The NCBC Supports: The Little Sisters of the Poor and Others Challenging Violations of their Conscience Rights

The National Catholic Bioethics Center has again been a signatory to several amicus briefs of late in support of sound and life giving health care policies: 

 The NCBC supports the state of Iowa and the Ruling of its Board of Medicine to protect women from abortions via telemedicine. Planned Parenthood has challenge these safety requirements and the case is before the Iowa Supreme Court. Dr. Marie Hilliard, is Director of Bioethics and Public Policy for The National Catholic Bioethics Center, where she files briefs such as the brief for Iowa (NCBC named on page 4) and she helps the Center fulfill its critical role in defending the human person and supporting the common good. 
(For more details on this issue, see: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2014/09/16/planned-parenthood-of-the-heartland-iowa-supreme-court-telemedicine-abortion/15726317/.)


The NCBC has also firmly supported the Little Sisters of the Poor in their Fight for Religious Freedom, which is being Violated by the HHS Contraceptive Mandate. On Monday December 8th, 2014, the Little Sisters of the Poor will have their day in court before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Contraceptive Mandate, is requiring virtually all employers, regardless of their opposition on grounds of conscience, to provide to their employees through their benefit plans coverage of contraceptive drugs and devices, including abortifacients, as well as surgical sterilizations. The Little Sisters present perhaps the best and clearest example of a religious organization that is faced with an existential threat by the HHS Contraceptive Mandate 

(see: http://blog.archny.org/steppingout/?p=3076 ).

A victory by the Little Sisters will send a clear message to the U.S. Supreme Court, and will increase the chances that other religious non-profits will be protected from the ruinous fines that would be imposed under the Mandate. A defeat could subject the Little Sisters to as much as $50 million in fines for following their conscience -- that would force them out of their significant ministry to the elderly and infirm, and also send an ominous message about the future of religious freedom in America. Please continue to hold the Little Sisters and their attorneys in your prayers.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) continues to support organizations and their rights to religious freedom which are continuously violated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Contraceptive Mandate. The NCBC joins other organizations committed to the protection of Religious Freedom in signing onto the following amicus briefs, in support of those employers who are legally challenging the violations of their conscience rights: 

• Dordt College and Cornerstone University (UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, DORDT COLLEGE and CORNERSTONE UNIVERSITY, v. SYLVIA M. BURWELL)
  
• The Archdiocese of St. Louis (UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. LOUIS and CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF ST. LOUIS. v. SYLVIA M. BURWELL)
  
• East Texas Baptist University and Westminster Theological Seminary (UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY; HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY, WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, v. SYLVIA MATTHEWS BURWELL).

These briefs represent a total of seventeen amicus briefs filed by the NCBC in support of religious freedom being violated by the HHS Contraceptive Mandate.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center Comments on New HHS Proposed Rules

Yesterday The National Catholic Bioethics Center submitted official commentary to the government regarding the: "Proposed Rules on coverage of certain preventive services under the Affordable Care Act ('ACA'), known as the 'Contraceptive Mandate.'"


The statement, a full analysis of the new rules, is concomitant with the Center's initial impression of the rules and reiterates that they are, in fact, more "restrictive of religious freedom than provided for by the decision of the Supreme Court."


To read the full story and the official comment, click HERE

BREAKING -- The NCBC Response to SCOTUS Decision in Support of Religious Freedom

The National Catholic Bioethics Center hails the decision today of the United States Supreme Court in support of the religious freedom of the owners of Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation and Hobby Lobby Stores Incorporated!The National Catholic Bioethics Center was a party to an amicus brief signed in support of the religious freedom of the two family-owned for-profit businesses, neither of whose families were Catholic. The rights of these two companies, protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, were violated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate. We give thanks for this decision and offer our congratulations to the brave owners of these companies who have worked hard to carry on and weather the storm of these legal proceedings.

The Center's release states:

"These family-owned businesses took the courageous stand of challenging the assault on their religious freedom, under the guise of preventative health care, by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate. The mandate requires virtually all employers to provide contraceptive, abortifacient, and surgical sterilization insurance coverage, at no cost to the employees, regardless of the deeply held religious objections of employers. Both Conestoga Wood and Hobby Lobby argued that their deeply held religious beliefs concerning the sanctity of human life were violated by HHS forcing them to pay for abortifacient drugs and devices for their employees..."

