February 1, 2013 / MariaNews.com 

HHS Proposal on Contraception Mandate met with skepticism

FoxNews.com – Conservative and religious groups panned the Obama administration’s long-awaited “accommodation” meant to spare religious-affiliated groups from the so-called contraceptive mandate, calling a proposal unveiled Friday “radically inadequate.”

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the broader opt-out Friday a year after pledging to address complaints from Catholic schools, religious-affiliated service providers and other organizations.

The proposed regulations, though, did not satisfy the widespread concerns about the ObamaCare rule requiring near-universal access to contraceptive coverage for employees.

Businesses like Hobby Lobby, which sued the administration over the rule, would not be affected by the change because it is not a religious employer — though the owner of that company has objected on religious and moral grounds. Critics said Friday that all businesses should be exempt if they want, while also voicing concern that religious-affiliated groups would still be “conduits” for contraceptives.

“After over a year of litigation, our clients and many others like them were hoping for much, much more from the administration,” Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said on a conference call. The group has represented several religious-affiliated schools suing over the rule.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/01/administration-announces-broader-opt-out-for-religious-groups-over/#ixzz2Jg0u3O20

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May 16, 2012 / MariaNews.com 

Franciscan U in Steubenville to drop student health insurance because of ObamaCare cost increases

A Catholic university in Ohio said Tuesday it is being forced to end a student health insurance program over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate and costs associated with other provisions of the health care overhaul.

Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, said it has so far excluded contraceptive services and products from its health insurance policy for students and will not participate in a plan that “requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.”

In its decision to drop coverage, the school cited the contraception mandate, but also a requirement that the maximum coverage amount be increased to $100,000 for policyholders — claiming that would have made premiums skyrocket. A university official told Fox News Radio the students’ basic $600 policy was going to double in cost in the fall and triple next year and that the school’s insurance provider said the increases were the result of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“This is putting people in a position where they are having to choose between their faith and their morality, and now an unjust cost,” said Mike Hernon, the school’s vice president of advancement. “These sorts of regulations from the government are forcing our hand in a way that’s really wrong.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/15/catholic-university-drops-student-health-insurance-cites-obamacare/#ixzz1v2PG5EGZ

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May 15, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Arizona Governor Signs Religious Freedom Bill

PHOENIX,AZ (CNA) – Governor Jan Brewer drew praise for signing a measure into law that allows employers in Arizona to opt out of contraception and abortifacient coverage.

“We’re absolutely thrilled that Gov. Brewer signed this important religious liberty legislation after many years of battling over this issue in Arizona and now across the country,” Ron Johnson, executive director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, told CNA.

Although the bill will not trump federal law if the controversial Health and Human Services mandate is put into practice, Johnson said he hopes the Arizona measure will “be an example for the rest of the country.”

Johnson explained in a May 10 interview that the bill provides a “better position” for “Arizonians who are interested in suing the Obama administration over the HHS mandate,” now that their religious freedom is protected by state law.

The Obama administration’s contraception mandate, announced on Jan. 20, will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs even if doing so violates religious beliefs.

Catholic bishops from every diocese in the U.S. have condemned the mandate, warning that it threatens religious freedom and could force Catholic hospitals, schools and charitable agencies to shut down.

The bishops have also criticized the rule’s narrow religious exemption which allows institutions to opt out only if they are non-profit organizations that mainly employ and serve people of the same faith.

Signed into law May 11, Arizona’s House Bill 2625 expands the definition of “religiously affiliated” employers to any organization whose articles of incorporation state a religious motivation and whose religious beliefs play a significant role in its operations.
“In its final form, this bill is about nothing more,” Gov. Brewer said in a statement, “than preserving the religious freedom to which we are all Constitutionally-entitled.”

Although the Arizona Catholic Conference has been in favor of the bill since then-Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed it in 2002, Representative Debbie Lesko (R-Glendale) and Senator Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix) helped carry it through the Arizona House and Senate in its most recent form.

