Posted on 10/12/2012 10:55:19 AM PDT by NYer
.- The U.S. bishops criticized Vice President Joe Biden for an “inaccurate statement of fact” about the HHS mandate’s impact on religious institutions during last night’s vice presidential debate.
"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear,” said Biden during the Oct. 11 debate in Danville, Ky.
“No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide,” he argued. “That is a fact.”
“This is not a fact,” responded the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in an Oct. 12 statement.
The bishops’ conference criticized Biden’s remarks on the federal contraception mandate, calling them “inaccurate.”
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan responded by saying, “Now I have to take issue with the Catholic Church and religious liberty. If they agree with you, then why would they (dioceses and other Catholic institutions) keep suing you? It’s a distinction without a difference.”
Issued under the authority of the Affordable Care Act, the controversial mandate requires employers to offer health insurance that covers contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.
In recent months, more than 100 plaintiffs – including both Catholic and non-Catholic universities, charitable organizations and private businesses – have filed lawsuits challenging the mandate, arguing that it infringes upon their constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
Ryan raised the issue of the mandate during the debate while answering a question about the Catholic faith shared by both contenders. Ryan said that the mandate “troubles” him because it threatens religious freedom.
In responding to Biden’s claims, the bishops’ conference emphasized that the mandate includes only a narrow exemption for religious employers. The exemption applies only to non-profit organizations that exist primarily for the inculcation of religious values and both employ and serve primarily members of their own faith.
Therefore, the conference said, any religious charities, hospitals and social agencies that serve all people of any faith – including Georgetown Hospital and the other organizations named by Biden – are not covered by the exemption, which was finalized in February 2012.
The bishops’ conference also underscored that while the administration has proposed an additional “accommodation” for these non-exempt religious organizations, the proposal “does not even potentially relieve these organizations.”
The accommodation, which is still in its preliminary stages, offers a series of suggestions to relieve non-religious organizations from funding the controversial coverage if they object to it, while still including the coverage as part of the plans.
However, critics say the suggestions all amount to an accounting gimmick, because they would still require the objecting organizations to pay for the coverage indirectly, through necessarily increased premiums.
The bishops’ conference argued that under the proposed schemes religious organizations “will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients.”
“They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries,” it added.
The bishops’ conference said that it continues to ask the Obama administration “in the strongest possible terms” to take action that truly removes “the various infringements on religious freedom imposed by the mandate.”
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Didn’t Pulosi say the Bishops don’t speak for the Church?
he made a lot of those incorrect remarks last night but the Catholic one was at the top or near to there.
Why would the church be suing if they were not being told what to do and how to ignore their faith?
Biden seemed he had no clue
Obama looked to not have a clue
so who the hell is running the country, SOROS!!!
Also now they state obama and Biden had not been told that security was needed at Libya, HUH
This is what happens when children and immature idiots get into power and sadly we stil have dopes out there who thinks being rude, butting in, and making false statements means they will vote .
If they weren’t told about Libya it must have been in one of those Intelligence briefings Obama decided to skip.
I cannot believe an Intelligence Briefing would not have mentioned that the Libyans were growing restless.
If it did fail to deliver that message heads should roll.
That's not what the courts have ruled, Joe:
“The plaintiffs argue that their religious freedom is infringed by a government law requiring them to finance health services they view as repugnant to their beliefs,” Jackson wrote in her decision. “However, none of these plaintiffs is required to undergo an abortion or to make use of the covered contraception benefits. Consequently, they remain totally free to adhere to their religious beliefs insofar as the effects are confined to themselves.”“That the religious beliefs of the plaintiffs regard abortion as murder and that compelling them to contribute financial resources to support this procedure is irrelevant. The law states that women are entitled to this health service. The plaintiffs’ religious preferences cannot override this legal requirement.”
-- from the thread Judge Rejects Religious Objection to Obamacare Mandate
As I understand it, the administration’s “acomodation” is to shift the payment requirement (for contraception and abortion) to the insurance carrier. BUT, most of the large, Catholic institutions are SELF INSURED, so it’s no accomodation at all.
nail on head.
If obama and Biden were not told then they need to go to their intel briefings much more , infact all of them.
That makes it their fault for not dong their job and the blood is on their hands.
However if they were told and failed to do nothing nad not take the advice on the ground then they still have blood on their hands as it shows their lazy again.
Anyway we look at this it shows obama and Biden are at fault and now we must find who started this cover up.
Bottom line is that they have failed and how the cult of obama can still vote for this failure shows how dumb these people are.
Remember when oabma sent out a bogus survey about don’t ask and then quickly said no one has a problem with it .
They ignored the Generals , the marines etc and the reason why is because obama is so far left that he has his agenda and to hell with everyone
What an empty suit with no real principles.
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