Please be sure to read the FULL NCBC statement HERE

NCBC Ethicist's Major Article Just Released: "Birth Control is Not Health Care"

Dr. Marie Hilliard, Ethicist and Director of Bioethics and Public Policy at the NCBC, has just had an article on contraception and the HHS Mandate published in Crisis Magazine online today.

Dr. Marie Hilliard

The article, entitled Birth Control is not Health Care, takes a thorough and incisive look at the HHS Mandate and at the prominent place of birth control as a pillar of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Hilliard looks at the enforcement of the contraceptive mandate which has, erroneously, been presented as a crucial element of preserving good health, and examines this in light of the current lawsuit being heard on behalf of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The initiative of the Sisters shows that the decision to oppose the HHS mandate: "Has much more to do with religious liberty," and the defense of that liberty, than any flawed arguments stating that opposition to the Mandate is merely a misguided opposition to good health and health care.


Please read Dr. Hilliard's excellent article, HERE.

Thank you, Dr. Hilliard!

NCBC Ethicist to Speak in Corpus Christi This Weekend

As he reaches the tail-end of a particularly busy week, NCBC Staff Ethicist, John A. DiCamillo, will be gearing up for a pair of presentations at the 2014 Ministry Conference in the Diocese of Corpus Christi, Texas this weekend. The event takes place on Saturday, January 11th and John will be delivering two talks entitled: Living Stones: Catholics, Business, and Cooperation with Evil and: Worship vs. Practice? The HHS Mandate and Religious Liberty. 

Both presentations will address key aspects of Catholic identity and religious liberty, especially in the light of the injustices Catholics in the U.S. are facing today.

NCBC Staff Ethicist, John A. DiCamillo

For more information on the Conference, and to view a poster for the event, please visit the related Diocesan web page, HERE.

Safe travels, John!

BREAKING -- The NCBC Releases Updated Assessment of the Health and Human Services Mandate

Since October 1, 2013, the federal and state-subsidized health insurance exchanges called for by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) have been open for enrollment. In August 2012, the NCBC published a moral analysis of the options for non-exempt employers facing decisions about health insurance for their employees in light of the regulations established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).


In light of the inundating streams of (sometimes conflicting) information that come to the public regarding the manner in which the mandates are being implemented, and in light what the mandates will entail for Catholic Americans, The NCBC is pleased to announce the release of an updated assessment of the HHS Mandate. Our new publication, which will appear officially in the February edition of the monthly bulletin Ethics and Medics, revises the "previous moral analysis of the HHS mandate" published in August.

The new analysis offers:

"Additional relevant considerations to assist in understanding how employers and [now] individuals may decide, through health care exchanges or private plans, to provisionally purchase health insurance coverage for themselves and/or their employees without illicitly cooperating in evil. We also discuss how employers and individuals must consider a number of important moral and practical concerns as the exchanges become available, including provisions for coverage of direct abortion, uncertainties surrounding implementation, physicians who decline to accept exchange-based insurance, the escalation of costs within and outside the exchanges, the potential impact of scandal, and the serious duty to take action and remain steadfast in opposing the HHS mandate."


This crucial document is of great important for the public and we have given it a proud place as the masthead document of the newly christened OpenAccess page on the NCBC website. It is with pleasure that we provide this document to you for free, ahead of its slated February release. So please, take some time to read our HHS assessment now, before it hits the presses next year.

Visit the NCBC OpenAccess page HERE.

Happy Friday

Who is Free to Exercise Religion? An NCBC Ethicist Weighs In

John A. Di Camillo, Staff Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, has just completed an article that targets and addresses conflicting opinions that have arisen in the United States courts as the Judiciary continues in attempting to delineate and interpret the "identity, purpose, and scope of business entities and the relationship of those entities to their owners and to religious exercise" in light of the HHS mandates and government enforcement of the unjust laws.

John Di Camillo provides a deeper look into the ongoing battle for religious freedom as:

"Two federal courts of appeal have come to opposite conclusions regarding whether for-profit companies can claim religious liberty protections. All for-profit and most non-profit organizations in the United States continue to be impacted by the legal requirement that was established by a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, and incrementally clarified by regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services, which has come to be known as the HHS Mandate. The HHS Mandate requires that employers who offer health insurance include, at no cost to employees, the full range of FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices, including surgical sterilizations as well as abortion-inducing drugs and devices such as ellaOne, Plan B, and IUDs. Providing this sort of insurance coverage is at odds with the moral values and religious convictions of many U.S. citizens and business owners, especially Catholics."

