WASHINGTON— The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers the following clarifications regarding the Health and Human Services regulations on mandatory coverage of contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

1.The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals.

2.The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral.

3.The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception.  

4.Catholics of all political persuasions are unified in their opposition to the mandate5.Many other religious and secular people and groups have spoken out strongly against the mandate.

6.The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates.

As my mother says:

You don’t have to be a Catholic, or even a theist, to see this mandate as a deliberate attack on all religious people, and in fact on all people who believe in freedom of conscience!  This is not a “left or right” issue. Many people who disagree strongly with the Church about the morality of contraception can see that now it may be the Catholic Church under attack, and later some other Church, or any group of people.

Here is a super easy way to contact your representatives, to encourage them to stand up for religious freedom:

Grassroots Action Center

You can just use the pre-written message, or you can write your own right into the form.  It automatically inserts the name of the appropriate senators and congressmen in the salutation, and emails it to them — couldn’t be easier.

You can also sign a petition of protest, written by the indefatigable Frank Weathers,  which goes directly to the White House.

I’m seriously disappointed that we haven’t heard a peep about this at our local church.  Maybe this Sunday.  What have you heard?