Faith Leaders, Social Justice Advocates React to White House Contraception Compromise
Today, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that religious institutions can opt out the contraception mandate of the Affordable Health Care Act. Here are a few of the responses from social justice advocates, religious leaders and commentators:
John Gehring, Catholic Program director at Faith in Public Life
“This is a strong signal that the administration is responsive to the concerns of Catholic institutions. The values of protecting women’s health and the conscience rights of religious employers should not be in conflict. Those who demonize this president for being hostile to religion should drop the reckless rhetoric.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
“Today, the administration issued proposed regulations regarding the HHS mandate. We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed regulations closely. We look forward to issuing a more detailed statement later.”
Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter
“The proposed final rule on the contraception mandate, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services today, will widely be portrayed as a victory for the Catholic Church. This is mistaken. It is really nothing short of a miracle. And, it is a particular kind of miracle, the kind that happens in politics too infrequently, when a decision that has no real political justification is, nonetheless, taken because it is the right thing to do… [The White house] listened to those who proposed a sensible solution and urged a policy fix. The White House gave more than they had to. Politically, this is a huge win.”
Sr. Carol Keehan, President and CEO, Catholic Health Association of the United States
“Following last year’s proposed rule, the Catholic Health Association had asked during the comment period for some changes in the contraceptive coverage section of the rule on preventive services. Now that a new proposed rule has been released for review and comment, we look forward to studying it in relation to our members’ expressed concerns and sharing our assessment of the changes.”
Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, American Baptist Press
“The proposed rules signal an on-going effort by the administration to provide for the preventive health care needs of women employees while seeking to honor the conscience objections of religious employers and their affiliates… The proposed rules laudably clarify and simplify the definition of religious organizations and affiliated nonprofits, and seek to provide an acceptable alternative for self-insured employers.”
James Salt, Executive Director, Catholics United
“This is a victory not only for the Obama Administration, but for the Catholic Church… As Catholics United said from the very beginning, reasonable people knew it was right to be patient and hopeful that all sides could come together to solve this complex issue. The White House deserves praise in alleviating the Church’s concerns… As sensible Americans already know, and this new rule affirms, religious identity is protected and cherished in this country… The divisive right-wing myth that religious liberty is somehow attacked has been thoroughly debunked, and today’s ruling is just another nail in that coffin. Now the Church can focus on what brings us together: serving the least among us, including the poor and marginalized.”
Thomas J. Reese, S.J., Senior Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, Religion Dispatches
“HHS and the administration have gone out of their way to resolve the concerns of religious institutions that object to covering contraceptives in their insurance programs. They fixed the four-part definition of religious employer by eliminating the confusing first three parts and relied on the traditional definition of churches in the Internal Revenue Code. They have also found creative ways to provide contraceptives to the employees of religious colleges and hospitals without the involvement of these institutions. “
Bill Donahue, President, Catholic League
“While many aspects of the new proposal need to be examined before a final conclusion can be rendered, the decision to expand religious exemptions, and to adopt the IRS definition of a religious institution, is a sign of goodwill by the Obama administration toward the Catholic community.”