Read the full article HERE.

The NCBC Supports: The USCCB Life Issues Forum

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a Call to Action through their Life Issues Forum. Dr. Marie Hilliard, Director of Public Policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center said of the press release: "The examples given by the USCCB  are just a few of the many trials Christians have faced as they attempt to defend their faith and uphold moral teaching...the truly heartrending story of Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo is one example that has been cited for years since it occurred. It is a perfect illustration of what many Catholics are up against in America today, in healthcare and in all the areas of our lives."

As Catholics we must speak up. We must act.

From the USCCB:

LIFE ISSUES FORUM                                                       August 20, 2013
           

Stand with Sr. Jane Marie                                                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
By Deirdre A. McQuade

Cathy, Sr. Jane Marie, and Christine are three Catholic women whose freedom to work according to their faith is being severely threatened. In March they traveled to Washington, DC, urging Congress to pass the Health Care Conscience Rights Act (H.R. 940, S. 1204), which would protect their freedom of conscience. Now they need your help: read their stories below, watch and share the brief video on their stories, and stand in solidarity with them by contacting Congress today!

Catherina “Cathy” Cenzon-DeCarlo is an operating room nurse at a major hospital in New York City. In 2009, Cathy was forced to participate in a 22-week abortion against her clearly-stated objections. Cathy has suffered deep trauma from witnessing the abortion and accounting for all of the unborn child’s body parts afterwards. She says it was like “a horror film unfolding.” Cathy sued the hospital; but while her employer’s coercion was illegal, she had no recourse in the court. Since then, many other nurses and medical staff have told her she’s not alone. Contrary to their medical oath to “do no harm,” they, too, have been pressured to destroy life rather than preserve it. Cathy and her colleagues need the legal protection of the Health Care Conscience Rights Act to ensure that such discrimination never happens again.

Sr. Jane Marie Klein is the chair of the board for the non-profit Franciscan Alliance, a 13-hospital Catholic health care system in Indiana, Michigan & Illinois, serving over four million patients each year regardless of their ability to pay. Under the guise of “preventive services for women,” this Administration is forcing nearly all employers to cover sterilization procedures, as well as contraception and abortifacient drugs and devices in their health plans at no cost to the employee – the so-called “HHS mandate.” The Franciscan Alliance has been a Catholic system for over 130 years, but does not qualify for an exemption as a “religious employer” according to the mandate’s extremely narrow definition. Soon they will face crippling fines for being faithful to Catholic teaching. The Franciscan Alliance is suing the federal government to protect their freedom of conscience. The Health Care Conscience Rights Act would properly define who qualifies as a religious employer so that much-needed medical facilities and charitable organizations will be able to continue serving our neediest neighbors.

Christine Ketterhagen is a co-owner and board member of a family-run company, Hercules Industries, in Denver, Colorado. They provide excellent benefits, and draw the line at payment for contraceptives and drugs like Ella marketed as “emergency” contraception that can actually cause early abortions, Because of the Administration’s mandate, Hercules will also face punishing fines if they refuse to comply — $162,500 per week! They, too, are suing the Administration so that they will not be forced to include objectionable coverage against their core values. If passed into law, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act will establish conscience rights protections for private entities that are not faith-based organizations.

Cathy, Sr. Jane Marie, and Christine tell their stories in our YouTube video: Speak Up for Conscience Rights Today.  Watch it and then share the link with friends, colleagues, and family members. 

Finally, stand in solidarity with these brave women. Send your personalized email to Congress at www.usccb.org/conscience. It only takes a few minutes!

Thank you for speaking up for conscience rights today!

UPDATE: Video of Philadelphia Archdiocesan Pro-Life Summit Available NOW

John A. DiCamillo, Staff Ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center, has been representing the NCBC while sitting as a member of the Respect Life Leadership Council of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. As part of his participation with the Archdiocese, John presented at the Archdiocesan Pro-Life Summit hosted by the Office for Life and Family in July.

Video footage of the Pro-Life Summit is now available on Youtube! 

You can watch John DiCamillo's talk, titled as The Catholic Individual and Business Owner: Health Care Insurance Options, HERE. The presentation explored some of options and responses available to individuals and business owners in light of the HHS portion of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

You can watch the whole Pro-Life Summit on Youtube as well! Take a look at the entire event (covered in the first six videos on the page) HERE.

