ACTION ALERT - Conscience Protection- HEALTHCARE

Now is the time to contact your representatives to urge them to co-sponsor and work to enact the Conscience Protection Act of 2016 (H.R. 4828/S. 2927).

Please tell your members to uphold the right of conscientious objection to abortion by enacting this much-needed legislation. The bill, now introduced into both chambers, contains the policy of what in past years has been called the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA).

The need for federal conscience protection has only grown since 2014, when California started forcing almost all health plans in the state to cover elective abortions, even late-term abortions. This policy has no exemption for moral or religious objections. A mandate for hospitals, even religious ones, to perform abortions may be next. What is more, other states such as Washington and New York may be following California's lead. 

These actions clearly violate a federal law known as the Weldon Amendment, which forbids governments receiving federal health care funds to discriminate against those who decline to take part in abortion or abortion coverage. Unfortunately, this amendment has legal weaknesses that make it largely ineffective against such challenges.

The Conscience Protection Act of 2016 (H.R. 4828/S. 2927),  will protect health care providers from being forced to pay for or participate in abortions, and allow victims of discrimination a "right of action" to defend their rights in court. For example, nurses threatened with loss of their jobs unless they assist in abortions have found they have no right to go to court to see the law enforced. Congress should reaffirm a principle that has long enjoyed broad bipartisan support: Government should not force hospitals, doctors, nurses and other providers to stop offering much-needed health care because they cannot in good conscience participate in destroying a developing life.

Recommended Actions to take immediately:

• Send emails through the USCCB Action Center
• Contact your Representative by phone. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at202-224-3121 or call his or her local office. Members' mailing addresses may be found at www.house.gov
• Follow us on Twitter @usccbfreedom and retweet our posts. Repost the link to this alert on your Facebook page or other social media platforms

Background

On June 7, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Archbishop William E. Lori – as chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities and Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, respectively – called for immediate action by the U.S. House of Representatives to enact the Conscience Protection Act of 2016.  The bishops wrote that "disturbing new actions to force healthcare providers to participate in the destruction of human life cry out for an immediate federal remedy."  See the full text of their letter at: www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/cardinal-dolan-and-archbishop-lori-urge-passage-of-the-conscience-protection-act-of-2016.cfm.

For a joint letter from the USCCB and twenty-five other major pro-life, religious, and health care organizations urging support for H.R. 4828, see:humanlifeactioncenter.org/sites/default/files/Joint-Ltr-Conscience-Protection-Act-2016.pdf

US Bishops Renew Call to Legislative Action

This statement was released late Friday night by the USCCB:
Bishops Renew Call to Legislative Action on Religious Liberty
February 10, 2012

Regulatory changes limited and unclear

Rescission of mandate only complete solution

Continue urging passage of Respect for Rights of Conscience Act

WASHINGTON – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have issued the following statement:

The Catholic bishops have long supported access to life-affirming healthcare for all, and the conscience rights of everyone involved in the complex process of providing that healthcare. That is why we raised two serious objections to the "preventive services" regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August 2011.

First, we objected to the rule forcing private health plans — nationwide, by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen—to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. All the other mandated "preventive services" prevent disease, and pregnancy is not a disease. Moreover, forcing plans to cover abortifacients violates existing federal conscience laws. Therefore, we called for the rescission of the mandate altogether.

Second, we explained that the mandate would impose a burden of unprecedented reach and severity on the consciences of those who consider such "services" immoral: insurers forced to write policies including this coverage; employers and schools forced to sponsor and subsidize the coverage; and individual employees and students forced to pay premiums for the coverage. We therefore urged HHS, if it insisted on keeping the mandate, to provide a conscience exemption for all of these stakeholders—not just the extremely small subset of "religious employers" that HHS proposed to exempt initially.

Today, the President has done two things.
First, he has decided to retain HHS's nationwide mandate of insurance coverage of sterilization and contraception, including some abortifacients. This is both unsupported in the law and remains a grave moral concern. We cannot fail to reiterate this, even as so many would focus exclusively on the question of religious liberty.

Second, the President has announced some changes in how that mandate will be administered, which is still unclear in its details. As far as we can tell at this point, the change appears to have the following basic contours:

It would still mandate that all insurers must include coverage for the objectionable services in all the policies they would write. At this point, it would appear that self-insuring religious employers, and religious insurance companies, are not exempt from this mandate.

It would allow non-profit, religious employers to declare that they do not offer such coverage. But the employee and insurer may separately agree to add that coverage. The employee would not have to pay any additional amount to obtain this coverage, and the coverage would be provided as a part of the employer's policy, not as a separate rider.

Finally, we are told that the one-year extension on the effective date (from August 1, 2012 to August 1, 2013) is available to any non-profit religious employer who desires it, without any government application or approval process.

These changes require careful moral analysis, and moreover, appear subject to some measure of change. But we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection for key stakeholders—for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals—is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer's plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer.

