ND Expert: Obama administration 'compromise accommodation' inadequate | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › ND Expert: Obama administration 'compromise accommodation' inadequate ND Expert: Obama administration 'compromise accommodation' inadequate Published: February 10, 2012 Author: Michael O. Garvey President Barack Obama’s proposed adjustments to the new Health and Human Services rule requiring Catholic institutions, including the University of Notre Dame, to provide health care plans covering contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs continue to violate religious liberty, according to O. Carter Snead, professor of law at Notre Dame. “Today’s ‘compromise accommodation’ is nothing of the sort,” Snead said. “The original uproar across the ideological spectrum was in reaction to the administration’s requirement that virtually all religious employers cover abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization in violation of their strongly held beliefs. “Today’s rule still requires religious institutions (on pain of ruinous treasury fines) to purchase insurance that covers these same objectionable services. It is irrelevant that the rule requires the insurance company (rather than the religious institution) to explain to employees that the policy purchased for them by their employer includes the five-day after pill. For institutions that self-insure, the situation is even worse; they will be forced to contact their employees and pay for such services themselves. “It is no answer to suggest that the religious liberty of such employers is being accommodated because they are not ‘paying’ for the objectionable services. First, it is naïve to imagine that the services are truly cost-free and that these costs will not be passed along to the employers who purchase these plans. More importantly, the simple fact is that under this policy the government is coercing religious institutions to purchase a product that includes services that they regard as gravely immoral. “We should ask ourselves why President Obama has sustained the narrow exemption for churches, religious orders and auxiliaries? This is tantamount to the admission that this policy, just like the previous one, runs afoul of religious liberty.” Snead, a scholar who specializes in the relationship between bioethics and the law, is the former general counsel for the President’s Council on Bioethics, a White House advisory committee, and was the principal author of the council’s 2004 report on the regulation of new biotechnologies affecting assisted reproduction, human embryo research and genetics. He also serves as a permanent observer for the U.S. government at the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Bioethics and on UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee. Contact: Professor Snead, 574-631-8259, snead.1@nd.edu Posted In: Faith Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 03, 2022 dCEC to Award 2023 ND Evangelium Vitae Medal to Robert P. George September 22, 2022 In memoriam: Rev. Richard Warner, C.S.C., longtime leader for Notre Dame, Congregation of Holy Cross September 15, 2022 In new book on global Catholicism, Provost John McGreevy explores modern history, current challenges of the Church September 15, 2022 Death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean to speak at Notre Dame September 14, 2022 Apostolic nuncio to Great Britain to deliver the 2022 Keeley Vatican Lecture For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn