The US Conference of Catholic Bishops declined to comment on the Obama administration's latest modification to the Health and Human Services mandate that many Catholic employers are challenging in court.

But other organisations defending plaintiffs in some of the 44 current legal challenges to the HHS mandate said the modifications would not help most of their clients.

Significantly, the Catholic Health Association, which a year ago expressed initial support for the Obama mandate, offered no endorsement of the administration's latest proposal.

Under the latest proposal, Catholic dioceses will probably be exempted from coverage by the HHS mandate. Catholic hospitals, social agencies and universities will not — though the administration proposed other ways to provide the required benefits without any direct financial or administrative involvement by objecting religious non-profits organisations.

The government's plan is to allow Catholic hospitals and universities to offer employee health plans that do not directly provide free contraception and other "preventive services" for women.

Employees or insured students who wanted contraceptive coverage would be able to arrange it through outside insurance companies, at no cost to themselves and without financial or even administrative support of the faith-based institution.

For-profit companies and non-profits that do not have an explicitly religious mission, such as pro-life organisations, could not avail themselves of this stand-alone policy.

Yuval Levin, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, said in a National Review Online post that that new proposal "betrays a complete lack of understanding of both religious liberty and religious conscience.

"Religious liberty is an older and more profound kind of liberty than we are used to thinking about in our politics now. It's not freedom from constraint, but recognition of a constraint higher than even the law.... It's not the right to do what you want; it is the right to do what you must."

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The association said it is "imperative" that the administration abandon its "narrow" definition of religious employer and exempt not only churches but also Catholic hospitals, health care organizations and other Church ministries.

It said it is "deeply concerned" by the administration's approach to "contraceptive services, especially abortifacient drugs and sterilization."

The Catholic Health Association represents over 600 hospitals and 1,400 other health facilities in all 50 U.S. states. It is the largest group of nonprofit health care providers in the U.S.

The June 15 letter from CHA president and CEO Sister Carol Keehan and other association board members addressed the Department of Health and Human Services about the proposed rulemaking to implement the Obama administration's intended accommodation announced on Feb. 10.

However, when the accommodation was initially presented, Sr. Keehan said in a Feb. 10 statement that the Catholic Health Association was "very pleased" with the White House's proposal and that it "protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions."

"The framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed," she said.

"We are pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protection needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appreciated enough that an early resolution of this issue was accomplished," Sr. Keehan stated.

The CHA statement was circulated by a White House official before the Obama administration announced the proposed accommodation, a fact that prompted speculation the CHA had input into the proposal.

But in its June 15 letter, the CHA changed its tone. It said the announcement had seemed to be "a good first step" but further study "has not relieved our initial concerns." Continue reading