Sharpening an election-year confrontation over religious freedom, the Catholic Health
Association yesterday rejected President Barack Obama’s proposal to modify regulations
that would force virtually all private health plans in the US to provide coverage
of sterilization and contraception — including abortifacient drugs.
The rejection
of the proposed amendments to the controversial health care mandate marks a reversal
for the which had been a key ally in Obama's health care overhaul, defying opposition
from church bishops to help the president win approval in Congress.
In a letter
addressed to the Obama administration, the organisation noted that they supported
the “right of everyone to affordable, accessible health care.”
The CHA had
also initially supported President Obama’s proposed accommodation to the controversial
health care mandate. However, they said, further study showed that the accommodation
did not address their concerns. They insisted that Catholic hospitals, health care
organisations and other Church ministries should not be forced to provide or pay for
morally objectionable services such as contraception.
The CHA was strongly
critical of attempts by the Administration to distinguish between the religious and
secular elements of their work. “To make this distinction,” they said, “is to create
a false dichotomy between the Catholic Church and the ministries through which the
Church lives out the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
Catholic health care providers,
they said, “participate in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. Our mission and our
ethical standards in health care are rooted in and inseparable from the Catholic Church
and it’s teachings about the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human
life from conception to natural death.”
Friday’s letter brings the CHA into
line with the bishops of the United States, who have spoken out unanimously against
the Mandate as an attack on religious liberty.