Take Action at www.pacatholic.org by September 30
In implementing the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the new health care reform
law), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued a rule requiring
almost all private health plans to cover contraception and sterilization as “preventive services” for
women. The mandate even forces individuals and groups with religious or moral objections to
purchase and provide such coverage if they are to receive or provide health coverage at all. This
poses an unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom.
The rule includes a religious exemption so extremely narrow that it protects almost no one. It
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. A great many religious organizations — including
Catholic colleges and universities, as well as hospitals and charitable institutions that serve the
public – will be ineligible. Individuals and religiously affiliated health insurers will not qualify for
the exemption.
The new rule would force insurance plans to cover “all Food and Drug Administration approved
contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all
women with reproductive capacity.” Never before has the federal government required private
health plans to include such coverage. The FDA-approved “emergency contraception” (EC) drugs
that are covered by this mandate can work by interfering with implantation of a newly conceived
human being. Also, the drug the FDA most recently approved for EC, “Ella,” a close analogue to
the abortion drug RU-486, has been shown in animal tests to cause abortion. Thus, the mandate
includes drugs that may cause an abortion both before and after implantation.
ACTION: Please send an e-mail message to HHS by visiting www.pacatholic.org. With just a
few clicks of the mouse, you can send a message to HHS asking them to respect religious liberty
and to your elected representatives in Congress, urging them to support the Respect for Rights of
Conscience Act (H.R. 1179/S. 1467) to ensure that such federal mandates do not violate
Americans’ moral and religious convictions.
MESSAGE TO HHS: “Pregnancy is not a disease, and drugs and surgeries to prevent it are not
basic health care that the government should require all Americans to purchase. Please remove
sterilization and prescription contraceptives from the list of ‘preventive services’ the federal
government is mandating in private health plans. It is especially important to exclude any drug
that may cause an early abortion, and to fully respect religious freedom as other federal laws do.
The narrow religious exemption in HHS’s new rule protects almost no one. I urge you to allow all
organizations and individuals to offer, sponsor and obtain health coverage that does not violate
their moral and religious convictions.”
WHEN: Please send your comments to HHS by the September 30 deadline. You can send your
message at www.pacatholic.org.
PREVIOUS: Society of the Holy Child Jesus Sisters are happy to make a commitment for life
NEXT: Life to the full
Another American right is taken away, another constitution violated, Obama shows once again that he’s not for what America and Americans stands for. We need to repeal HHS now, and in my opinion, repeal Obama and his socialist agenda this September!
Mr. Anthony Spinelli
REPEAL THIS MANDATE!
I would like the HHS MANDATE recinded, This MANDATE is a violation of our constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty.The first Amendment rights of our Catholic faith has been attacked. And I demand that the MANDATE be removed.
REQUESTING YOU RESCIND THE HHS MANDATE. AN OUTRAGE THAT OBAMA TAKES AWAY FREE CHOICE FOR RELIGIONS TO PRACTICE THEIR CHOICE.
Pleas rescind the HHS mandate. By passing this you are interfering with my conscience, I do not feel this is needed. Our freedom and liberty must be preserved.
I am certain that more comprehensive, universal and at the same time more afforable health care can be made available in the U.S. The legislation offered in the PP and ACT was a welcome starting point. However, because all parties:insurance,medical providers, medical equipment suppliers, medical educators, social services, and others were not on board we now have an incomplete and contentious legislative document.Let us return to it in a non political way and redress what is ineffective and harmful and build on the parts that offer promise.
I ask in the interim that the Obama administration cease its current activity that is in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution and Bill Of Rights. Let us remember that this nation was settled substantially by persons escaping government persecution of religion. The U.S. government has no authority to define religion or religious groups and has traditionally not done so even in the case of substantially esoteric groups.All elected officials must fully support H.R.1179/S.1467 – Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.
I would like to see our human rights be defended. We are one nation underGod. Do not take that right from us
It is time to impeach Obama as his socialistic programs are 100% against the Constitution, as he took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The same goes for HHS as a contributor to defy the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Anyone who breaks an oath is charged with I believe a felony. Why is the Congress and the Senate doing nothing about these law breakers? They are subject to the taxpayers and America is not subject to dictators or socialism.There is always something hidden beneath his remarks and agenda no one would ever suspect….even the way “Media Matters” as an organization has begun to have direct links with info from the White house to the main t.v. stations without check facts and discoloring them in the favor of what the President wants. Fox news is the best coverage and honest reporting there can be found anywhere. Where would we be without them? It’s an outrage that Obama takes away free choice for religions to practice their faith.We are appalled that President Obama is forcing Catholic Institutions to provide insurance for their employees covering sterilization, contraceptives, and abortafacients. This is a direct violation of our First Amendment rights. Obamacare should be overturned. What surprises are in store from this edict next?I feel that the HHS Contraceptive Mandate is a violation of my First Amendment Right, which guarantees seperation of Church and state.I ask that you do all that is possible to rescind the “Preventive Service Mandate” as an unprecedented federal interference in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating their fundamental moral beliefs.WE THE PEOPLE MUST ACT NOW !!!!
