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prochoice_marylandFrom Now:
Opponents of women's access to contraception have stepped up pressure on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand an exemption allowing some religious institutions to deny birth control insurance coverage to their employees. This exemption should not have been included in the HHS rules in the first place. But religious extremists are lobbying hard to convince HHS to completely remove the requirement for full insurance coverage of contraception from the new regulations. This would be a huge loss for women.
Take action NOW: Write your own comment or use NOW's sample comment below by cutting and pasting it into the appropriate space on the government regulations website. The deadline for comments is Sept. 30
This is the comment from NOW if you want to use it instead of writing your own:
Dear Secretary Sebelius:
I strongly urge you to make every effort to eliminate the imposition of an exemption for religious institutions in the HHS interim final rule on preventive health services [CMS-9992-IFC2] as it relates to insurance coverage for contraceptive services. The thousands of women who happen to work for Catholic and other religious institutions should not be disadvantaged by the federal government bending to a tiny minority of male church leaders who do not represent the views of a majority of the laity. Some 98 percent of sexually-active Catholic women utilize modern contraception and 68 percent support insurance coverage for contraception.
Birth control is basic health care for all women, and the federal government should not permit a solitary religious viewpoint to override good public health policy. Allowing certain faith-based organizations to avoid this statute is, in fact, promoting the private interests of a tiny religious minority. This exemption and all other refusal or conscience clauses infringe upon women's constitutional right to freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Religious as well as non-religious employees deserve equal access to contraceptive coverage. The federal government has the responsibility to ensure that all women who desire contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act are guaranteed access. I hope that HHS will see the importance of this assurance and remove the exemption from the interim final rule (Docket I.D.= HHS-OS-2011-0023-0002).
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Opponents of women's access to contraception have stepped up pressure on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand an exemption allowing some religious institutions to deny birth control insurance coverage to their employees. This exemption should not have been included in the HHS rules in the first place. But religious extremists are lobbying hard to convince HHS to completely remove the requirement for full insurance coverage of contraception from the new regulations. This would be a huge loss for women.
Take action NOW: Write your own comment or use NOW's sample comment below by cutting and pasting it into the appropriate space on the government regulations website. The deadline for comments is Sept. 30
This is the comment from NOW if you want to use it instead of writing your own:
Dear Secretary Sebelius:
I strongly urge you to make every effort to eliminate the imposition of an exemption for religious institutions in the HHS interim final rule on preventive health services [CMS-9992-IFC2] as it relates to insurance coverage for contraceptive services. The thousands of women who happen to work for Catholic and other religious institutions should not be disadvantaged by the federal government bending to a tiny minority of male church leaders who do not represent the views of a majority of the laity. Some 98 percent of sexually-active Catholic women utilize modern contraception and 68 percent support insurance coverage for contraception.
Birth control is basic health care for all women, and the federal government should not permit a solitary religious viewpoint to override good public health policy. Allowing certain faith-based organizations to avoid this statute is, in fact, promoting the private interests of a tiny religious minority. This exemption and all other refusal or conscience clauses infringe upon women's constitutional right to freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Religious as well as non-religious employees deserve equal access to contraceptive coverage. The federal government has the responsibility to ensure that all women who desire contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act are guaranteed access. I hope that HHS will see the importance of this assurance and remove the exemption from the interim final rule (Docket I.D.= HHS-OS-2011-0023-0002).
Sincerely,
[Your name]
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