We are urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly supporters) before the end of October to help save babies from abortion 365 days a year. Your first gift as a Life Defender today will be DOUBLED. Click here to make your monthly commitment.
Biden HHS to release new regulations threatening conscience protections, group claims
According to Catholic News Service, leadership at the Catholic Benefits Association believes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will announce new regulations, perhaps as soon as this month, that will threaten conscience protections for health care professionals.
A 74-page legal memorandum prepared by the Leadership Conference and discovered in November of last year revealed that HHS has promised to revise regulations with regard to health plan coverage to include surgical abortion, fertility treatments, contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations, as well as a variety of transgender-related procedures.
“The memo prepared by the Leadership Conference provides the best forecast of what the new regulation will say. … [T]here is good reason to believe that it will be quite similar to the memo signed on by 30 sexual rights activist groups including Planned Parenthood,” according to attorney Martin Nussbaum, advisor to the Catholic Benefits Association.
It is expected that the new regulations will disallow religious exemptions.
Every day in America, more than 2,800 preborn babies lose their lives to abortion.
That number should break our hearts and move us to action.
Ending this tragedy requires daily commitment from people like you who refuse to stay silent.
Millions read Live Action News each month — imagine the impact if each of us took a stand for life 365 days a year.
Right now, we’re urgently seeking 500 new Life Defenders (monthly donors) to join us before the end of October. And thanks to a generous $250,000 matching grant, your first monthly gift will be DOUBLED to help save lives and build a culture that protects the preborn.
Will you become one of the 500 today? Click here now to become a Live Action Life Defender and have your first gift doubled.
Together, we can end abortion and create a future where every child is cherished and every mother is supported.
These regulations would apply to section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity. They would likely apply to all health care providers, clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, group health insurers, and third-party administrators of self-funded plans.
“And if the new regulation applies to all of those groups, it will effectively apply to all employers with a health plan,” Nussbaum said. “[T]he penalties to noncompliance will likely include private enforcement, class-action lawsuits, ‘qui tam’ actions, which is where an individual can file a lawsuit as if he or she were the United States itself,” Nussbaum explained. “The penalties may also include loss of Medicare and Medicaid funding and even imprisonment for noncomplying health care executives.”
Doug Wilson, CEO of the Catholic Benefits Association, believes the anticipated regulations represent “a well-crafted and well-thought out way” to oust religion from the health care field. “The Leadership Conference’s demands are very clear,” he stated. “There must be no religious exemptions from this. At the end of the day, we are preparing for what we anticipate will be a significant lawsuit.”
Faith-based groups and employers will likely challenge any proposed changes.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Issues