This, too, raises serious moral concerns.

We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance. Some information we have is in writing and some is oral. We will, of course, continue to press for the greatest conscience protection we can secure from the Executive Branch. But stepping away from the particulars, we note that today's proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions. In a nation dedicated to religious liberty as its first and founding principle, we should not be limited to negotiating within these parameters. The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services.

We will therefore continue—with no less vigor, no less sense of urgency—our efforts to correct this problem through the other two branches of government. For example, we renew our call on Congress to pass, and the Administration to sign, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. And we renew our call to the Catholic faithful, and to all our fellow Americans, to join together in this effort to protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all.

Bishop Kmiec on HHS 1st Amendment Violation

Versión Española abajo.

                                                                                    January 27, 2012

TO BE BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF YOUR PEOPLE IN A SIGNIFICANT WAY.

My Dear Diocesan Family,

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith.  The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people—the Catholic population—and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception.  Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write.  And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.  And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).  The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.  People of faith cannot be made second class citizens.  We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom.  Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights.  In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties.  I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same.  Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things.  First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored.  Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible.  Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

Let us continue to pray fervently and work together to protect and defend our religious liberty as Roman Catholics and citizens of the United States of America.

            Be assured of my prayers and all best wishes.

            Sincerely in Christ,   


            Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec 
            Bishop of Buffalo

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            27 de Enero, 2012

                                                                        PARA SER PRESENTADO A LA ATENCION

DE SU GENTE DE UNA MANERA SIGNIFICATIVA.

Mi querida familia Diocesana,

     Me dirijo a ustedes acerca de un asunto grave y alarmante que repercute negativamente la Iglesia en los Estados Unidos directamente, y que ataca el derecho fundamental a la libertad religiosa para todos los ciudadanos de cualquier fe.  El Gobierno federal, que reclama ser "de, por y para el pueblo", sólo ha asestado un golpe fuerte a casi una cuarta parte de esas personas, la población Católica — y a los millones más que son servidos por los fieles Católicos.

     El Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Los Estados Unidos anunció la semana pasada que casi todos los empleadores, incluyendo los empresarios Católicos, se verán obligados a ofrecer cobertura de salud a sus empleados que incluye la esterilización, medicamentos que inducen el aborto y métodos anticonceptivos.  Casi todos los aseguradores de salud se verán obligados a incluir estos "servicios" en las pólizas de salud que escriben.  Y casi todos los individuos se verán obligados a comprar esa cobertura como parte de sus pólizas.

     Con tal decisión por lo tanto, la administración va ha dejar de lado La Primera Enmienda de la Constitución de los Estados Unidos, negando a los Católicos la primera y fundamental libertad de nuestra nación, la libertad religiosa.  Y como resultado, a menos que la regla sea revocada, nosotros los Católicos nos veremos obligados ya sea para violar nuestras conciencias, o para rechazar la cobertura de salud para nuestros empleados (y sufrir las penalidades por hacerlo).  La concesión exclusiva de la administración fue de dar un año a nuestras instituciones para cumplir.

     No podemos, y no lo haremos — cumplir con esta ley injusta.  No pueden convertir a la gente de fe en ciudadanos de segunda clase.  Ya estamos unidos por nuestros hermanos y hermanas de diferentes creencias y muchos otros de buena voluntad en este importante esfuerzo para recuperar nuestra libertad religiosa.  Nuestros padres y abuelos no llegaron a estas costas para ayudar a construir ciudades de Estados Unidos, su infraestructura y las instituciones, sus empresas y la cultura, sólo para que su posteridad sea despojada de sus derechos dados por Dios.  En generaciones pasadas, la iglesia siempre ha podido contar con los fieles para defender y proteger sus sagrados derechos y deberes.  Espero y confío que ella puede contar con esta generación de Católicos para hacer lo mismo.  Nuestros hijos y nietos no merecen nada menos.

     Y por lo tanto, pido a ustedes dos cosas.  En primer lugar, como una comunidad de fe debemos comprometernos a oración y ayuno para que la sabiduría y Justicia puedan prevalecer y poder recuperar nuestra libertad religiosa.  Sin Dios, no podemos hacer nada; con Dios, nada es imposible.  En segundo lugar, también se recomienda visitar www.usccb.org/conscience  para obtener más información acerca de este grave ataque sobre nuestra libertad religiosa y cómo ponerse en contacto con el Congreso en apoyo de legislación que podría revertir la decisión de la administración.

     Debemos seguir orando fervientemente y trabajar juntos para proteger y defender nuestra libertad religiosa como los Católicos y los ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos de América.  

     Pueden estar seguros de mis oraciones y todos mis mejores deseos.

         Sinceramente en Cristo,

         Su Exelencia

         Rev. Edward U. Kmiec

         Obispo de Buffalo

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You are also encouraged to consult "Six Things Everyone Should Know About the HHS Mandate" from the US Catholic Bishops' website - http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-021.cfm