The following is a
timeline on Notre Dame’s relationship and response to the HHS Mandate.
May 17, 2009.
President Barack Obama delivers the 2009 commencement address at Notre Dame, during
which he states: “Let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking
abortions, let’s reduce unintended pregnancies. Let’s make adoption more
available. Let’s provide care and support for women who do carry their children
to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and
draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care
policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as
well as respect for the equality of women.”
February 22, 2010.
President Obama releases a proposal for healthcare reform.
March 23, 2010. The
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is enacted by Congress and
signed by President Obama.
August 1, 2011.
Following recommendations by an Institute of Medicine panel, HHS Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius announces that among the reforms, the PPACA will require
employers’ group health plans to cover certain women’s “preventative care,”
including all FDA “approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures,
and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.”
The University of Notre Dame is among the countless institutions that will be
required to provide such care under the new mandate.
August 2, 2011. In
an article by Catholic News Agency, Notre Dame Law School Professors O. Carter
Snead and Richard Garnett are among several scholars who strongly criticize the
new healthcare mandate. Professor Snead calls the new regulations a “watershed
moment” and states, “Being an employee of a Catholic university that takes
seriously its Catholic identity, I worry very much about what we’re being asked
to do at this point. We’re being directly asked to act contrary to our deeply
held religious beliefs.”
August 3, 2011. HHS
issues amendments to the interim final rules of the Affordable Care Act,
including an exemption for “religious employers.” Ignoring all previous
definitions of “religious employer” in current and previous federal law, it
redefines a “religious employer” as one that meets the four following criteria:
·
“The inculcation of religious values is the
purpose of the organization.”
·
“The organization primarily employs persons who
share the religious tenets of the organization.”
·
“The organization serves primarily persons who
share the religious tenets of the organization.”
·
“The organization is a nonprofit organization as
described in… the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.”
The University of Notre Dame does not qualify for this
exemption.
September 28, 2011. Notre
Dame President, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., sends an open letter to HHS
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. In the letter he writes, “In their current form,
these regulations would require us to offer our students sterilization
procedures and prescription contraceptives, including pills that act after
fertilization to induce abortions, and to offer such services in our employee health
plans. This would compel Notre Dame either to pay for contraception and
sterilization in violation of the Church’s moral teaching, or to discontinue
our employee and student health care plans in violation of the Church’s social
teaching. It is an impossible position.”
October 5, 2011.
Responding to an alumni criticizing President Jenkins’ letter to Sebelius, The Observer, a student paper at Notre
Dame, publishes “Contraception and Conscience,” a letter by the Officers of
Notre Dame Right to Life. “We would like to praise Fr. Jenkins’ many continued
efforts to promote the dignity of the human person, and we especially commend
his letter to Secretary Sebelius. As violations of human nature, contraceptive
services are contrary to what is just, and forcing Notre Dame to offer such
services is unjust.”
October 5, 2011.
Claire Gillen, ND ’12, publishes and editorial in The Irish Rover, a student paper at Notre Dame titled: Dialogue
between Notre Dame and President Obama on religious freedom? She praises Fr.
Jenkins’ letter to Kathleen Sebelius, stating, “while Obama’s dictate flies in
the face of any meaningful conception of religious liberty, Fr. Jenkins’
conduct gives us hope that Notre Dame may take up its proper role as the
nation’s leading Catholic university.” http://wwww.irishrover.net/archives/1239
October 10, 2011. At
a NARAL Pro-Choice America lunchean, HHS Secretary Sebelius gives a speech in
which she states, “We are at war,” regarding debate over the “pregnancy
prevention” issue.
October 10, 2011. Bishop
Kevin C. Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese delivers the Red Mass
homily at Notre Dame, arguing that, “Assaults on our religious freedom [in the
United States] appear to be growing in ways that perhaps we may never have
imagined even a few years ago,” and calling upon the present “members of the legal
profession, as judges, lawyers, as law students and professors, and also those
who serve in public office, to join us in the defense of our religious freedom
and our rights of conscience.”
October 27, 2011. Notre
Dame Law Professor Richard Garnett publishes a column in USA today, arguing
that the Healthcare Mandate makes “the radical privatization of faith the price
of acting consistently with that faith” and it “should be scrapped.”
November 29, 2011.
Notre Dame Law Professor O. Carter Snead gives a lecture at Notre Dame,
“Understanding the PPACA ‘Contraceptive Mandate.’” He discusses the Mandate’s
narrow exemption clause and how they misconstrue the role of religion in
society. He said, “Supporters [of the Mandate] believe that contraception is a
matter of public health, but religious conscientious objections are a private
matter.”
January 19, 2012. At
an address before U.S. bishops in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI expresses concerns
that “some current cultural trends [in the United States] contain elements that
would curtail the proclamation of these [unchanging moral] truths [of the
Gospel], whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific
rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule”
and that “they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to
humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation,
our relationship to God.” http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2012/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20120119_bishops-usa_en.html
January 20, 2012.
HHS Secretary Sebelius announces that “[n]onprofit employers who, based on
religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their
insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to
comply with the new law.”
January 20, 2012. Notre
Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins releases a statement responding to Secretary
Sebelius’ announcement: “I am deeply disappointed in a decision by the
administration that will place many religious organizations of all faiths in an
untenable position. This unnecessary intervention by the government into
religion disregards our nation’s commitment to the rights of conscience and the
longstanding work of religious groups to help build a more compassionate
society and vibrant democracy. I find that profoundly troubling on many levels.
Moving forward, we call for a national dialogue among religious groups,
government, and the American people to reaffirm our country’s historic respect
for freedom of conscience and defense of religious liberty.” http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/28479-statement-from-notre-dames-president-rev-john-i-jenkins-c-s-c/
January 21, 2012.
Dr. Carolyn Woo, former Dean of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and
current President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, announces her opposition
to the healthcare mandate, stating that it “would compel Catholic institutions
to acquiesce to practices that run counter to our deeply held religious
teaching… This is clearly at odds with our long-held American tradition of
religious liberty.”
January 24, 2012. More
than a dozen Notre Dame alumni publish a letter in The Observer, calling upon Fr. Jenkins “to clearly announce Notre
Dame’s intention to disregard the HHS regulation as an infringement of the
freedom of religious exercise and to state in succinct terms that there can be
no compromise on this particular issue.
January 26, 2012. A
Notre Dame student publishes a letter in The
Observer defending contraception as necessary health care for women,
arguing “that anything short of providing comprehensive health care for women…
is ‘literally unconscionable’” and calling “upon Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s
women (and all the men, to) to disregard disregarding the mandate.”
January 31, 2012. The
officers of Notre Dame Right to Life publish a letter in the Observer to
“articulate and defend the Catholic Church’s clear and unchanging rejection of
artificial contraception, arguing that “institutions that seek to promote the
good of humanity have a responsibility to condemn and oppose sexual activity
[such as the use of artificial contraception] that is contrary to the dignity
of the human person.”
February 4, 2012. In
a post on “regrounding the HHS mandate debate,” Right to Life contributing
blogger Michael Black writes about how to debate this issue. “For Notre Dame to
offer contraceptives is not an issue. If she wants to maintain her role as a
Catholic university, she cannot compromise. What is at stake here is not the
right of one to use or not use a contraceptive; in this country, that is already
the case despite the great danger a contraceptive culture can do to a society.
What is at stake here is a question of religious liberty. Notre Dame does not
and would not be forcing those in disagreement into agreement with Her
Teachings.”
February 5, 2012. The Observer publishes a letter by Notre
Dame Junior Elliott Pearce, in which Pearce argues, “Women do not need
artificial birth control to protect themselves, plan their families or affirm
their dignity. They can avoid unplanned pregnancies and STDs by abstaining from
sex before marriage and regulate the births of their children within marriage
by using NFP. They can better respect themselves by embracing their ability to
bear children as an important part of their nature than they can by denying the
beauty and significance of one of the greatest abilities of any human person,
which they alone happen to possess. The only thing women (and men) ‘need’
artificial contraception for is to have sex whenever they want and with
whomever they want… Those of us who believe sex is a total, loving and fruitful
gift from one person of incommensurable dignity to another believe sex was
meant for something more.” http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/viewpoint/contraceptives-and-control-1.2765919#.T9uspitYucc
February 10, 2012.
