Why the HHS debate matters to Catholics

Intermountain Catholic

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Each Sunday, and hopefully more often, we come together as Catholics to share in the Eucharist and celebrate our beliefs with one another. When we leave Mass, we take our experience of communion with God out into the world. As a Church, we share our beliefs by, among many other things, aiding refugees, educating children, and serving meals to those who would otherwise go without.

In some countries, our Church works in the shadow of an oppressive government, operating with the knowledge that, for example, a health care unit could be shut down at any time. In the United States, we enjoy the freedom to practice our faith without fear of government coercion. Or we did, until a recent rule revision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Of course, President Obama "accommodated" this recent HHS ruling last week and it remains to be seen how this will all play out. Nonetheless, the mere fact that the regulation was put into place raises grave concern because the rule requires all employers, except the very narrow subset of houses of worship, to provide prescription contraceptive coverage in their health plans. The reason our concern is so great is that a government agency is limiting religious organizations’ right to "freedom of conscience."

For me, the concerns are not purely about legal and constitutional matters, though those questions are important. My bigger concern is the message the rule sends to organizations that have participated with our federal government for years to provide vital services to vulnerable populations.

In our diocese, for example, Catholic Community Services of Utah (CCS) is one of many Catholic organizations that contract with the federal government to provide housing, legal, translation, and other transition services for refugees. CCS serves roughly 300 refugee families a year.

On the international front, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been actively involved in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) since its 2003 inception. CRS provides life-saving medications and care to tens of thousands of individuals in Africa each year. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was also instrumental in ensuring PEPFAR funding was reauthorized in 2008, and that it was done without a requirement that organizations receiving funds provide contraception as part of their services.

Similarly, Catholic Charities in various states and the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services office have long provided crucial services to victims of human trafficking in America. Until 2011, Catholic Charities regularly received federal grant money to provide a safe environment, basic needs such as food, health care, and legal services to victims. The groups were denied grants in 2011, in favor of organizations with lower scores on the grant assessments, in what is seen as a reaction to an ongoing lawsuit by the ACLU. The ACLU claims that the government must choose contractors that provide abortion and contraceptive services in order to fully serve the victims of trafficking.

The lawsuit may also be part of the reason the government has adopted the most restrictive religious exemption in any federal rule or regulation. While lawsuits are expensive and time-consuming, there is no certainty the ACLU will win and the federal government has everything to lose by discouraging Catholic organizations from continuing to work with it on behalf of those most in need.

The federal government has a long history of recognizing rights of conscience, drawing an appropriate balance between the First Amendment rights of individuals and organizations to practice their beliefs, and government’s interest in delivering services or enforcing rules in an orderly manner. With a little Catholic advocacy, perhaps HHS will once again fully recognize the fundamental rights of the Catholic Church to provide health care to its employees, without violating its long-held beliefs.