Catholic Bishops Say Obama's Contraception Compromise Is 'Unconstitutional'

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 04: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House April 4, 2012 in Washington, DC. The annual Easter Prayer Breakfast brings together Christian leaders from across the United States to celebrate the arrival of Easter. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) The nation's Catholic bishops say the Obama administration's proposed revisions to a mandate that requires insurers to provide birth control coverage are still unacceptable and even "radically flawed" -- signaling a long drawn-out election-year fight between the White House and the Catholic hierarchy.

The bishops also say that they will continue to try to overturn the contraception regulations in Congress and the courts even as the bishops carry on negotiations with the White House.

The critical judgments on the government proposals, which were published by the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services on March 16, are contained in an internal, two-page March 29 memo from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The memo's contents were first reported Tuesday (April 3) by Catholic News Service.

The HHS proposals, which invited feedback during a 90-day review period, are an effort to expand the number of faith-based groups that can be exempt from the controversial contraception mandate. Hoping to reach a compromise with the bishops, HHS is proposing that third-party companies administer coverage for self-insured faith-based groups.

The proposals would also allow religious groups -- dioceses, denominations and others -- to decide which affiliated institutions are "religious" and therefore exempt from the new requirement that employers offer free contraception coverage as part of employee insurance plans.

The March 29 memo from the bishops conference says the mandate's definition of what constitutes an exempt religious organization is still too narrow and remains "radically flawed" and "unconstitutional."

The memo also asserts that even though the Obama plan would have insurers or third-parties pay for the birth control coverage - thereby avoiding any involvement by the faith-based employer - the mandate "still forces us to act against our conscience and our teaching."

But the memo also notes that the 32-page HHS proposal is "both tentative and complex," and will require further study by the bishops and their staff.

"While USCCB representatives will continue to meet with representatives of the Administration to discuss these new proposals," the memo concludes, "it must also be very clear that the church, together with other religious groups and faith-based entities, will simultaneously continue to seek relief from the legislature and redress in the courts."

It appears that legislative action by the bishops' Republican allies in Congress have stalled. The bishops have some hope that if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Obama's health care reform law -- which provides the legal underpinning for the birth control mandate -- then the entire issue will be moot.

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Comments

[friskginger]

11:13 AM on 05/23/2012

The vatican and the catholic church are Anti American.

[max bmw]

05:10 PM on 04/06/2012

Many seem to misunderstand the constitution. It does provide for religious freedom, that is, the freedom to believe in and worship any god you wish (or no god) and prevents the government from having an official church (such as the Church of England in the UK) or requiring anyone to support the same with tax dollars. The constitution does not grant anyone the right to discriminate against a class of people (in this case women) for any reason, including any personal feelings or beliefs they might hold.

Beyond that, let's call a spade a spade. A religiously affiliated university or hospital is not a church, it is a business, regardless of who derives the profits.

[Grada3784]

12:43 PM on 04/06/2012

So the National Conference of Predator Hiders want to dance, do they?

[Asmondius]

04:17 PM on 04/06/2012

Are you promoting your own organization here?

[Grada3784]

07:34 PM on 04/06/2012

Yry the Catholic Bishops, as you well know.

[Paul Felix Schott]

05:15 PM on 04/05/2012

Office of the Director of National Intelligence of all.

TRUST IN OUR LORD GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. The best counsel on all of Earth is the Bible. Tell all to read it daily.
The next time you vote do not vote for a promise vote a man that will tell the
world his LORD and Savior is JESUS CHRIST, and that he will serve him, family then Country.
And will tell all this on a Bible the truth of what was and is to come from are Lord GOD.
Read the Bible and tell the lost to do so to. The Bible the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So help you GOD He will send his Son to Judge all.
May our Lord Jesus Christ and GOD the Father that is in Heaven,
Guide and Watch over us.

In this time of TRIBULATION, Strengthen your Faith, and encourage
all to Pray for their souls. The strong in the word of our Lord will Now
Help the World and be the disciples of our Lord's Word. It is time to
gather the lost sheep while you can and there still is so little time.

The Governments of all Nations need to read.
John 14:6 Jesus said ..........

United We Will Always Stand That
In GOD We Trust
True Patriots

The Lord's Little Helper
Paul Felix Schott

[synergie]

01:56 AM on 04/10/2012

Sounds like you want a theocracy. Not going to happen, if that's what you want, I'm sure the Vatican can find a nice corner for you to live in.