PLEASE PROTECT OUR RIGHTS!!!!!! THANK YOU
Please co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R.1179,S.1467) and help enact it into law. The Obama administration’s decision to require even religious institutions to provide coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can cause an abortion, makes passage of this measure especially urgent. Please ensure that the rights of conscience of all participants in our nation’s health care system are respected. Thank you.
You must co-sponsor and support the Respect for Rights of Concience Act (HR 1179 sm1467). This is an urgent matter in light of Obama’s decision . Please help to have all rights respected.
It is time to impeach Obama as his socialistic programs are 100% against the Constitution, as he took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The same goes for HHS as a contributor to defy the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Anyone who breaks an oath is charged with I believe a felony. Why is the Congress and the Senate doing nothing about these law breakers? They are subject to the taxpayers and America is not subject to dictators or socialism.
Please co-sponsor the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S.1467)
and help enact it into law. The Obama administration’s decision to require even religious institutions to provide coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can cause an abortion makes passage of this measure especially urgent. Please ensure that the rights of conscience of all participants in our nation’s health care system are respected.
I would like to know if Catholic Hospitals to this point in time had not ever been allowed to perform sterilization at all. Regardless, I thoroughly don’t trust this new modification Obama has posed to the public to satisfy the Bishops and their stance. There is always something hidden beneath his remarks and agenda no one would ever suspect….even the way “Media Matters” as an organization has begun to have direct links with info from the White house to the main t.v. stations without check facts and discoloring them in the favor of what the President wants. Fox news is the best coverage and honest reporting there can be found anywhere. Where would we be without them? It’s an outrage that Obama takes away free choice for religions to practice their faith.
We are appalled that President Obama is forcing Catholic Institutions to provide insurance for their employees covering sterilization, contraceptives, and abortafacients. This is a direct violation of our First Amendment rights. Obamacare should be overturned. What surprises are in store from this edict next?
We are appalled that President Obama is forcing Catholic Institutions to provide employees with insurance covering contraceptives, sterilization, and abortafacients. This is a direct violation of our first amendment rights. We think Obamacare should be repealed because it is also against our Constitutional rights. What will be the next surprise coming at us from Obamacare?
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM is why this country was founded. This administration is trying to take this away from us, by mandatating that…ALL RELIGIOUS institutions will be mandated to provide health insurances that covers procedures and medications that oppose our conscience or a pay a fine.
WE THE PEOPLE MUST ACT NOW !!!!
Contact your elected officials and ask to have this bill recinded . It isn’t just our Bishops who need to do something. Afterall we are the ones who elected these people, so we need to speak up and demand that they represent us as they promised to do.
What a wonderful country we have had for all these years, only to see it being destroyed by one man. Only today (2-5-12) were we informed by our parish that this bill (HR1170/S1467) would be implemented. We would like to object to it, and pray that our President will rescind it. Otherwise, as was stated in a newspaper article, he has awakened a “sleeping giant.” I pray that our bishops will not back down, and will stand firm against this proposal.
PLEASE STOP destroying religion in America. This new health care law is a violation of the First Amendment. How can you make the Catholic Hospitals give out contraceptives and preform abortions when it is against there conscience. You are violating our most fumdamental freedom, that of religious liberty.
I cannot believe the HHS Contraceptive Mandate is actually being pushed through the system. How can you insist that everyone agree with the idea that pregnancy is a sickness. Please remove pregnancy and prescription contraceptives from the list of preventive services the government is mandating in private health plans. Please respect our religious freedom like other laws do. Also, please allow all organizations tnd individuals to obtain health coverage that does not violate their moral and religious convictions.
I have to vent. I feel that the HHS Contraceptive Mandate is a violation of my First Amendment Right, which guarantees seperation of Church and state. The HHS Contraceptive Mandate goes against my religious belief that all life is sacred and precious to God. “pregnancy is not a disease, and drugs and surgeries to prevent it are not basic health care that the government should require all Americans to purchase. I ask that you do all that is possible to rescind the “Preventive Service Mandate” as an unprecedented federal interference in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating their fundamental moral beliefs.