The hate group the Family Research Council is after women’s rights now claiming that they are trying to stop religious institutions from being forced to pay for contraception and the like under the new rules that will be mandated by the Health and Human Services Department. The rules being proposed by HHS are ones that these institutions did not object to when they were implemented by various states, nor are they being objected to in foreign nations.

The FRC couches its language in terms of morality, but it should be noted that taking away the choice of what is or is not moral from a person is a violation not only of several religious edicts, but diminishes the belief that people have the ability to think and reason, and diminishes their relationship with their own faith.

The FRC states:

Previously FRC Action wrote about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “contraception mandate” forcing every health insurance plan, for individual plans and employer-sponsored plans, to include the full range of FDA-approved “contraceptives and sterilization services.”

The mandate, therefore, includes drugs that can act as abortifacients such as Plan B and Ella even though FDA approved them as “contraceptives.” The mandate ALSO includes birth control, IUDs and sterilization surgeries.

All these are mandated to be included in health plans without any “co-pay” for the patient. This means the cost of these “free” abortifacients, contraceptives and sterilizations will be paid by someone, and the cost will be shifted to the premiums of the religious employer and employees. The HHS mandate only gave a very narrow exemption for churches – anyone else who is morally opposed to the mandate has been given a one-year “delay” before they will be forced to violate their conscience.

President Obama on February 10th claimed to have offered a so-called “accommodation” – despite the fact that HHS actually finalized the discriminatory regulation that same very day without any changes!

Now President Obama’s HHS is proposing accounting gimmicks to “accommodate” objections, however it is more a scheme to cover how they are forcing non-church religious employers to do what they believe is immoral.

Under this scheme the religious employer is still ultimately paying for the health coverage they are morally opposed to regardless of the mechanism by which the objectionable drugs and devices are funded.

Simple fact is if accounting gimmicks removed the conscience violations, why did HHS exempt churches in the first place?

The plan also would automatically enroll the employees for “free” contraceptive and abortifacient coverage, so that employees who object would not have a choice to refuse such coverage.

Worse, the Obama Administration’s proposed rule ensures that the coverage be provided even to minors without their parents’ knowledge and consent!

The FRC is known for lying. They have never been known to tell the truth with any accuracy or consistency. However, if this is the game that they wish to play, then the best thing to do is for supporters of these rules to speak out as well.

The comment form can be found here:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=CMS-2012-0031-0001