Religious objections ignored

By James C. Capretta

The decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reject the appeals of scores of religious leaders and retain a very narrow "religious" exemption from Obamacare's so-called contraception mandate has ignited an uproar among Catholic leaders, as well it should - because it's hard to fathom a government dictate more offensive than this one.

Here's how we got where we are: Obamacare includes within its massive delegation of power to the federal government the authority to define what constitutes "preventive services" that must be covered by all health-insurance plans sold and purchased in the United States, including plans sponsored by employers. Services defined by HHS as preventive for purposes of this provision are required under the new law to be covered by the insurer or employer with no charge to the insurance plan's enrollees.

Last August, in the course of writing a rule that would determine preventive health services for women, HHS decided that free contraception and sterilization services are a must. As a practical matter, that means all health-insurance plans sold in the United States in the very near future will include full coverage of products that terminate pregnancies, since some products classified by the FDA as contraceptives - and thus covered under the HHS definition - also act as abortifacients. While it is true that many insurance plans cover such products today, that's mainly been the choice of the insurers and employers sponsoring the plans. HHS has now made such coverage obligatory nationwide, thus forcing tens of millions of pro-life Americans to pay for "services" with their health-insurance premiums that they find morally objectionable.

It gets worse. Not only must Catholics who work for non-Catholic employers pay for such products with their premiums, HHS also wants religious employers to cover such products in their health plans. Knowing that Catholic leaders and others would strongly object to this requirement, HHS included in the regulation issued last August a narrow exemption from this requirement for employers that are basically houses of worship. Much larger religiously affiliated institutions, such as Catholic universities, hospitals, and charitable enterprises, do not fit within the HHS exemption.