Statement of CNS on President Barack Obama’s Revised Contraceptive Mandate (Feb. 10, 2012)

It is quickly becoming clear that President Obama’s revised mandate for insurance coverage of abortifacients, sterilization and contraception amounts to nothing more than political theater. The mandate remains. And so our fight continues.

Under terms of the revised mandate, students at Catholic colleges and universities will still be provided free abortion-causing drugs, sterilization and contraception.  And Catholic colleges and universities will still be compelled under the force of law to pay for such coverage for their students and employees if they offer a health plan.

Faithfully Catholic colleges and universities cannot violate their Catholic mission. The President’s goal of free abortion, sterilization and contraception for all Americans is directly opposed to that mission. Any government mandate for Catholic colleges and universities to participate in this social engineering plan is unacceptable and unconscionable.

The Cardinal Newman Society will continue to work with Catholic colleges and universities to find the most acceptable solution to this violation of their religious liberty. But there can be no compromise that does not eliminate the mandate.