My RSS feeds showed a flurry of activity yesterday as every news agency to which I subscribe clamored to report on the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision which declared Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be in accord with the Constitution of the United States. Since I assume that most of you are familiar with the goings on of this particular policial issue, (which, if you are not, can be found here) I am not going to write anything here about it. Rather, I am going to share with you the response of two orthodox, Catholic organizations to the Supreme Court’s decision.
Firstly, Catholic Voices USA (CV USA) release an official statement which follows:
Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act leaves is force the HHS mandate requiring employers to provide free coverage for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization, even when providing such coverage violates deeply held religious beliefs.
Likewise, the decision leaves in force the government’s extremely narrow exemption of only certain religious organizations from this coercive mandate.
23 lawsuits against this HHS mandate — including 12 coordinated cases filed by 43 diverse Catholic institutions — continue to move forward. During the current Fortnight for Freedom, Catholics around the country have united to focus attention on the serious religious-liberty issues at stake. And even prominent Catholic supporters of the Affordable Care Act
do not support this HHS mandate forcing religious employers to facilitate access to goods and services that violate their faith.Now that the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is no longer in question, it’s time for the administration to offer a real compromise on the HHS mandate, one patterned after the countless common-sense conscience protections found throughout federal and state law and in keeping with the
longstanding bipartisan consensus in favor of robust religious-liberty protection.
Additionally, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released an official statement.
The statement by CV USA focuses mostly on the HHS mandate, which forms a part of the ACA. The USCCB’s statement, however, focuses mostly on the whole of the ACA. Their statement makes sure to mention the fact that the US bishops have a history of being “consistent advocates for comprehensive health care reform”. However, like CV USA, they are worried about the fact that the HHS mandate has now been held up by the Supreme Court as part of a constitutional federal act. Furthermore, they are concerned with the passage of the ACA because the ACA allows for federal funds to be used for abortion, which “contradict[s] a longstanding policy.” The bishops also take issue with the lack of conscience protection in the ACA, making particular mention of the HHS mandate. Lastly, the bishops take issue with the fact that the ACA does not allow working immigrants and their families “to purchase health coverage in the new exchanges created under the law, even if they use their own money.”
The USCCB concludes its statement by saying that it does not wish to join efforts to repeal the ACA. Rather, they wish to urge congress to pass laws which fix the flaws that they have identified.
So, there you have it, the general Catholic message is that access to health care is good, but the legislation which promotes it needs to allow for conscience protection.
