Charleston Post and Courier
BY ADAM PARKER
Sunday, June 17, 2012
In recent months, the Catholic Church’s push to protect “religious freedom” has intensified.
The spark that ignited this latest debate was the Obama administration’s requirement that insurance companies, including those affiliated with Catholic hospitals and other parochial medical institutions, provide coverage for contraception, drugs that terminate pregnancy and other medical interventions to those who want or need them.
The federal rule states that insurance companies must pay for such procedures without imposing prohibitive co-pays or deductibles, not that doctors must perform them. Churches and many nonprofit religious institutions are exempted.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for administering the rule, argues that it’s trying to level the playing field. The federal requirement is designed to ensure that all Americans have access to basic services, including contraception.
“It’s important to note that our rule has no effect on the longstanding conscience clause protections for providers, which allow a Catholic doctor, for example, to refuse to write a prescription for contraception,” wrote HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius in USA Today in February. “Nor does it affect an individual woman’s freedom to decide not to use birth control.”
Many of the patients who receive care at Catholic-affiliated hospitals are not Catholic themselves, or in any case do not agree with or follow the church’s teachings on contraception, abortion, sterilization or stem cell research. Moreover, many medical professionals who work at Catholic hospitals are not themselves Catholic.
The 2008 National Survey of Family Growth revealed that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women in the U.S. who are older than 18 are as likely as non-Catholic women in the same category to have used some form of contraception banned by the Vatican.
The church argues that what’s at stake is a fundamental principal of democracy: religious liberty. People of faith and religious institutions, it says, should not be forced by the government to provide coverage for contraception and sterilization when it violates their beliefs.
The HHS rule tightens policies already in place, making it more difficult for religious employers to avoid the requirements, according to Catholic officials.
“Even without a religious exemption, religious employers can already avoid (existing) contraceptive mandates in 28 states by self-insuring their prescription drug coverage, dropping that coverage altogether, or opting for regulation under a federal law (ERISA) that pre-empts state law,” states the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The HHS mandate closes off all these avenues of relief.”
Under the new regulations, it’s likely that self-insured entities that don’t qualify for the exemption would have to bear the cost of the mandate.
A Catholic doctor in private practice can invoke a long-standing personal conscience clause that exempts him performing procedures or administering medicines he considers immoral. Exempt from the new HHS rule is a religious nonprofit whose purpose is to inculcate religious values, that “primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets,” and “primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets.”
The Catholic Health Association on Friday rejected this exemption. The group, which has been a key ally in Obama’s health care overhaul, said the government should either broaden the exemption for religious employers or pay directly for the birth control coverage.
So should a Catholic hospital (or school or charity) that serves non-Catholics or Catholics who disagree with the church on these issues be required to provide such services, just as non-parochial institutions are required to do so?
The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion — the right of people to practice their faith without government interference (unless it endangers the public).
But it also guarantees the right of individuals to exercise their own consciences without being subjected to others’ religious rules and morality.
Not a new issue
Access to birth control has changed the lives of women, children and families for the better. The rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, as modified in February by the Obama administration, requires all new health insurance policies to cover birth control, along with other essential preventive services.
All churches and other houses of worship are exempt from this requirement. Religiously affiliated organizations, such as hospitals and universities, may opt out of contributing to the contraceptive coverage, in which case the insurance companies will be required to cover this cost.
No Catholic Church or institution will be required to sanction contraception or to pay for birth control for anyone. This is not about religious freedom.
And despite the current hue and cry, this is not a new issue. Twenty-eight states already require insurance plans to include contraception. The EEOC, the body that enforces federal civil right employment law, issued an opinion over a decade ago making clear that refusal to provide insurance coverage of birth control is sex discrimination. The highest courts of California and New York have rejected claims that requiring coverage of contraception violates the First Amendment.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops does not have the final word on religious liberty. Real religious freedom protects the beliefs and decisions of everyone, including women who work for a living. The Catholic Bishops are free to oppose all birth control. They may certainly use their resources to convince the women of the United States of the wisdom of that position.
It is not, however, a loss of institutional freedom of religion for access to contraception to be protected as part of a national health policy.
Susan Dunn, Legal Director, ACLU of South Carolina
(Edited for length. Full article: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120617/PC1204/120619332/1002/religious-liberty-the-church-state-debate-over-women-s-health)
