DIOCESE PARISHES EDUCATION VOCATIONS PROTECTING CHILDREN OFFICES and AGENCIES GIVING
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NEW!  St. Gianna's Physician's Guild has developed an on-line petition to stop the contraceptive mandate.  Click here to read and sign the petition!

Help Stop the Inclusion of Abortion-Inducing Drugs in the 'Essential Benefits' Package of the Federal Healthcare Law

The Obama Administration has announced a mandate that all new health insurance plans (and any non-grandfathered plans) provide coverage for all FDA-approved "birth control" drugs and devices, sterilization procedures, and counseling with no co-pay, including emergency contraceptive drugs that can cause an abortion.
 
The new 'interim final' regulation also lacks adequate conscience protection for individuals and religious organizations and will trump Missouri law, which allows institutions and people of faith to opt out of insurance plans that cover emergency contraceptives and birth control.
 
This means many Catholic institutions that provide insurance for employees will be forced to provide coverage for drugs, including those that can cause an abortion. In addition, premiums paid by participants purchasing these health plans will be used to pay for these drugs with no regard given to their religious objections.
 

Background Information:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010 required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue regulations setting out the "essential benefits" package each insurance plan must include. The HHS then asked the Institute of Medicine to issue a report on health services for women that they recommended be included as 'essential benefits'.

 

Based upon the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, the HHS issued the mandate requiring health plans to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives.  The FDA has approved two emergency contraceptives: Plan B and, more recently, Ella. Ella's chemical structure is similar to RU-486, the drug used to perform chemical abortions up to 9 weeks of pregnancy. Ella can be taken up to five days after unprotected intercourse, and can prevent implantation of an embryo as well as disrupt an already implanted embryo. The manufacturer's warning label for Ella states the drug is not safe for women with known or suspected pregnancy.

 

This new mandate will undermine Missouri law in this area as well. In Missouri, health plans that provide prescription drug benefits must also provide birth control, but individuals and health plans can opt out of providing contraceptives if they object based upon "moral, ethical or religious beliefs."

 

The HHS mandate only provides an "opt out" for health plans issued by faith-based organizations that "primarily" employ and serve those who share the religious tenets of the faith-based organization. Thus Catholic hospitals, universities, and Catholic Charity organizations that serve non-Catholics and provide health coverage for their employees would not be exempt from the mandate, and must provide coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs, including Ella. The HHS mandate does not include any "opt out" provision for individuals.

 

Although existing insurance policies are exempt from the mandate, they will lose their "grandfathered" status if they make changes to their plans, including: increasing co-pays, deductibles or out-of pocket maximums; decreasing the employer contribution rate; changing the annual limits of coverage; and issuing new policies, or eliminating benefits, among other changes. Since these types of changes are inevitable, all insurance plans will eventually be subject to the mandate and will be required to cover birth control and abortion-inducing drugs like Ella.

 

Individuals and institutions have until September 30 to comment on this regulation. All people who wish to preserve their religious liberty and who object to supporting abortion-inducing drugs and contraception with their insurance premiums should take action!

 

Summary of the guidelines:  http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/

 

Key problems with the IOM recommendations for HHS mandate:

·         The HHS mandate promotes contraception, abortion, and sterilization--all actions that are contrary to the dignity of the human person and therefore against Church teaching

·         The religious “exemption” is exceptionally too narrow and also does not protect the conscience of individual Americans who do not support the IOM's recommendations

·         Pregnancy is effectively considered a disease in the IOM’s recommendations.  No help is indicated for women struggling with fertility which may very well be caused by an actual underlying disease.

·         The IOM’s recommendations include “contraceptive education” - again contraception is against the Church’s teaching and against the dignity of the human person.  Furthermore, it has not been proven effective in decreasing risky sexual behavior.

Additional issues in the debate:

·         What is “optimal birth outcomes” and is every “unintended” pregnancy “unwanted”?

·         “Spacing of births is healthy” may indeed be prudent but there are much healthier and more effective ways of doing it than by taking contraceptives.  In addition, the methods of the Church are beneficial for mother and child and respect the dignity for the human person and the sacredness of the marital act.  Will there be support for learning natural methods of spacing births and monitoring a woman’s fertility? No answer needed.

·          “Everybody’s doing it – even Catholics!”  Are the IOM and HHS now determining sound clinical care based on “majority” public opinion?   

With regard to the IOM recommendations for an HHS mandate, please consider taking these three easy steps:

 

1.       Email the message below to womensguidelines@hrsa.gov .

 

2.       Go to the following links and select the ‘Submit a Comment’ button in the upper right corner of each.  Then paste the message below into the comment section after entering your personal information.  Please realize the comment space is limited to 2000 characters and you are limited to 20 minutes so if you chose to use another message, make sure you have it ready to go before entering the Comments page.

 

·         Topics:  Continuation Coverage, Disclosure, Employee Benefit Plans, Group Health Plans, Health Care, Health Insurance, Medical Child Support, Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements

 

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EBSA-2010-0018-0002

 

·         Topics: Health Care, Health Insurance, Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements, State Regulation of Health Insurance

 

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=HHS-OS-2011-0023-0002

 

3.       Send a copy of the message below to your U.S. legislators so they know you need them to step up now and in the future to defend against any government oversteps in elected responsibilities and failures in moral responsibilities to you and to every other God-fearing, pro-family, proud Catholic American.   

 

·         U.S. House of Representatives:

                https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

 

·         U.S. Senate

             http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=MO

 

Message:

 

As a concerned citizen I call for the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reject the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations - Clinical Preventive Services: Closing the Gap. These recommendations effectively identify pregnancy as a disease and are an affront to the consciences of those forced to implement these recommendations and to myself who would be forced by lawful payment of taxes to subsidize practices I find morally reprehensible to the dignity of the human person.

 

While proposing noteworthy services such as screening for gestational diabetes and support for breastfeeding, these recommendations demonstrate a disregard for the gift of human life and promote risky sexual behavior through contraceptive education.  The increase of contraceptive education and distribution of contraceptives will do nothing to address the sexual promiscuity that is the source of many clinical concerns.  Moreover, contraceptives have not increased the dignity and value of the woman but have instead made her an object of use and have directly contributed to the destruction of the fundamental family cell in our society.  Direct governmental support of contraception and sterilization must be rejected. 

 

Additionally, the narrow religious exemption proposed by the HHS communicates a desire of the HHS to remove the Catholic Church from her mission of employing and serving the needs of those who are not of the same faith.  How narrow would the service of Church be if she was limited, by our government, to inculcation of the faith and to hiring and serving only her own. In addition, the expense to the government and to the American citizens would be far greater than any “savings” found under the “preventive” services proposed by IOM and accepted by HHS.  

 

This new threat to conscience makes it especially critical for Congress to pass the “Respect for Rights of Conscience Act” (HR 1179).

 

 

Here are alternative statements that you may consider if writing your own comments:

 

 

Here are a couple news articles on the topic: