CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Religious groups have voiced concern over the latest set of suggested changes to the federal contraception mandate, while saying they will examine the proposals fully in order to give an in-depth response.<\/p>\n\t\u201cThe Administration is once again revising its regulations on the HHS mandate,\u201d noted Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. \u201cWe will study the regulations carefully and will provide more detailed comments at a later date.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThe archbishop said in an Aug. 22 statement that the conference\u2019s \u201cinitial review of the government\u2019s summary of the regulations\u201d yielded disappointment \u201cthat the regulations would not broaden the \u2018religious employer\u2019 exemption to encompass all employers with sincerely held religious objections to the mandate.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
\n\t\u201cInstead,\u201d he explained, \u201cthe regulations would only modify the \u2018accommodation,\u2019 under which the mandate still applies and still requires provision of the objectionable coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tUnfortunately, Archbishop Kurtz said, the proposal to place closely held for-profit employers under the \u201caccommodation\u201d when the Supreme Court had previously exempted them from the regulation altogether \u201cwould effectively reduce, rather than expand, the scope of religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOn Aug. 22, the Obama administration announced an \u201cinterim final rule\u201d adjusting the way in which the federal contraception mandate is applied to religious non-profit groups. Issued by the Department of Health and Human Services under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the mandate requires employers to offer health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions.<\/p>\n
\tObjections to the mandate have resulted in more than 300 lawsuits from individuals and groups protesting the regulation\u2019s imposition on their religious beliefs. The opposition to the regulation has led the administration to change it numerous times in recent years.<\/p>\n
\tThe mandate includes a narrow exemption for houses of worship and their affiliates. Other non-profit religious groups that objected to the regulation were provided an \u201caccommodation\u201d under which they could sign forms authorizing their insurer or a third-party administrator to pay for the products instead.<\/p>\n
\tMany religious groups objected to the arrangement, calling it an \u201caccounting gimmick\u201d and saying that it still required that they violate their religious beliefs by authorizing the provision of products and procedures they found immoral.<\/p>\n
\tLast month, the Supreme Court that Wheaton College, a Christian college in Illinois, could not be forced to sign the authorization form if doing so violated its religious principles.<\/p>\n
\tThe Obama administration says that its new rules come in response to the Supreme Court\u2019s rulings and allow an additional pathway for qualifying non-profit religious groups to take part in the accommodation. Rather than contacting their insurance companies directly, they can notify the federal government of their objections to the mandate, and the government will then contact their insurer or a third-party administrator, designating them to assume the costs of the contraception coverage deemed immoral by the employer. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\tThis change will go into effect immediately, the administration said, although public comments will be accepted for 60 days before a final rule is issued.<\/p>\n
\tThe announcement of the new rules prompted numerous statements of dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOnce again, we find ourselves extremely disappointed by the government\u2019s latest attempt to modify the rules governing the HHS contraceptive services mandate,\u201d said Michael Warsaw, chairman and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, one of the plaintiffs challenging the mandate.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cInstead of broadening the criteria for organizations that should be completely exempt from these rules, it appears that the government has simply changed the flow of paperwork and done little else,\u201d Warsaw said Aug. 22.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe will continue to analyze the latest rules with our legal team at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty to determine their impact on EWTN\u2019s challenge to the mandate which is now pending before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.\u00a0 We ask our EWTN Family to continue to keep this matter in their prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe administration also proposed an expansion of the accommodation to include \u201cclosely-held\u201d for-profit companies, saying it will solicit comments on the proposed change before it makes its final decision.<\/p>\n
\tIn June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the mandate as it was applied to two \u201cclosely held\u201d for-profit businesses, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Services, saying that the owners of the companies were protected against the mandate by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.\u00a0 The court said that the government had not shown that the mandate was the least restrictive means of achieving its goal of providing free contraceptives to employees.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cUnder pressure from hundreds of lawsuits, the government continues to retreat,\u201d said Lori Windham, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents many of the plaintiffs filing suit against the mandate.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cAfter three losses in the Supreme Court and dozens of losses in courts below, the government continues to confuse the issues,\u201d she added in an Aug. 22 statement, saying this should be a clear matter of First Amendment rights rather than \u201cover 70 pages of regulation.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019ll be reviewing this latest attempt with each of our clients\u201d and giving further responses, she continued.<\/p>\n
\tGregory S. Baylor, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is also representing plaintiffs challenging the mandate, said that while they will consult their clients to determine the new rule\u2019s effects, it is clear that the changes fail \u201cto extend its existing religious exemption to the religious owners of family businesses and to religious non-profits other than churches.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat would have been the best way of respecting freedom for everyone,\u201d he commented.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
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Washington D.C., Aug 22, 2014 \/ 04:55 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Religious groups have voiced concern over the latest set of suggested changes to the federal contraception mandate, while saying they will examine the proposals fully in order to give an in-dep…<\/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-7305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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