No Backing Down on the HHS Mandate
The Obama administration is not backing down when it comes to their HHS mandate, which requires all private healthcare plans to include coverage of drugs which can destroy a human embryo, contraception and sterilization services, without copay, under threat of fines of up to $100 per day per employee. Even after a crushing blow in the Hobby Lobby case, where the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not force family businesses to violate their religious beliefs, the administration is adamant about finding a way to force family businesses to violate their deeply held moral beliefs in order to earn a living. In August, they launched a new regulatory proposal to apply an accounting gimmick already required of non-profits like the Little Sisters of the Poor to businesses like Hobby Lobby.
The Obama administration is not backing down when it comes to their HHS mandate, which requires all private healthcare plans to include coverage of drugs which can destroy a human embryo, contraception and sterilization services, without copay, under threat of fines of up to $100 per day per employee. Even after a crushing blow in the Hobby Lobby case, where the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not force family businesses to violate their religious beliefs, the administration is adamant about finding a way to force family businesses to violate their deeply held moral beliefs in order to earn a living. In August, they launched a new regulatory proposal to apply an accounting gimmick already required of non-profits like the Little Sisters of the Poor to businesses like Hobby Lobby.
Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) led 51 Members of Congress to send a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell expressing concern over the administration’s latest attempt to force individuals to comply with the HHS mandate. Instead of offering a true exemption from the mandate to people with moral or religious objections, the administration is instead trying to find ways to skirt the Hobby Lobby decision with more accounting gimmicks. The Members are asking HHS to provide detailed responses to specific questions regarding the new regulatory rules within 30 days.
The HHS mandate is just one of ObamaCare’s many problems. But even as 51 Members of Congress outlined their concerns with the HHS mandate, Secretary Burwell was touting how great ObamaCare is working at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. Yet last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a non-partisan government watchdog, issued a report which found that over 1,000 healthcare plans sold on the ObamaCare exchanges include elective abortion coverage, and taxpayer funds are being used to subsidize elective abortion in these plans. Following the release of this report, pro-life Members of Congress and pro-life groups gathered outside the Capitol to urge the Senate to pass and the President to sign H.R. 7, the “No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2014” sponsored by U.S. Rep Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). You can watch the full press conference here. Whether it’s the HHS mandate or abortion funding, ObamaCare is hostile to life and religious liberty. It needs to be repealed.
Stand Strong, San Francisco!
Last June, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined a host of leftwing groups in denouncing San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for his decision to speak at the March for Marriage in Washington D.C.
Cordileone responded to his critics, making it quite clear he wasn’t backing down from the March for Marriage. As a Bishop, “(I am) required…” he wrote, “to proclaim the truth – the whole truth – about the human person and God’s will for our flourishing. I must do that in season and out of season, even when truths that it is my duty to uphold and teach are unpopular, including especially the truth about marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.”
By attacking the Archbishop, these groups were clearly trying to squelch any debate over marriage. They certainly don’t want the truth about marriage to be heard. The attacks prompted Catholic San Francisco to publish an in-depth look [Wednesday] at how the George Soros-funded Faithful America and the Southern Poverty Law Center use hate labeling to smear those who disagree with them. The article directly addresses the several charges that SPLC has leveled against pro-family groups including the SPLC complaint that FRC has noted the health risks involved in homosexual behavior. The Archdiocese dismisses the SPLC criticism by pointing out that “public health department statistics support the Family Research Council position.”
As the debate over marriage continues, those who uphold natural marriage would do well to look at the courageous example of Archbishop Cordileone – who is standing up for the truth about marriage and doing so in a way that is thoughtful, and respectful. Keep standing!
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