Johnson called the new law an “extremely important piece of legislation” not only for Catholics, but for all Americans who value religious freedom.

“It’s also a very good time to unite with people of other faiths on this bedrock issue,” Johnson said, “If we don’t do it now, we’re going to to see much more serious erosion.”

This law comes after many private companies have filed lawsuits against the Obama administration for the federal mandate on the grounds of First Amendment violation.

The Arizona Catholic Conference called the law “very helpful” in a May 10 press release, for any religiously-affiliated employers “who have an objection to abortion inducing drugs and contraceptives.”

Arizona is now among the 20 states that allow employers to opt-out of contraception and abortifacient coverage in their healthcare plans due to religious beliefs.

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February 22, 2012 | MariaNews.com 

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Feb. 10 confirmed that his administration was offering an “accommodation” to religious groups opposed to a controversial federal rule requiring private health plans to provide contraception and abortion services.

As reported in the media, church-affiliated employers would not have to directly cover those services; instead, their insurance plans would cover them.

The announcement prompted an expression of gratitude from Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, and a polite, but wary response from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said they needed to study the proposed modification.

That evening, the bishops’ conference formally rejected the president’s “accommodation” as essentially meaningless.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/what-did-catholic-health-associations-sister-carol-know-and-when-did-she-kn/#ixzz1n7czWtLJ

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The following is a press statement issued today:

Statement by Jim Towey, President of Ave Maria University
February 21, 2012

It is a sad day when an American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its own government in order to exercise religious liberty rights guaranteed by our nation’s Constitution.

Today Ave Maria University is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is requiring the University to offer health plan services inconsistent with our firmly-held religious convictions. As an American Catholic, I am in disbelief that I have to choose between being a good Catholic and a good citizen. I will not, and the University will not, accept this false choice. The federal government has no right to coerce the University into funding contraceptive services that include abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization, in the health plan we offer our employees.

Some will argue that this dilemma was resolved by a so-called “accommodation” by the Obama administration on February 10th, one that attempted to shift the provision of these services from the employer to the insurer. This sleight of hand maneuver by the government fooled no one. Ave Maria University pays 95 percent of the cost of the health plan we offer our employees. It is absurd for the federal government to suggest that these new pharmaceuticals will be free because they aren’t free now. In fact the administration’s own argument for free contraceptive drugs is that they currently place a financial burden on women.

Under the federal mandate Ave Maria University would be paying for these drugs if we complied with the law. So we will not. We are prepared to discontinue our health plan and pay the $2,000 per employee, per year fine rather than comply with an unjust, immoral mandate in violation of our rights of conscience.

Let me be clear: a woman’s right to contraception is not an issue in this case, nor is it at Ave Maria. Employees at Ave Maria and elsewhere are free to decide on their own whether to use birth control. Never before has the federal government bullied groups like ours into doctrinal conformance on an issue with such religious and moral gravity.

America has respected the right of individuals to have faith or no faith, and the right of faith-based groups to be in the public square without having to sell their souls. My experience working in the White House in the faith-based office as its director taught me the beauty of the interplay between the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.

It is apparent that this administration does not want to strike a balance between its zeal to implement a new social policy and the rights of religiously-affiliated organizations like Ave Maria. The Chicago Tribune’s editorial in response to President Obama’s February 10th statement, entitled “The bishops aren’t alone,” said, “Americans want government policy to protect religious liberty – the first freedom guaranteed by our Constitution’s First Amendment.” Ave Maria agrees, and until the federal government backs down from requiring us to pay to practice our faith, we will fight it with all of our rights under the law. We will not violate the tenets of our faith and cower before our own government’s threat of massive fines.

Allowing a U.S. president of any political party or religious affiliation to force conformance to his or her religious or secular orthodoxy through executive action, is a perilous precedent, and I hope all of my colleagues in academia, including Catholic higher education, awaken to this danger.

I want to thank the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty for representing Ave Maria University in this legal action. A university of our small size does not have the resources to fight the federal government and we are grateful to the Becket Fund for representing us without cost. In their good hands, and with the grace of God, I am confident the Ave Maria University v. Sebelius lawsuit will be successful.

