2012-06-20 L’Osservatore Romano
Washington, 20. There have been new appeals in the United States urging authorities to implement changes to the health reform in such a way as to ensure respect for the freedom of conscience.  Health care reform, launched by the Obama administration, we remember, provides that insurance plans for employees of any organization to include the minimum services required, among which are abortive measures. The department of Health and Human Services has issued a directive which provides only in a small number of cases in which an organization, even if religious-run, may be exempt from paying for such health care services for its employees. These “services” include  surgerical procedures for sterilization, all prescription contraceptives listed by the Food and Drug Administration, including drugs that cause abortion within the first weeks of pregnancy.
The Catholic Health Association (CHA), the largest Catholic health care association in the country, led by its president, Sr Carol Keehan, has asked the Administration  to expand its definition of religious employers to exempt organizations such as hospitals and other institutions that “share common bonds and convictions with a religious community”. In the reform, as it stands, only those religious organizations that take on primarily employees with their own beliefs  or that offer services primarily geared  to serve persons of their religion can legitimately oppose the new guidelines. In this context, therefore,many health care institutions that, though offering a fundamental service, would not enter within the rigid parameters established by the Government.