THIS WEEKEND: NCBC Ethicist to Speak on Responding to the HHS Mandates

For the past several months, NCBC Staff Ethicist, John A. DiCamillo has been representing the NCBC while sitting as a member of the Respect Life Leadership Council of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is organized and run by Archdiocesan Office for Life and Family. As part of his active participation with the Archdiocese, John will be presenting at the Pro-Life Summit hosted by the Office for Life and Family this Saturday, July 20th. John will be presenting on the HHS mandate and the ways Catholic individuals and for-profit employers can respond to the unjust legislation.

John will be part of a series of brief presentations occurring that day. The event will be hosted at the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Pastoral Center and will be open to the public. The event will be preceded by Mass with Archbishop Chaput at 9:00 A.M. in the Cathedral.

  

For more details, see the flyer for the event HERE.

To view a schedule and the full list of Saturday's talks, click HERE 

If you cannot attend the talks, never fear! You should be able to tune in to local radio stations WISP 1570 and WCOJ 1420 at 10:00 A.M. to hear live updates on the proceedings.

NCBC Staff Ethicist, John DiCamillo

Thank you for all your hard work, John!

NCBC Stands with Coalition of Over 100 Religious Leaders and Scholars in Celebrating HHS Delays

Standing Together for Religious Freedom and Welcoming the Announced Delay in Forcing Employers to Violate Their Consciences

On July 2, 2013, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty joined over 100 prominent national religious leaders and scholars in releasing an open letter entitled Standing Together for Religious Freedom. The letter calls on the U.S. Administration and Congress to respect conscience rights and religious freedom threatened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive and abortifacient mandate. Despite the fact that the HHS Final Rule with the  Guidance on the Temporary Enforcement Safe Harbor for Certain Employers, issued June 28, 2013, temporarily extended the “Safe harbor” (from faith-based agency implementation) until contract years beginning in 2014, the HHS, by its own admission, states that the Final Rule does little to narrow the breadth of this violation of freedom. Virtually all employers, including faith-based employers with few exempt agencies, are being forced to provide these morally offensive drugs, devices and procedures at no cost to employees. Archbishop Lori explained how this mandate has broad implications for all persons who respect freedom, regardless of a person’s faith, or even their lack of a faith: “As the Catholic bishops have said from the very beginning, the underlying issue with the HHS Mandate is not about any specific teaching. In fact, other signatories on the letter do not share our view on contraception and probably disagree with us in many other ways, but they understand the core religious freedom issue at stake here." http://www.usccb.org/news/2013/13-134.cfm.

On July 2nd the Administration announced that the mandate for employers of 50 or more employees to provide insurance coverage, including contraceptive and abortifacient coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will not be enforced until January 2015 (from January 2014).  There is no indication of the status of the mandate on individuals to purchase health insurance as mandated by January 2014.  The Administration indicated that it would be providing proposed rules for comment on reporting requirements of employers and insurers pursuant to the PPACA: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/07/02/we-re-listening-businesses-about-health-care-law. However, a company which provides health insurance coverage for employees, regardless of the number of employees, continues to be bound by the HHS Mandate as of August 2012 (unless it is grandfathered or faith-based and exempt - constituting virtually few companies - or if it is faith-based and temporarily safe harbored).

The NCBC is a signatory to eleven amicus briefs in support of employers who object to being forced to violate religious freedom of conscience through these unjust provisions, and receives numerous calls from employers questioning, “What are we to do?” Employers always express concern for the well-being of their employees, citing the untenable position in which our government, founded on the right to protect this sacred freedom, has placed them. This 4th of July, more than ever, calls all people who respect our Constitution, regardless of their faith-tradition, to join together in prayer for the future of this great country.

May God Bless America!

NCBC and the Organ Donation Conversation

As heard on NPR today, the nation's organ transplant network will consider a controversial proposal to set new requirements for a form of organ donation known as: Controlled Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD).

The board of directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), which is operated under the United Network For Organ Sharing  (UNOS), opened a two-day meeting at the organization's headquarters in Richmond, Va., to consider new requirements for DCD, which involves the harvesting of a person's organs (to preserve their good condition) just minutes after the donor has experienced a cardiac arrest, often as a result of withdrawing life support. 

