Scottish Catholic Observer

AMERICA’s bishops have rejected a compromise proposal from President Barack Obama that comes after the backlash against his original plans to force religious institutions such as hospitals to pay for employees contraceptives through their insurance.

The president, who has been heavily criticised by the Church for his initial plan that provided an exemption for Churches but not religiously affiliated organisations such as hospitals, announced a modified policy last Friday.

But the US Bishops said they could not accept any policy which meant women working in Catholic institutions could receive contraceptives through their insurance.

“The only complete solution to this religious liberty problem is for HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) to rescind the mandate of these objectionable services,” the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement.

The government’s decision to guarantee access to contraceptives under mandatory health care standards ‘remains a grave moral concern,’ the bishops added.

Compromise

On Friday, President Obama said his government would no longer require religious organisations to offer free contraception on employee health plans but he stuck by the principle that all women should have free access to such services, putting the onus on insurance firms to approach women working for religious employers like Catholic hospitals to offer them birth control.

“No women’s health should depend on who she is, who she works for or how much money she makes,” the president said. He said the new policy remains faithful to the ‘core principle’ of free contraception, but also honours the principle of religious freedom, which ‘as a Christian, I cherish.’

Catholic reaction

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (above), said on Sunday that he was heartened that the White House was paying attention to objections by the Church in the US to a new national policy on birth control coverage, but that he remained opposed to a policy that requires insurers to pay for contraception for employees of Catholic institutions.

“The good news is that the president seems to have noted the tremendous unanimity among people of all faiths, or none at all, that this was a dangerous intrusion into the integrity of the internal life of the church, and has indicated a willingness to offer some mitigation,” he said. “The bad news is that the terribly restrictive mandate still stands.”

However Sr Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, praised what she called ‘a resolution that protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions.’

“The framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed,” she said in a statement. “We are pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protection needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appreciated enough that an early resolution of this issue was accomplished.”