Mitt Romney
WASHINGTON D.C., February 3 (CNA/EWTN News)
.- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has pledged to
overturn the HHS contraception mandate that he says takes “particular
aim” at Catholics.
“I stand with the Catholic bishops and all religious organizations in their strenuous objection to this liberty- and conscience-stifling regulation,” Romney wrote in a Feb. 3 Washington Examiner column titled “President Obama vs. religious liberty”
If elected president, the former Massachusetts governor said, he would eliminate the mandate “on day one.”
“Such rules don’t belong in the America that I believe in.”
The mandate, announced on Jan. 20, requires employers to provide insurance coverage for FDA-approved sterilization procedures and contraceptive drugs, including some abortifacient drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services classified the procedures and drugs as “preventive care.”
The religious exemption for the mandate would not cover most Catholic hospitals, universities, and charitable organizations, despite Catholic teaching that the use of these procedures and drugs is sinful and objectively immoral.
Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that religious liberty is “facing the most serious assault in generations” from “liberalism itself.”
He charged that the rule is “taking particular aim at Roman Catholics.”
“The Obama administration is forcing religious institutions to choose between violating their conscience or dropping health care coverage for their employees, effectively destroying their ability to carry on their work.”
Romney incorporated his pledge against the mandate into his general position against the 2010 health care legislation, which opponents call “Obamacare.” He said he is committed to overturning it “root and branch” and will issue an executive order telling his Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a waiver from its requirements to all U.S. states.
However, his column’s dominant focus remained religious liberty.
Although liberals and conservatives have defended the rights of religious minorities in the past, Romney charged, that devotion to religious freedom “goes out the window” for “the agenda of the left-wing of the Democratic Party.” He linked the mandate to abortion on demand and opposition to abstinence education.
“They would force Catholics and others who have beliefs rooted in their faith to sacrifice the teachings of their faith to the mandate of federal bureaucrats,” Romney said.
He also criticized the Obama administration’s 12-month extension for religious groups to comply with the mandate, calling it “a clumsy attempt to push this matter past this year’s presidential election.”
“The America I believe in is governed by the U.S. Constitution and I will not hesitate to use the powers of the presidency to protect religious liberty,” Romney stated.
All four leading Republican presidential candidates have opposed the mandate.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a convert to Catholicism, charged that the mandate is part of a “war against Christianity.” During his campaign in Florida, ahead of the state primary, he pledged to overturn all “anti-religious” federal policies on his first day in office.
At a Jan. 31 campaign stop in Colorado, Catholic and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum said the mandate makes people act against their faith.
“Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius said ‘Too bad. If it goes against what you believe, then you believe the wrong things,’” Santorum said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we can expect.”
In an October statement on his website, Texas Congressman Ron Paul said the mandate “violates the conscience of millions of pro-life Americans.” He said he views the “regulatory overstep” as “payback to Planned Parenthood and big pharmaceutical companies for their support of Obamacare.”
“I stand with the Catholic bishops and all religious organizations in their strenuous objection to this liberty- and conscience-stifling regulation,” Romney wrote in a Feb. 3 Washington Examiner column titled “President Obama vs. religious liberty”
If elected president, the former Massachusetts governor said, he would eliminate the mandate “on day one.”
“Such rules don’t belong in the America that I believe in.”
The mandate, announced on Jan. 20, requires employers to provide insurance coverage for FDA-approved sterilization procedures and contraceptive drugs, including some abortifacient drugs. The Department of Health and Human Services classified the procedures and drugs as “preventive care.”
The religious exemption for the mandate would not cover most Catholic hospitals, universities, and charitable organizations, despite Catholic teaching that the use of these procedures and drugs is sinful and objectively immoral.
Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said that religious liberty is “facing the most serious assault in generations” from “liberalism itself.”
He charged that the rule is “taking particular aim at Roman Catholics.”
“The Obama administration is forcing religious institutions to choose between violating their conscience or dropping health care coverage for their employees, effectively destroying their ability to carry on their work.”
Romney incorporated his pledge against the mandate into his general position against the 2010 health care legislation, which opponents call “Obamacare.” He said he is committed to overturning it “root and branch” and will issue an executive order telling his Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a waiver from its requirements to all U.S. states.
However, his column’s dominant focus remained religious liberty.