The concerns regarding this procedure are multitudinous; however, a paramount cause for worry is the timing of the evaluation for donor suitability.  The Institute of Medicine and OPTN’s own Ethics Committee advise that the donor’s/family’s decision to remove life support be made before any approach concerning donation is made to the family of the donor, or even the conscious patient.  The proposed Requirements will leave the timing of such evaluation and discussion up to the Organ Procurement Organization and the donor’s health care team.  Furthermore, the time frame to delay in harvesting organs, to determine that the heart has irreversibly stopped beating, will be left up to local policy, without invoking the national standard recommended by the Institute of Medicine.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center, while in full support of the truly amazing and life-saving programs of organ donation and transplantation, has had serious reservations about these proposals and wants to ensure the respect for the human rights and dignity of the donor. The NCBC, while aware of the importance of speed in obtaining critically needed viable organs for transplantation, wants to ensure that one life is not ended prematurely simply to expedite organ harvesting.  At the same time, the NCBC is supportive of programs that enable the ever-important preservation of another life, that of the recipient. To accomplish this, however, organ procurement programs must not violate true informed consent, nor can they violate the the dead donor rule.

The NCBC's Director of Public Policy, Dr. Marie Hilliard, also chairs the Ethics and Public Policy Committee of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD), and has been following these developments very closely. Dr. Hilliard has made NCBC’s concerns known to OPTN in preparation for their meeting. You can read her commentary HERE.

Dr. Hilliard coordinated with the NCPD to arrange a successful interview between Rob Stein of NPR and Stephen Mikochik who spoke of behalf of the NCPD.  Dr. Hilliard commented on the interview, saying: “It is gratifying that through the NCBC’s collaboration with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability that there is a growing awareness of the significant threats to informed consent and the dead-donor rule in the proposed organ procurement policies.  The fact that providers and ethicists representing non-faith-based agencies also recognize these concerns demonstrates the breadth of the problem.  We trust that the OPTN will reconsider its proposal.”

The National Catholic Bioethics Center is proud to have hosted Steve Mikochik for the interview, which he conducted, with Dr. Hilliard's coordination, in the NCBC library. 

The program aired on NPR this morning, before the critical meetings, and Mr. Mikochik did an excellent job.

NCBC President, Dr. John Haas, was proud to have The Center so closely involved in these important issues and he was glad that this effort was: 

"Another wonderful example of the contributions being made by all here at the NCBC and a show of how all our varied talents work together to serve the Lord of Life and His loved ones!"

You can listen to the full NPR story and hear Mr. Mikochik's comments HERE.

Let's all pray that the life of each human is protected until its true, complete end.

WATCH: Father Tad Pacholczyk Talks Human Cloning, Insurance Coverage, and Angelina Jolie on Live T.V.

Last night, May 30th, 2013, Ethicist and Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Father Tad Pacholczyk had the opportunity to film a segment with Raymond Arroyo for his show The World Over in Washington, D.C..

Father Tad

The live broadcast occurred at 8 P.M. Eastern time and, in under 20 minutes, Father Tad tackled the therapeutic embryonic cloning debate, patenting human genetic material, the moral concerns of insurance coverage for contraceptives and even news relating to Angelina Jolie's mastectomy!

Watch this fantastic news interview on youtube, HERE beginning at minute 41:15.

If you have cable television with access to EWTN, you can watch secondary broadcasts on:

 - Sunday at 7 P.M. Eastern

- Monday at 10 P.M. Eastern

And be sure to read father Tad's written response to the recent advances in therapeutic embryonic cloning for stem cells HERE and HERE.

Happy Friday!

Did You Know?

• In response to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive mandate, there are 60 cases and over 190 individuals representing  hospitals, universities, businesses, schools, and individuals all speaking with one voice to affirm the freedom of religion guaranteed in the US Constitution. 

• To date, 31 for-profit lawsuits have been filed over the HHS mandate. 

• To date, of the 26 for-profit plaintiffs that have obtained rulings touching on the merits of their claims against the Mandate, 19 have secured injunctive relief against it, for a current score of 19-7. 

• The NCBC is signatory to eleven amicus briefs is support of these legal challenges, six of which have received a ruling in their favor for an injunction against the enforcement of the Mandate until a full court hearing: 

1. Korte (7^th Circuit) 

2. O’Brien (8th Circuit) 

3. Annex Medical (8th Circuit)  

4. Newland (Hercules; 10th Circuit) 

5. Weingartz Supply Co. (Legatus; 6^th)  

6. Fresh Unlimited (Gilardi; D.C. Circuit)

Now you know!

You can read more details about these and other cases on our Advocacy page.