[twarns]

05:11 AM on 04/05/2012

Any Catholic organization ca setup their health care like this. A Cafeteria plan is used by employees to purchase their own health insurance with their own money before tax. The plan will have a high deductible. The health insurance will cover all preventative care.

Then the Catholic organization can setup a Medical Reimbursement Plan that pays for the deductible and can exclude anything they wish. This MRP is funded by the Catholic Organization.

Therefore no Catholic Funds are used to purchase birth control. It is simple, it is clean, it is legal.

This is all about Bishops using womens health care as political fodder. Shame on the Bishops.

[Asmondius]

06:37 AM on 04/06/2012

Seems like a good idea - but it does not satisfy the HHS mandate.

[twarns]

08:41 AM on 04/06/2012

Why?

[twarns]

02:56 PM on 04/09/2012

After further review from both IRS and HHS websites, this certainly does satisfy the HHS mandate. As part of ACA both programs were expanded to encourage employers to utilized these type of programs so that employers can offer health care affordably.

I standby my position, It is the Bishops who are ignoring the laws and making womens health care political fodder. It has NOTHING to do with religion or religion freedom.

[CaptainVideo]

05:05 AM on 04/05/2012

The actual rule that should apply is that religious hospitals and educational institutions who do not get any funding from taxpayer money should be able to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage. But if the get any funding out of taxpayer money, they should have to follow the same rules as everybody else. Therefore religious hospitals and schools who do not want to provide contraceptive coverage because it violates their doctrines can avoid doing so by simply rejecting all taxpayer funding.

[Asmondius]

06:38 AM on 04/06/2012

Since the mandate applies to all employers, your plan is not a workable one.

[CaptainVideo]

05:01 AM on 04/05/2012

"The nation's Catholic bishops say the Obama administration's proposed revisions to a mandate that requires insurers to provide birth control coverage are still unacceptable"

For these autocrats, who are used to unquetioned obedience, its all about power. They are simply intent on gettng things their way and not willing to comprimise.

[Asmondius]

06:39 AM on 04/06/2012

You don't compromise on your basic principles - it is not like splitting the check at lunch.

[PatrickforO]

11:02 PM on 04/04/2012

I wonder how many rank and file Catholics will vote with their clergy on this one? I'm thinking most, in the privacy of the voting booth will cast their ballot for the guy who wants women to have access to contraception.

[Asmondius]

06:40 AM on 04/06/2012

The only place where this mandate will possibly be voted on is at theSurpeme Court.

[PatrickforO]

10:16 AM on 04/06/2012

Thing is, if it is Obama in office when an appellate or Supreme Court justice retires, then he gets to pick the next one. If it is Romney likewise. This federal judge that gave the justice department lawyer a hard time about Obama's recent statement on the Supreme Court and gave her a mickey mouse writing assignment like you'd give some undergrad kid was a Reagan appointee. The judge up in Montana who sent out that idiotic email was a Republican appointee. The Supreme Court that declared Bush the winnner in 2000 and did not let FL count the rest of the votes was controlled by GOP appointees. I don't want the court to do stuff like that. I want them to make decisions based on Constitutional law, not the politics de jour. So if we vote, we might get justices that do their jobs, like overturning the blatantly unconstitutional Michigan laws that have pretty much ended democracy in that state.

[Mister H]

10:14 AM on 04/06/2012

It depends on whether they are practicing Catholics or not.

People who say they are Catholic, but do not go to Church nor observe the tenets of the Faith tend to vote Democratic.

Those who attend Church and believe in its teachings tend to vote Republican.

When we talk about what Catholics will do or how they will vote, we should only include the latter group - those who are actually living as Catholics.

[johnnybic]

05:22 PM on 04/06/2012

What a gross oversimplification! I am a church-going Catholic and I cannot believe any right-thinking Catholic could ever be a Republican!. This is the party that cares nothing for the poor or marginalized among us, that allies itself with enemies of the earth, viewing pollution as somehow our God-given right, that loses no sleep over conducting wars of aggression and the slaughter of thousands, all the while claiming to be pro-life! This is the party that refuses to respect the rights of workers to organize (in direct contradiction to many papal directives), that places profits above the commonweal, and, in the most recent budget submission, would balance the budget on the backs of the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. How could that in any way be reflective of "living as Catholic?"