WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Department of Health and Human Services will close the period for commenting on the contraceptive mandate now included in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). American Life League, the nation’s oldest Catholic pro-life group, released this statement by Judie Brown, president and cofounder:
The mandate requiring coverage for “certain preventive services” is a violation of the rights of religious individuals, companies, and nonprofits to exercise their freedom by choosing not to include contraception in employee health care plans or enter into an agreement with a third party to do so.
The mandate to provide contraceptive chemicals and devices is not integral to maintaining women’s health and well-being, but is rather an order to provide recreational drugs to employees. Contraception has nothing to do with maintaining good health. It represents a convenient escape for those who want to engage in sexual relations without accepting responsibility for the pregnancy that may result.
Further, most contraceptive chemicals have been shown to have deleterious effects on women’s health, besides the fact that they do not protect a female from sexually transmitted diseases—-including the HIV virus. Sound ethics and commonsense reasoning should prevail in employers’ decisions regarding which services will be covered in employee health insurance plans.
When the federal government instead mandates such “services,” it is intruding into the employer’s right and ability to make its own corporate decisions, and negating the right of every American to enjoy religious liberty and act according to individual ethical and religious convictions.
In order to maintain honesty and genuinely protect women’s health, as well as every American’s religious liberty and freedom of conscience, the HHS mandate should be withdrawn immediately.
This mandate is an exercise of raw power not allowed under the Constitution of the United States and is thus a usurpation of that hallowed document.
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Media inquiries, please contact Paul Rondeau at 540-659-4171 or PRondeau@ALL.org
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American Life League, cofounded by Judie Brown in 1979, is the oldest national Catholic pro-life education and advocacy organization in the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.all.org.