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On May 30, the Alliance Defense Fund filed a formal comment with the Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of 18 Catholic colleges including Benedictine College. The comment urges the Obama administration to respect religious freedom and to rescind their direct violation of religious liberty.
The health insurance mandates would require coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs, regardless of whether such coverage would violate the religious or moral conscience of an individual or institution.
By including its name in the formal comment, Benedictine College not only reaffirmed its opposition to the HHS mandates, but its commitment to Church teaching.
“When the HHS mandate put institutions like Benedictine College on notice that we would have to violate our consciences or pay crippling fines, Archbishop Joseph Nauman (KC-KS) encouraged us to be faithful,” said Benedictine College President Stephen D. Minnis. “And he said it right: ‘We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.’”
The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting public comments regarding the mandates until June 19. At that time, the Obama administration will move forward with the process of issuing further regulations on the implementation of the mandate.
Read the formal comment here.