Health and Human Service Mandate

Some people have been asking about an update on the HHS mandate. You might remember that along with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called "Obamacare") the federal government, by way of a ruling of the Department of Health and Human Services, required that all health insurance policies cover "preventive services" which include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives. It also very narrowly defined the meaning of "religious institution" making it impossible for Catholic hospitals, universities and even Mother Theresa's religious order to be considered by the government as a "religious institution." Here is what a unanimous statement from the US Bishops on November 13, 2013 said: 

"Yet with its coercive HHS mandate, the government is refusing to uphold its obligation to respect the rights of religious believers. Beginning in March 2012, in United for Religious Freedom, we identified three basic problems with the HHS mandate: it establishes a false architecture of religious liberty that excludes our ministries and so reduces freedom of religion to freedom of worship; it compels our ministries to participate in providing employees with abortifacient drugs and devices, sterilization, and contraception, which violates our deeply-held beliefs; and it compels our faithful people in business to act against our teachings, failing to provide them any exemption at all.
Despite our repeated efforts to work and dialogue toward a solution, those problems remain. Not only does the mandate undermine our ministries’ ability to witness to our faith, which is their core mission, but the penalties it imposes also lay a great burden on those ministries, threatening their very ability to survive and to serve the many who rely on their care...
As the government’s implementation of the mandate against us approaches, we bishops stand united in our resolve to resist this heavy burden and protect our religious freedom. Even as each bishop struggles to address the mandate, together we are striving to develop alternate avenues of response to this difficult situation. We seek to answer the Gospel call to serve our neighbors, meet our obligation to provide our people with just health insurance, protect our religious freedom, and not be coerced to violate our consciences."

I pray we all may stand with our Bishops for religious freedom and in support of those ministries which serve the poor and needy among us.