Although liberals and conservatives have defended the rights of religious minorities in the past, Romney charged, that devotion to religious freedom “goes out the window” for “the agenda of the left-wing of the Democratic Party.” He linked the mandate to abortion on demand and opposition to abstinence education.
“They would force Catholics and others who have beliefs rooted in their faith to sacrifice the teachings of their faith to the mandate of federal bureaucrats,” Romney said.
He also criticized the Obama administration’s 12-month extension for religious groups to comply with the mandate, calling it “a clumsy attempt to push this matter past this year’s presidential election.”
“The America I believe in is governed by the U.S. Constitution and I will not hesitate to use the powers of the presidency to protect religious liberty,” Romney stated.
All four leading Republican presidential candidates have opposed the mandate.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a convert to Catholicism, charged that the mandate is part of a “war against Christianity.” During his campaign in Florida, ahead of the state primary, he pledged to overturn all “anti-religious” federal policies on his first day in office.
At a Jan. 31 campaign stop in Colorado, Catholic and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum said the mandate makes people act against their faith.
“Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius said ‘Too bad. If it goes against what you believe, then you believe the wrong things,’” Santorum said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg of what we can expect.”
In an October statement on his website, Texas Congressman Ron Paul said the mandate “violates the conscience of millions of pro-life Americans.” He said he views the “regulatory overstep” as “payback to Planned Parenthood and big pharmaceutical companies for their support of Obamacare.”
WASHINGTON D.C., February 3 (CNA/EWTN News) .- An expert in religious freedom says that the White House's defense of the contraception mandate contains inaccurate information and does not address the main complaints raised by its critics.
Brian Walsh, executive director of the American Religious Freedom program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said that some of the the claims made by the White House are “not factually accurate” and a number of its points “aren’t even relevant.”
“It’s certainly not a direct response” to the concerns of religious freedom that have been raised in recent days, but is simply restating the administration’s position on contraception,Walsh told CNA on Feb. 2.
Walsh's remarks were aimed at a Feb. 1 blog post by Cecilia Muñoz, the Director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, who attempted to clarify “the facts” surrounding the controversial mandate.
On Jan. 20, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that virtually all employers would be required to purchase health insurance plans that cover contraception – including drugs that cause abortion – and sterilization at no cost to employees.
The very narrow religious exemption to the mandate includes only those organizations that exist for the purpose of inculcating religious values and that both primarily serve and employ members of their own faith.
The administration refused to broaden the exemption, despite an outcry of protest from religious individuals and organizations who will be excluded from the exemption and believe that their religious freedom and rights of conscience are being violated.
In her Feb. 1 blog post, Muñoz justified the administration’s decision by saying that although companies will be required to purchase contraceptive coverage, women will not be forced to use it, and doctors will not be forced to prescribe it.
She also argued that multiple states already require contraceptive coverage in insurance plans.
Muñoz asserted that contraception coverage actually “reduces costs” for employers because they will not have to pay costs associated with their employees’ unintended pregnancies.
Walsh responded that the White House’s assertions “don’t address the core” of the religious freedom concerns that were raised by the mandate.
He also found several statements on the blog post to be factually inaccurate.
The claim that “churches are exempt from the new rules” is “not entirely correct,” he said.
Walsh said that in some areas, new “church plants” are being built from scratch for the purpose of reaching out to those who have no faith or have left their faith.
Because these churches do not restrict their services to primarily members of their own faith, they would not qualify for the mandate’s religious exemption.
Walsh also said that the White House is playing “word games” in its claim that “drugs that cause abortion are not covered by this policy.” He noted that the drug Ella, which is covered by the mandate, prevents an already-fertilized embryo from attaching to the uterus, thereby causing an early abortion.
He added that the blog’s statement that “no Federal tax dollars are used for elective abortions” is “inaccurate and misleading.”
President Obama reversed the Mexico City Policy during his first week in office, he explained, and since that time, federal taxpayer money has gone “to fund abortion providers in foreign countries.”
Walsh also tackled the White House’s claim that “contraception is used by most women,” including Catholics. He said that the Catholic Church is very clear in its opposition to birth control, and the fact that not all Church members follow that teaching is not a sufficient reason to “sweep away” religious liberty.
Religious liberty is not “subject to majority vote,” he said. “That’s not truly religious freedom.”
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