The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(PPACA) has come under attack by religious groups, most notably Catholic hospitals, schools and other Catholic institutions. Opponents of the provisions are pointing to the First Amendment while proponents are citing women’s and reproductive rights cases. The debate centers on the concern that the PPACA will force places like Thomas More College of Merrimack NH, a Catholic Liberal arts College, to provide birth control coverage to employees.
As reported in the Union Leader, William Fahey, president of the college said, “This mandate casts human life and pregnancy in the same category as diseases to be prevented, and it reduces the beauty and goodness of human sexuality to an individual, utilitarian and dangerous act.” A concern that many of these institutions are raising is private health plans will be required to provide contraceptive coverage to women, going against religious beliefs, or withdraw coverage to employees entirely. U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is pushing the president to repeal the provision, saying in a press conference on Capital Hill, “If we put religious institutions and faith-based organizations in a position where they need to comply with government mandates that violate the principles of their faith, it violates the first amendment to the constitution and it’s an affront to what we stand for as Americans.” Ayotte, a Nashua native continues, “This is not a women’s’ rights issue. This is a religious liberty issue and it can apply to all faiths.”
As reported in the Union Leader, William Fahey, president of the college said, “This mandate casts human life and pregnancy in the same category as diseases to be prevented, and it reduces the beauty and goodness of human sexuality to an individual, utilitarian and dangerous act.” A concern that many of these institutions are raising is private health plans will be required to provide contraceptive coverage to women, going against religious beliefs, or withdraw coverage to employees entirely. U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is pushing the president to repeal the provision, saying in a press conference on Capital Hill, “If we put religious institutions and faith-based organizations in a position where they need to comply with government mandates that violate the principles of their faith, it violates the first amendment to the constitution and it’s an affront to what we stand for as Americans.” Ayotte, a Nashua native continues, “This is not a women’s’ rights issue. This is a religious liberty issue and it can apply to all faiths.”
Senator Ayotte’s point of this not being a women’s rights issue and the concern of faith-based institutions having to consider dropping coverage entirely stems from the fact that in December of 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that companies with prescription drug plans that precluded women’s contraception were in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which prevent discrimination on the basis of sex. Further, employers that don’t offer prescription plans or insurance at all are exempt. According to website MotherJones.com, in Erickson v. Bartell Drug Co., a federal court agreed with the EEOC’s reasoning. Women’s and reproductive rights groups have been using this decision for more than a decade to sue for fair coverage. In Nick Baumann’s article, written for the MotherJones.com website, DePaul University, the largest Roman Catholic university in America added birth control coverage after receiving a complaint several years, and in 2009 Belmont Abbey, a Catholic institution in North Carolina caused a controversy when it pulled its birth control coverage when they realized it was being offered.
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