President Obama announces a “compromise” on the mandate, announcing that
religious organizations will not have to directly pay for contraception,
sterilizations, or abortions, but that their insurance providers will finance
this “preventative care.” Notre Dame informs the White House that, as a
self-insured institution, this “compromise” fails to protect its religious
liberty.
February 10, 2012.
More than ninety faculty and staff members from the University of Notre Dame
join “over 300 leading scholars, university presidents and other
administrators, activists, and religious leaders from a multitude of faiths… in
a statement rejecting the HHS mandate requiring employers to provide, directly
or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations,
and contraceptives, and also rejecting President Obama’s so-called
‘accommodation’ of religious liberty as a mere ‘accounting trick’ that changes
nothing of moral substance.”
February 11, 2012.
Responding to recent articles in The
Observer, Right to Life contributing blogger Michael Black writes on “The
Dignity Question,” arguing, “We engage in sex because it feels good but not
only because it feels good; that leads very dangerously to using the other as
merely a tool for my own sexual pleasure. In a contraceptive culture, the other
merely becomes a tool and in that, we are incapable of recognizing one’s
dignity in ‘their intelligence, in their determination and drive in their
kindness and loyalty’ or more importantly, in the fact that they are an image
of the Creator.”
February 15, 2012.
In a New York Times blog post, Notre Dame Philosophy Professor Gary Gutting
argues against the absolute authority of the Bishops in the Church. “The
mistake of the Obama administration… was to accept the bishops’ claim that
their position on birth control expresses an authoritative ‘teaching of the
church’… The issue has been settled by the voice of the Catholic people [who
use and accept birth control.]”
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/birth-control-and-the-challenge-to-divine-authority/
February 16, 2012.
In an editorial in the Irish Rover, Notre Dame Senior Katie Petrik discusses
the Church’s teaching on contraception.
February 16, 2012.
In an Irish Rover article, various
members of the Notre Dame community provide their perspectives on how Notre
Dame should respond to the HHS Mandate. Rev. William R. Dailey, C.S.C. of the
Law School suggests that “at this point we should be behaving in such a way as
to signal the importance of this teaching [regarding contraception] to us as an
institution, and our grave reservations about being forced to behave in a way
that compromises our deep moral commitments.” Gerard Bradley of the Law School
calls upon the university to “live out its call to be a witness to the Gospel,
and refuse to cooperate with the Obama administration’s oppressive policy.” Lauren
Rasch, a senior in the Program of Liberal Studies, states, “the new law is
problematic because it seeks to define what is or isn’t a primarily religious
organization or ministry not only be the demographic that the institution
employs but also by the demographic that it serves… I think that we might
benefit from a broadening of the health care exemption.” She is also concerned
about this rule putting the Affordable Care Act in danger. “I think losing the
Affordable Care Act all together would be a tragedy.” Mazen El Makkouk, a PhD Candidate in Literature, calls upon
Notre Dame “to dissociate itself from protests that have narrow and
hypocritical political ends. If it wants to be a witness to truth, let it be to
larger truths.”
March 1, 2012. On
the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Notre Dame Law and Theology Professor Cathleen
Kaveny discusses the role of Catholic bishops and the Church’s teaching on a
variety of issues, including contraception and the death penalty.
March 2, 2012. Notre
Dame Law Professor gives the opening lecture for a medical ethics conference
sponsored by the Notre Dame Alumni Association and the Notre Dame Center for
Ethics and Culture. At the lecture, Snead discussed the HHS Mandate and the
importance of religious liberty. http://wwww.irishrover.net/archives/1710
http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/news/professor-lectures-on-ethics-of-hhs-mandate-1.2807714#.T9uzwStYucc
March 23, 2012. South
Bend joins 140 U.S. cities in the “Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rallies.” Many
Notre Dame students and staff participated in the South Bend Rally, including
Right to Life President Samantha Stempky. Quoted in an Irish Rover article discussing the event, Stempky stated, “Young
people especially need to resist this mandate, because we are fighting for the
future of the nation and society in which we will (or will not) be free to live
out our Catholic faith.” http://wwww.irishrover.net/archives/1705
March 27, 2012.
Notre Dame Right to Life hosts a panel discussion on the HHS Mandate in which
Carter Snead of the Notre Dame Law School, Richard Garnett of the Notre Dame
Law School, Lisa Everett of the Office of Family Life of the Diocese of Fort
Wayne-South Bend, and Notre Dame Senior Gabby Speech discussed dangers of,
concerns about, and disagreements with the legislation.
April 12, 2012. In
the “Cheers and Jeers” section of Notre Dame’s Irish Rover, Notre Dame Theology criticizes the February 15 blog
post by Notre Dame Philosophy Professor Gary Gutting, stating, “Professor
Gutting is not a trained ecclesiologist so perhaps he may be forgiven for
making a mistake. I am not an ecclesiologist either, but I doubt that even the
most liberal ecclesiologist could agree that the theory of authority implied in
his statement is authentically Catholic. It is neither intrinsically impossible
or even improbable that large numbers of people can be in error and can reject
the truth, authoritatively taught. It could be that large numbers of people do
not understand what they are rejecting.”
April 2, 2012. Notre
Dame Theology Professor David Clairmont discusses the HHS Mandate at an event
to raise awareness of the Mandate, sponsored by Notre Dame Campus Ministry, the
Center for Ethics and Culture, the Center for Social Concerns, the Gender
Relations Center, the Institute for Church Life, and University Life Initiatives.
April 14, 2012. At
a homily in Peoria, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC called upon those present to
“stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith,” and
warned, “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate
some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the
state in education, social services, and health care. In clear violation of our
First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and
extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.”
April 23, 2012. More
than 130 Notre Dame faculty and staff members sign a letter in The Observer condemning Bishop Jenky’s
comparison of “the president’s actions with those whose genocidal policies
murdered tens of millions of people” and calling upon Bishop Jenky to resign
from Notre Dame’s Board of Fellows and the University to “definitively distance
Notre Dame from Jenky’s incendiary statement.”
April 26, 2012. In
an Irish Rover editorial, Notre Dame
Junior and new Rover editor-in-chief critiques
the April 23 letter by Notre Dame faculty, taking “a closer look at Bishop Jenky’s
homily… Bishop Jenky’s homily does not link Obama with genocide. Instead, his
recounting of history draws a comparison between the potential closure of
Catholic hospitals, schools and ministries as a result of the HHS mandate.”
May 21, 2012. The
University of Notre Dame joins forty-three dioceses and Catholic organizations
in lawsuits against HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Department of Labor
Secretary Hilda Solis, U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Labor,
and the U.S. Department of Treasury. Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins
releases a message to the University regarding the lawsuit.
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/30962-notre-dame-files-religious-liberty-lawsuit-related-to-hhs-mandate/
June 28, 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality Affordable Care Act a tax.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf
July 27, 2012. A Colorado District Judge rules that Hercules Industries, a company owned by a Catholic family, does not have to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. The temporary ruling declares that, based upon religious grounds, the company does not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/27/catholic-business-owners-seek-injunction-against-obama-health-care-mandate/
June 28, 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality Affordable Care Act a tax.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf
July 27, 2012. A Colorado District Judge rules that Hercules Industries, a company owned by a Catholic family, does not have to provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. The temporary ruling declares that, based upon religious grounds, the company does not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/27/catholic-business-owners-seek-injunction-against-obama-health-care-mandate/
August 1, 2012.
Under current law, the HHS Mandate goes into effect for new and significantly
changing healthcare plans that do not qualify for the religious exemption.
Those qualifying for exemption have a one-year “temporary enforcement safe
harbor.”
August 1, 2013.
Under current law, the “temporary enforcement safe harbor” period ends.
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