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/senate-bill-would-strip-conscience-protections-bishops-warn-30425\/"},"modified":"2014-07-16T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T02:01:00","slug":"senate-bill-would-strip-conscience-protections-bishops-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/07\/senate-bill-would-strip-conscience-protections-bishops-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate bill would strip conscience protections, bishops warn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Washington D.C., Jul 15, 2014 \/ 08:01 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Leaders of the U.S. bishops have issued a strong rebuke of a Senate bill that would deny conscience rights to employers in the field of health coverage.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe are writing to state our strong opposition to the misnamed \u2018Protect Women\u2019s Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014\u2019 (S. 2578),\u201d wrote Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Cardinal Sean P. O\u2019Malley of Boston in a letter to all U.S. senators on Monday.<\/p>\n

\tArchbishop Lori is the chairman of the bishops\u2019 Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Cardinal O\u2019Malley is the chairman of the bishops\u2019 Committee on Pro-Life Activities.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIn short, the bill does not befit a nation committed to religious liberty. Indeed, if it were to pass, it would call that commitment into question,\u201d the bishops wrote.<\/p>\n

\tThe proposed legislation would force employers with group health plans to cover any \u201cspecific health care item\u201d mandated by federal law or regulations despite religious liberty protections.<\/p>\n

\tIt was introduced after the Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that federal religious freedom laws protect the owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods Services from being forced to comply with parts of the federal contraception mandate against their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\tThe two closely-held businesses, run by Protestant and Mennonite owners respectively, objected to aspects of the mandate, which requires employers to offer health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions.<\/p>\n

\tCardinal O\u2019Malley and Archbishop Lori warned that the proposed bill could seriously harm religious freedom, both that of for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby, and non-profit religious groups, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tMore than 50 non-profits have filed lawsuits against the mandate, arguing that an \u201caccommodation\u201d for non-profit religious freedom granted by the government still forces them to violate their conscience.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe bill expressly leaves in place only the HHS mandate\u2019s own insufficiently narrow exemption for \u2018houses of worship\u2019 and its contested \u2018accommodation\u2019 for religious nonprofit organizations,\u201d the bishops wrote.<\/p>\n

\tFurthermore, the bill could grant the executive branch power to do away with such \u201cexemptions\u201d and \u201caccommodations\u201d altogether, they said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe bill allows modifications to the mandate and its exemption and \u2018accommodation,\u2019 but only those \u2018consistent with the purpose and findings of this Act.\u2019 That is, the executive branch would appear to be free to reduce or eliminate the exemption or \u2018accommodation,\u2019 but forbidden to expand the exemption or otherwise make changes that might reduce the scope of mandated coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tCardinal O\u2019Malley and Archbishop Lori also pointed out that the bill could trump \u201clongstanding conscience clauses on abortion, such as the Hyde-Weldon amendment.\u201d Additionally, if health coverage mandates were expanded in the future to include coverage of the abortion pill RU-486 or late-term abortions, employers would have no recourse to exemptions for conscience.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Jul 15, 2014 \/ 08:01 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Leaders of the U.S. bishops have issued a strong rebuke of a Senate bill that would deny conscience rights to employers in the field of health coverage.<\/p>\n

\t“We are writing to state our st…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate bill would strip conscience protections, bishops warn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jul 15, 2014 \/ 08:01 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Leaders of the U.S. bishops have issued a strong rebuke of a Senate bill that would deny conscience rights to employers in the field of health coverage. “We are writing to state our st...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/07\/senate-bill-would-strip-conscience-protections-bishops-warn\/\" 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