Sparks fly as House GOP blasts contraception mandate

c. 2012 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) Exhibit A in the fight over President Obama's mandate for
religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraception: a
ham sandwich.

At a hearing Thursday (Feb. 16) convened by House Republicans to cast
opposition to the mandate as a matter of religious liberty, Roman Catholic
Bishop William E. Lori invoked the image of a kosher deli forced to sell ham
sandwiches.

"The mandate generates the question whether people who believe -- even if
they believe in error -- that pork is not good for you, should be forced by
government to serve pork within their very own institutions.

"In a nation committed to religious liberty and diversity, the answer, of
course, is no," said Lori, the bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and the point
man on religious liberty for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Democrats on the panel objected to the hearing as a male-dominated
exercise designed to recast Obama's desire to expand coverage for women's
reproductive services as a callous disregard for America's cherished tradition of
religious freedom.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform, sought to steer the discussion to women's
health, and how contraception has improved their lives.

"The pill has had a profound impact on their well-being -- far more than
any man in this room can ever know," Cummings said.

Cummings accused Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., of "promoting
a conspiracy theory that the federal government is conducting a 'war'
against religion. He has stacked the hearing with witnesses who agree with his
position."

In addition to Lori, witnesses included the Rev. Matthew C. Harrison, the
president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of
Yeshiva University; and Craig Mitchells, a professor at Southwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary.

A second panel included representatives of religiously affiliated colleges
and health plans. The Democrats originally contemplated asking the Rev.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church
and State, to testify, according to Lynn, but instead asked a female witness
-- a decision Lynn said he understood.

But Issa rejected the Democrat's ultimate choice -- Georgetown University
law student Sandra Fluke, who has been outspoken about how the Catholic
university denied contraceptive coverage to a fellow student whose doctors
prescribed the drugs to treat ovarian cysts.

In a heated exchange as the hearing began, Issa said the Democrats had
presented Fluke to the committee too late and that, unlike Lynn, she was not
an appropriate speaker for the topic of religious freedom.

"She is a student at a well-respected Catholic University. Why in the world
is she not qualified?" Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., shot back.

The Obama administration, which first issued the mandate on Jan. 20, had
seemed to underestimate the reaction from the bishops and many conservative
Christians. Even those who do not share the bishops' theological opposition
to birth control nonetheless object to providing insurance for
sterilization and the so-called morning-after pill, which some view as akin to
abortion.

Last Friday (Feb. 10), the administration modified the mandate, saying
that insurance companies -- not religious institutions like hospitals and
universities -- would be required to offer free contraception coverage to
employees.

Lori and the Republicans' other panelists said the recent accommodation
would still force institutions to violate their consciences and subsidize
services that contradict their religious beliefs.

Other groups that were opposed to the original mandate say the
administration has met critics more than half way, and the bishops should accept the
deal.

"The bishops have prevailed," said Nicholas P. Cafardi, a law professor at
Duquesne University and a supporter of the president. "Basically I think
the bishops should be gracious in their victory."

But the Missouri Synod's Harrison said he would rather go to jail than
comply with even the modified mandate. The Obama compromise, he said, still
requires religious institutions to pay -- however indirectly -- for services
that violate their religious beliefs.

"I will give up my sons to fight" for these liberties, he said. "I will
give up every single thing I have."