- APFeb. 28: Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing.
WASHINGTON – In sworn testimony Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder
defended the Obama administration's controversial contraception
mandate, and vowed that the federal government's legion of lawyers will
follow suit.
"To the extent that that action is challenged in court, I would expect that the Justice Department
would defend what I guess is in place -- would be that compromise,"
Holder told lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee.
The "compromise" Holder cited was announced by President Obama on Feb. 10, after a firestorm of criticism from the Catholic Church
and other religious groups prompted the administration to revise an
earlier rule, promulgated in January by the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS).
Under these rules, all employers must
provide female contraception as part of their health care plans, with
the cost of the contraception coverage to be incurred by the insurer if a
given employer -- such as a Catholic-affiliated charity, hospital, or
school -- objects on religious grounds. The U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops has rejected the compromise, saying it still forces Catholic
institutions to violate their conscience by providing -- even at zero
cost -- a benefit to their employees that violates church doctrine. As
well, many Catholic institutions self-insure.
In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
appeared at one point to suggest that some further accommodation might
be in store for those religious organizations that provide their own
insurance.
"We will have a provision dealing with
self-insured plans, who work through third-party administrators, to make
sure that anyone with a religious exemption will not provide or pay for
or refer people to contraception services, and maintain their religious
freedom," she testified.
But that statement did not apply to the
Catholic-affiliated hospitals, charities and schools that have raised
the greatest hue and cry over the HHS mandate -- precisely because they
do not presently qualify for the "religious exemption" that Sebelius
mentioned.
Some lawmakers consulted an eight-page
memorandum on the topic freshly prepared by the Congressional Research
Service. Dated Feb. 24, the memo cited three federal laws -- the
Employer Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health
Service Act (PHSA), and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) -- that could
trigger "enforcement mechanisms" against those employers who fail to
comply with the HHS rule.
The memo stated that under PHSA and IRS
codes, non-compliant employers could face fines of $100 per day for each
employee not receiving the mandated coverage, as well as an excise tax
of the same amount and frequency. Religious leaders opposed to the HHS
mandate have said the financial penalties would likely prove ruinous to
their institutions.
"The Diocese of Columbus has many more than
just 100 employees, all of whom, when they got hired, knew what health
care they were getting," Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, told Sebelius. "And
the bishop and I talked about the president so clearly saying, ‘If you
like (the health plan) you have, you can keep it.' He said that over and
over, many times.
"My question to you is: If they refuse the
mandate, refuse to violate their First Amendment (rights), refuse to
violate their religious beliefs and refuse to pay the fine, what
consequences, as an employer, will Bishop Cambell face?"
"I have no idea," Sebelius said at the end
of a lengthy answer that recited the basic chronology of the
controversy. "The hypothetical -- I mean, I can -- if you want to submit
that in writing, I'll get you an answer in writing."
Also weighing in on the controversy Tuesday was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, the nation's
top diplomat encouraged Catholics opposed to birth control on doctrinal
grounds to embrace it for practical reasons.
"I know that it is a very controversial
issue," Clinton told lawmakers, "but numerous studies have shown that
the incidence of abortion decreases when women have access to
contraception."
Catholics are also deeply opposed to abortion.
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