U.S. Catholic bishops made official their opposition to a health reform law rule requiring birth control coverage on Tuesday.
The is “unjust and unlawful,” the bishops said in comments on the proposed regulation to Health and Human Services. The Obama administration's “accommodation” for religious employers, requiring insurance companies to pay for the birth control coverage, doesn't help, the bishops said.
“The use of premiums and plans for that purpose is precisely what is morally objectionable, and having an insurer or third party administer the payments does not overcome the moral objection,” the bishops wrote. “The ‘accommodation’ cannot provide effective relief even for those few stakeholders that qualify for it.”
The birth control brouhaha has died down since Republicans took a political beating following a now-infamous House Oversight and Government Reform hearing that had no female witnesses. HHS still has to develop a final rule on the accommodation.
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