The Hill News

Friday the Obama administration announced its important tweak to the Jan. 20 Health and Human Services rule regarding religious exemptions to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act. That tweak effectively expands exemptions to include not only churches but also religious schools, charities, hospitals and universities. The administration’s move quells the political firestorm in Washington that had raged in recent weeks. More importantly, the tweak answers the specific objections that America’s Catholic bishops identified repeatedly since last summer. It’s curious, then, that reception by the bishops has been mixed.

I backed the bishops in wanting a broadening of the exemption to include all religious institutions. So, when the announcement came on Friday morning I rejoiced. A “win for the angels,” I called it. Yet, while I celebrated, some at the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) hastily moved the goal posts, working desperatel! y to snatch defeat from the jaws of a pretty good victory for religious liberty.

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