Catholic Institutions and Contraception Coverage
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has ominously warned about “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty” and challenged the Obama administration to broaden the religious exemption for draft regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services that require insurance plans to cover contraception free of charge. Catholic bishops sent an “urgent memorandum” to every Catholic diocese in the country back in September that described a “nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchase ‘services’ to which they have a moral or religious objection.” But this National Public Radio story should encourage Catholic leaders to tone down the overheated rhetoric and avoid sweeping generalizations. NPR reports:
The Catholic Church says new federal regulations requiring employers to provide no-cost prescription birth control as part of their health insurance plans infringe on their religious liberty. “If we comply, as the law requires, we will be helping our students do things that we teach them, in our classes and in our sacraments, are sinful — sometimes gravely so,” Catholic University President John Garvey wrote in The Washington Post. “It seems to us that a proper respect for religious liberty would warrant an exemption for our university and other institutions like it.” But while some insist that the rules, which spring from last year’s health law, break new ground, many states as well as federal civil rights law already require most religious employers to cover prescription contraceptives if they provide coverage of other prescription drugs.
While some religious employers take advantage of loopholes or religious exemptions, the fact remains that dozens of Catholic hospitals and universities currently offer contraceptive coverage as part of their health insurance packages. “We’ve always had contraceptive birth control included in our health care benefits,” said Michelle Michaud, a labor and delivery nurse at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, Calif. “It’s something that we’ve come to expect for ourselves and our family.” Dominican is part of the Catholic Healthcare West System. A spokeswoman for the 40-hospital chain confirmed that it has offered the benefits since 1997.
Let’s have a respectful debate over this complicated issue. As the NPR story shows, hyperbolic claims of a “nationwide government coercion” against religious people and groups – as the U.S. Catholic bishops’ general counsel has described it – doesn’t fairly describe what is a more nuanced reality. Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities that already provide insurance coverage for contraception don’t seem fixated on this issue and are comfortable with their Catholic identity.
Even if there are genuine policy disagreements here, accusing the Obama administration of a specific “anti-Catholic” bias or a more general hostility to religion — as some Catholic bishops and conservative pundits seem to relish — is wrong.
Photo: Fordham University, Credit: mgrenner57, Flickr