FAYETTEVILLE — The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act presents Catholics with a moral dilemma, according to Father Tad Pacholczyk, an expert on bioethics and medical ethics.
He said Catholics should do whatever is in their power to oppose the new law.
“You and I and anybody with ears to hear and eyes to see knows this is a decisive hour in our country,” he told a crowd of about 150 during a presentation at St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville July 1. “We are seeing things that 50, 20, even 10 years ago we never believed would happen are starting to unfold.”
A part of the act is the contraceptive mandate requiring most health insurance plans to offer contraception, some abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations for free. While “religious employers” such as churches are exempt from the mandate, nonprofit church organizations like universities, charities and hospitals are not exempt because they aren’t solely serving their members. Businesses are required to implement the mandate in 2015.
The HHS made its final ruling June 28, but Church officials are still not happy with the mandate’s narrow ruling of “religious employer” and how private businesses that want to operate under religious principles are still not exempt.
Father Pacholczyk’s remarks focused on the morally untenable position business owners will soon find themselves in, that is, the inability to provide health care benefits to their employees without those plans covering contraception and sterilization.
“This is an affront to every American,” he said. “We should not have to face this moral dilemma, a clear violation of our moral conscience.”
Drawing from an August 2012 commentary published by the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, of which Father Pacholczyk is director of education, he said Catholic business owners face four courses of action. The first — willingly complying with the employer mandate — is never morally defensible because in so doing, one knowingly endorses an entity or system promoting a sinful act.
Two options on the other end of the spectrum — refusal to comply altogether or providing coverage that does not include the objectionable procedures — may not be realistic even as they hold the highest moral ground.
Most insurance policies will be required to cover contraception and sterilization under the act, and employers will likely not find an insurance provider willing to endure the stiff fines imposed should they not comply. Similarly, dropping coverage altogether would result in fines by the government that could easily bankrupt small businesses. Companies with at least 50 full-time employees are subject to the new law.
The commentary concluded it would be morally licit for a business owner to comply temporarily and under protest, dropping coverage once states implement insurance exchanges by which employees may obtain individual insurance coverage.
Father Pacholczyk detailed a litany of examples of religious freedoms being discounted or ignored during the formation of the new health care law. He said Catholics bear some share of the blame for allowing these issues to become so mainstream in the first place.
“We tend to be passive and not make a presentation in the public square,” Father Pacholczyk said. “We’ve not done a good enough job as Catholics explaining why (abortion and contraception) is damaging to women and to families. That makes it harder to voice our opposition now.”
Father Pacholczyk’s 90-minute talk was one of several he delivered in Fayetteville. He spoke on euthanasia July 1 and on in-vitro fertilization July 2. The event was co-sponsored by St. Joseph Church and the Northwest Arkansas Respect Life Council.
