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Educator criticizes law's contraception provision
MERRIMACK — A controversial health care mandate that would require universities and hospitals to provide free contraception as part of their employee health plan is drawing harsh criticism from a local educator.
“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,” said William Fahey, president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack.
In an open letter sent this week to Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, Fahey said the Catholic college has grave concerns over the recent decisions made by the Obama administration to require private health plans to provide preventative services, specifically free contraception.
Fahey called the new mandate offensive, saying it erodes public trust that the government will observe the required restraint needed to allow citizens to exercise constitutional liberties. He went on to say the mandate is a direct violation of the conscience of any practicing Roman Catholic.
“I hope that you will see that the mandate attempts to force self-identified and faithfully Catholic organizations to compromise central tenets of their belief or drop health care coverage for their employees,” Fahey said, urging elected officials to take steps to withdraw the mandate from law.
On the Senate floor on Tuesday, Ayotte echoed Fahey's concerns, reading a quote from his open letter to her fellow lawmakers. Ayotte said she shares the concerns of her constituents in New Hampshire who see the recent rule as an unprecedented, unnecessary affront to religious liberty.
“This issue isn't limited to the Catholic Church,” she said. “This mandate places religious institutions in this impossible position of violating their core beliefs in order to comply with the mandate or dropping employee insurance coverage altogether. We should not be putting these organizations that do great work throughout this country in this position.”
Last fall, Ayotte was one of 27 senators to sign a letter expressing constitutional concerns regarding conscience rights as the health care law is implemented.
While Ayotte may agree with Fahey, Shaheen has a different viewpoint on the topic. In an opinion letter published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Shaheen said the administration should be commended — not criticized — for helping millions of women get the affordable care they need.
Shaheen, along with two other Democratic U.S. senators from California and Washington, argues that improving access to birth control is good health policy and good economic policy.
“Those now attacking the new health-coverage requirement claim it is an assault on religious liberty, but the opposite is true,” they write in the column. “Religious freedom means that Catholic women who want to follow their church's doctrine can do so, avoiding the use of contraception in any form. But the millions of American women who choose to use contraception should not be forced to follow religious doctrine, whether Catholic or non-Catholic.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Shaheen's press secretary, Faryl Ury, said the senator believes that all women should have affordable access to contraception.
Still, Fahey maintains that this mandate may place Catholic colleges and university presidents to be torn between civil disobedience toward their own government or disloyalty to their Catholic faith.
“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,” said William Fahey, president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack.
In an open letter sent this week to Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, Fahey said the Catholic college has grave concerns over the recent decisions made by the Obama administration to require private health plans to provide preventative services, specifically free contraception.
Fahey called the new mandate offensive, saying it erodes public trust that the government will observe the required restraint needed to allow citizens to exercise constitutional liberties. He went on to say the mandate is a direct violation of the conscience of any practicing Roman Catholic.
“I hope that you will see that the mandate attempts to force self-identified and faithfully Catholic organizations to compromise central tenets of their belief or drop health care coverage for their employees,” Fahey said, urging elected officials to take steps to withdraw the mandate from law.
On the Senate floor on Tuesday, Ayotte echoed Fahey's concerns, reading a quote from his open letter to her fellow lawmakers. Ayotte said she shares the concerns of her constituents in New Hampshire who see the recent rule as an unprecedented, unnecessary affront to religious liberty.
“This issue isn't limited to the Catholic Church,” she said. “This mandate places religious institutions in this impossible position of violating their core beliefs in order to comply with the mandate or dropping employee insurance coverage altogether. We should not be putting these organizations that do great work throughout this country in this position.”
Last fall, Ayotte was one of 27 senators to sign a letter expressing constitutional concerns regarding conscience rights as the health care law is implemented.
While Ayotte may agree with Fahey, Shaheen has a different viewpoint on the topic. In an opinion letter published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Shaheen said the administration should be commended — not criticized — for helping millions of women get the affordable care they need.
Shaheen, along with two other Democratic U.S. senators from California and Washington, argues that improving access to birth control is good health policy and good economic policy.
“Those now attacking the new health-coverage requirement claim it is an assault on religious liberty, but the opposite is true,” they write in the column. “Religious freedom means that Catholic women who want to follow their church's doctrine can do so, avoiding the use of contraception in any form. But the millions of American women who choose to use contraception should not be forced to follow religious doctrine, whether Catholic or non-Catholic.”
In a statement issued Wednesday, Shaheen's press secretary, Faryl Ury, said the senator believes that all women should have affordable access to contraception.
Still, Fahey maintains that this mandate may place Catholic colleges and university presidents to be torn between civil disobedience toward their own government or disloyalty to their Catholic faith.