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The Edict of the HHS Death Panel Cannot Stand
The government's assault on religious faith and practice is broad and deep
February 9, 2012
About Patrick Vaughn:
Patrick Vaughn is the General Counsel at American Family Association, a pro-family action group promoting traditional family values.
The Health and Human Services Department headed by Kathleen Sebelius has become, in effect, the first government Death Panel, a concept that was popularly dismissed as ridiculous. The first victims are pro-life organizations, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the American Family Association, and other Christian institutions. HHS has attacked these Christian organizations by adopting as an HHS regulation the position lobbied for by Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, requiring religious organizations to cover their employees with insurance that pays for every contraceptive method, including those such as Plan B, the "week-after" Ella pill and IUDs (intrauterine devices) that work by inducing abortion.
[Majority of Catholics Believe Employers Should Cover Birth Control.]
Although the HHS rule allows a narrow clergy exception, it makes no accommodation for Christian organizations such as schools, hospitals, rescue missions, or crisis pregnancy centers that believe that human life is sacred and that elective abortion is murder. Consequently, to comply with the HHS regulation such groups must violate their conscience by providing insurance that covers baby killing or they must violate their conscience by paying a fine. If they choose to pay a fine, the employees are enrolled in a government insurance plan that still covers baby killing. The only other alternative for these Christian ministries is to operate strictly with volunteers or shut their doors. The HHS Death Panel has supplanted Free Exercise of Religion in America with religious persecution and pre-paid baby killing!
HHS could have easily adopted a different regulation that would have implemented the statute and accommodated religious liberty. Former Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, states that she was assured when voting for ObamaCare that the law does not require religious organizations to provide contraceptives, including those that induce abortion. The HHS policy choice is a naked exercise of government power to impose the pro-death views of abortion advocates on pro-life religious organizations. It attempts to leave them no escape.
[New Culture War Will Help Rick Santorum, Barack Obama.]
HHS has adopted a cynical delay until Aug. 1, 2013, for implementation of the rule by nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan. The delay postpones the crisis date until after the 2012 elections. HHS Secretary Sebelius stated, "This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule." Does she expect the Catholic Church to flex on its doctrine and condone the use of contraceptives? Does she expect crisis pregnancy centers to embrace some forms of abortion during that year? Of course she does not. However, Secretary Sebelius apparently believes that she has the power to force those organizations to compromise their beliefs and go along with the pro-abortion agenda.
Media coverage of this issue has highlighted the furor over contraceptives and the Roman Catholic Church. However, the government's assault on religious faith and practice is much broader and deeper. Approximately one-half million Evangelical, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox leaders have signed the Manhattan Declaration that concludes with the following pledge: "Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions … or any other anti-life act…. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's." Pro-life Christians will not disobey God by complying with this regulation. The edict of the HHS Death Panel cannot stand.
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- Other Arguments
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#113995
No — The First Amendment exists to shield believers and their institutions from exactly this kind of brute force
HANNAH SMITH, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
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#212183
No — The uproar over Obama's choice has to do with more than contraception
JEANNE MONAHAN, Director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council
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#3154126
Yes — Family planning is the most effective tool we have in reducing unintended pregnancy and abortion
JESSICA ARONS, Director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at Center for American Progress
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#410481
No — The infiltration of the secular state into the faiths of millions of taxpayers is scary
ANDREA S. LAFFERTY, President of Traditional Values Coalition
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#510588
No — Obama is dependent upon continued feminist support for his re-election
JANICE SHAW CROUSE, Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute
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#7119115
Yes — Religiously owned or affiliated organizations ought to play by the same rules as other employers
KATHERINE FRANKE, ELIZABETH SEPPER, Scholars at Columbia Law School
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#89399
Yes — No one is telling the Catholic Church that it cannot hold its views on contraception
ROGER N. LANCASTER, Director of Cultural Studies at George Mason University
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#993100
Yes — Nothing about this new rule will affect a person's ability to practice his or her religion
NANCY KEENAN, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America
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#108494
Yes — Contraception is a key component of basic healthcare for women of all faiths
LOUISE MELLING, Deputy Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union
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#118398
Yes — Birth control is not just a convenience but is medically necessary
JOAN HOFF, Research Professor of History at Montana State University