February 20, 2012 | MariaNews.com 

Father Barron, the founder of the Word on Fire documentary series comments on Obama / HHS Mandate.

He says that the HHS Mandate is “Anti-Catholic” and “Un-American”.

Learn more about Father Barron and his work at WordOnFire.org

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February 19, 2012 | MariaNews.com 

(By Royce) –  Thomas Peters for CatholicVote.org has been reporting that “every single Bishop [in the United States] has condemned the Obama/HHS Mandate”.

Newly appointed Cardinal O’Brien recently said on Catholic Review that his Archdiocese of Baltimore would not comply with the “unjust” HHS law.

Bishop Frank Dwyane from Florida’s Diocese of Venice issued a statement on January 31, 2012 also saying his Diocese would not comply with the unjust law.  ”People of faith cannot be made second class citizens.”   The letter goes on,  ”do not be misled by attempts to turn this into a debate about Church teaching or the morality of contraception.”

With all 181 US Bishops speaking out against the Obama mandate, is this a sign of change within the Church?

A MariaNews.com reader who will remain to be known as “Patricia” said this

May this be just the beginning of His inspiration of a tidal wave of courageous opposition, drowning this and every threat to religion and conscience, and sweeping out of the White House and Congress and every public office all who would so diabolically maneuver to violate the fundamental rights He Himself has given us.  

One thing is for sure….  freedom in the United States is under attack!

Some people are foolishly led into a debate about “choice” or “whether contraceptions are good or bad,” but the issue here has nothing to do with either.    The issue here deals with freedom of religion and exercising ones religious and moral rights.

The issue here is whether the Federal Government should have the power to force private and religious organizations into providing services for which they are morally opposed.    - I think not.

The time has come for Catholics to take a stand for freedom!

Speak out, email your Bishops and let them know that you support their decision of not complying with the unjust law.   Let us see how far Obama and his goon Sibelius are willing to take this war on religion.

The list that Thomas Peters from CatholicVote.org has organized can be found here. 

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February 15, 2012 | MariaNews.com 

(TCPR.net) – Life Legal Defense Foundation Submits Brief to Supreme Court Arguing Abortion Insurance Mandate is Unconstitutional.

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January 30, 2012 | MariaNews.com 

(ZENIT.ORG) –  ROME, JAN. 27, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The federal government decision last week on insurance coverage for contraceptives in the United States has been widely condemned.

Under the new health care law passed by Congress it was left to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to decide which institutions would be exempted from having to pay for contraceptives under their health plans.

Last Friday the HHS announced that while churches would not have to pay for contraceptives other associations linked to churches, such as schools, hospitals and charitable agencies would not have any exemption.

The only concession offered was to allow employers extra time, until August 2013, to comply with the law: a concession that some observers noted conveniently pushes the obligation beyond the next elections.

Read More: http://www.zenit.org/article-34199?l=english

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(Florida Catholic Conference) In implementing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued guidelines requiring almost all private health plans to cover contraception and sterilization as “preventive services” for women. This mandate includes drugs that may cause an abortion both before and after implantation. The FDA-approved “emergency contraception” drugs covered by this mandate can work by interfering with implantation. Also, the drug ”Ella,” a close analogue to the abortion drug RU-486, has been shown in animal tests to cause an abortion. 

An interim final rule references these guidelines, and allows an extremely narrow and inadequate religious exemption. This action poses a threat to the religious freedom of individuals and institutions. The exemption covers only a “religious employer” that has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose, primarily employs and serves persons who share its religious tenets, and is a church organization under two narrow provisions of the tax code. Plans offered by a great many religious organizations, including Catholic colleges and universities as well as hospitals and charitable institutions that serve the general public, would be ineligible under these terms. 

For additional information, see: www.usccb.org

Check out the link below to send a comment to HHS.   The public comment period ends on Sep. 30, 2011.

http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/fcc/88zMrR2W.aspx