Washington D.C., Sep 1, 2011 / 13:14 pm
The HHS contraception mandate for insurance plans is “more radical” than any other in the United States and entails “nationwide coercion of religious people and groups,” the U.S. bishops’ general counsel said as he called for the mandate to be rescinded.
“Only rescission will eliminate all of the serious moral problems the mandate creates,” said Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Picarello and bishops’ conference associate general counsel Michael Moses submitted an August 31 comment to the Department of Health and Human Services criticizing its requirement that insurers provide sterilization and contraception, including some drugs like Ella which can cause abortions.
It is “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty” to require that religious people and groups sell, broker or purchase services to which they have religious or moral objections, the attorneys said.