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| Fr. Frank Pavone |
Last week the U.S. Supreme
Court gave President Trump, his administration, and all Americans a significant
victory for religious freedom. At issue was an Obama-Biden mandate that I too
was involved in fighting all the way to the Supreme Court four years ago.
In a 7-2 decision, the Court
said the Trump administration acted properly when it expanded exemptions to
those who had moral or religious objections to the onerous 2011 "HHS
mandate" that required employers to provide coverage for certain
contraceptives and abortions in the health insurance plan offered to their
employees.
But make no mistake, the
victory will be undone if a Democrat wins the presidential election in
November.
And in fact, presumptive
Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden was quoted the very day the decision was
issued, saying he would "restore the Obama-Biden policy that existed
before" President Trump and the Supreme Court began defending religious
groups from being forced to choose between following the law or following their
faith.
There are so many things wrong
with Biden’s position that it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s go back
to the beginning.
When Congress passed the Affordable
Care Act — i.e. Obamacare — in 2010, it said employers have to cover essential
healthcare services for their employees, but did not specify what those
services might be. The law left that task to the appropriate federal agencies.
A year later, the Department
of Health and Human Services came out with the list of specific required
services, including all FDA-approved contraceptive drugs and devices, some of
which cause early abortions.
Houses of worship were exempt,
but ministries like Priests for Life and the Little Sisters of the Poor — and
many others — would not be (despite the fact that they share
the same faith and moral convictions as their houses of worship do.)
Of course we could not and
would not abide by this mandate.
The very purpose of our
organization is to end abortion, not help provide it.
Moreover, the Catholic Church
is, and has always been, against the use of artificial contraception.
Priests for Life became the
fourth of what turned into hundreds of cases fighting this mandate, and
objecting to the "accommodation" it offered — because
by signing the form which on the one hand said we objected to covering these
immoral "services," that very form triggered an alternate form of
coverage to our employees, because they are our employees.
In other words, we were still
being forced to be complicit in what we object to.
Our case, Priests
for Life vs. HHS, and six others consolidated with it, was heard in the
Supreme Court in 2016. Instead of ruling on the case, the justices said they
believed a solution could be found and sent us all back to the bargaining
table.
This was when Obama was still
president, Biden was vice president and HHS staffed with Democrat appointees,
and though we were willing to find that solution and had our attorneys
represent us in multiple meetings with the Obama-Biden administration, that
administration completely failed both to understand and accommodate our
religious and moral objections.
Then, thank God, President
Trump won the 2016 election, and when we sat down again with HHS – under new,
pro-life leadership and with new government lawyers — they
already were committed to protecting our religious freedom.
A formal agreement was
crafted, we signed it, and we are now permanently exempt from having to violate
our religious beliefs to cooperate in the evil of abortion.
The Trump administration the
issued new rules, extending the exemptions originally offered by the mandate,
so that those who have religious or moral objections would not be forced to
violate their conscience.
Some states objected to the
new and expanded exemptions. Pennsylvania and New Jersey sued, saying President
Trump and his agencies had exceeded his authority. That was the case decided
last week.
We know the case as the Little
Sisters, but in reality, it was two consolidated cases, the first being Trump
vs. Pennsylvania. So this victory was not just for the Little Sisters,
but for every American determined to hold on to the religious liberty
guaranteed to each and every one of us.
Certainly we should celebrate
this victory but we also have to take steps to safeguard it. The decision could
be short-lived. If Biden were to win in November, we don’t have to guess what
he would do — he's already told us.
Reinstating the HHS mandate is
not the only thing the Democrats would do if they take the White House and
Senate and hold on to the House.
They will also codify Roe v.
Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) to make it a law that states could not
circumvent, and they will repeal the Hyde Amendment, which protects much of our
taxpayer money from funding abortion.
And the abortion wish-list
goes on and on.
Make no mistake — the battle
resolved in the Supreme Court last week must be taken to the voting booth this
fall or we’ll witness the hard left, having taken over the Democratic Party,
reshape America into something we won't recognize
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