Birth control pill coverage for church-affiliated institutions sparks outrage

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJan 23 2012

The Obama administration announced Friday that many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees. This has sparked debate and invited criticism.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. “I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services,” Sebelius said in a statement. “Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women,” Ms. Sebelius said, and “it is documented to significantly reduce health costs.”

Religious-affiliated nonprofit organizations, many of which currently do not offer birth control coverage, have until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new rule. Other employers must begin covering the services from August 1, 2012. The government's decision does not apply to churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and some religiously-affiliated elementary and secondary schools, which remain exempt.

Some predicted religious employers would drop coverage for their workers, opting instead to pay fines to the federal government under the health care law. “Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violate their conscience,” said New York Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.” Further many religious conservatives consider the morning-after birth control pill to be an abortion drug. The National Association of Evangelicals said that as a result of the White House decision, “Employers with religious objections to contraception will be forced to pay for services and procedures they believe are morally wrong.”

According to officials the administration’s ruling was carefully considered, after reviewing more than 200,000 comments from interested parties and the public. The one-year extension, they said, responds to concerns raised by religious employers about making adjustments. Administration officials stressed individual decisions about whether or not to use birth control, and what kind, remain in the hands of women and their doctors. Obama personally spoke with Dolan on Friday to inform him of the announcement, an administration official said.

Chris Jacobs, a health policy analyst for Senate Republicans, said, “This decision looks suspiciously like yet another political stunt designed to delay the controversy by a year, until after the president’s re-election campaign.” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said the transition period was pointless. “The problem is not that religious institutions do not have enough time to comply,” Mr. Hatch said. “It’s that they are forced to comply at all. Unfortunately, the administration has shown a complete lack of regard for our constitutional commitment to religious liberty.”