Misleading About the Contraception/Abortion Mandate in the Vice Presidential Debate

During the vice presidential debate, the Vice President of the United States stated: "With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

What he did not say was this Administration has announced and has yet to finalize (publicly publish) a rule that requires every insurance company that is writing insurance policies for religious institutions to cover all forms of contraception—including abortion-inducing drugs—outside those policies for anyone covered by those policies.

As it stands now, that is little more than an 8-month-old promise for formal obfuscation, and the clearly hostile HHS mandate remains.

From an email by Kristina Arriaga, executive director of The Becket Fund:

Since last year the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has led the charge against the Administration’s unconstitutional HHS mandate, which forces many religious organizations—many of them Catholic—to violate their deeply held religious beliefs, or pay crippling fines.

Today, there are 33 cases and over 100 individuals representing hospitals, universities, businesses, schools, and people all speaking with one voice to affirm the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Constitution.