Obama Administration Makes Final Unacceptable Tweaks to HHS Mandate

On August 1, religious institutions and employers will be compelled to pay for coverage for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs under the mandate issued last year by the Obama Administration. In an effort to convince people that the mandate really does protect conscience, final changes were just released. Churches and pro-life groups are not impressed and still insist that the mandate violates religious conscience.

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life stated: “I do not see any change that satisfies the moral and legal concerns that Priests for Life, as the second Catholic organization to launch a federal lawsuit against the mandate, has articulated for over a year now, both inside and outside the courts. Therefore, I am meeting with our attorneys today to prepare a renewed lawsuit….We want it declared unconstitutional, so that neither we nor anyone else has to endure its unjust and immoral demands.”

Senior Counsel Gregory S. Baylor of Alliance Defending Freedom’s response to the tweak is: “Unfortunately the final rule…is the same old, same old. As we said when the proposed rule was issued, this doesn’t solve the religious conscience problem because it still makes our non-profit clients the gatekeepers to abortion and provides no protection to religious businesses.”

With no relief from the Obama administration, which could easily solve the problem by exempting religious institutions and employers, it is clear that this issue must be resolved in court.

Barbara Lyons