PROVIDENCE — The House Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony late Monday night on two bills of particular concern to faith communities that would require individual health insurers, large group health insurers and small employer health insurers to provide coverage for 10 categories of essential health benefits identified in the legislation.
While legislators supporting the bills said they would enshrine in state law some very important protections for healthcare consumers guaranteed through the federal Affordable Care Act, such as safeguards against the loss of insurance if benefit caps are reached, opponents expressed concern they would also erode the religious liberties of groups forced to abide by their provisions.
Opponents of H-5441 and H-5843 contend that these bills would codify into state law provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act that would infringe on the conscience rights of religious employers by forcing them to adhere to Obamacare’s preventive services mandate when providing health benefits to their employees.
“Both of these bills would enshrine in Rhode Island state law the Obamacare preventive services abortifacient and contraceptive mandate that has forced the Little Sisters of the Poor, and others, to defend their conscience rights before the Supreme Court for the past 10 years,” said RI Right to life Executive Director Barth E. Bracy.
Although the Little Sisters of the Poor did win their long case in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 to be granted an exemption by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from being mandated to provide preventative services in the healthcare plans offered to their employees — including contraception and abortifacients — the Sisters have constantly had to defend that victory for their religious liberty from being taken away.
“Despite three wins at the Supreme Court, an Executive Order and a new rule that protects us and other non-profit religious groups from the unconstitutional HHS contraceptive mandate, our legal saga is not yet completely over,” Sister Constance Veit, director of Communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor, said in an October 2020 column in Rhode Island Catholic.
“Several states and many politicians have promised not to rest until they succeed in stealing our hard-won exemption from the HHS mandate away from us.”
The R.I. Catholic Conference expressed in its testimony at Monday’s hearing that bills such as H5441 and H5943 would do just that.
“Both bills would impose the payment for “preventative services” that include immoral contraceptives and abortifacients by individuals and groups. This is a gross violation of religious liberty and personal conscience, said Father Bernard A. Healey, executive director of the R.I. Catholic Conference.
He said that religious communities have the right to organize and operate according to their beliefs without the government discriminating among sincere religious, and that religious individuals and organizations are free to follow their faith in all aspects of their lives, including in the workplace and not just in houses of worship.
“State governments and agencies should not and cannot unnecessarily force religious people to violate their beliefs to further a government goal,” he testified, noting the bills, in the absence of a robust conscience clause, would subject institutions such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, along with small businesses, charitable organizations, non-profits and people of conscience to “the grave disrespect of fundamental rights and the failure to recognize deeply held religious beliefs.”
Bracy testified that while the proposed bills give the appearance of maintaining the Trump administration’s accommodation to the Sisters against being forced to uphold parts of the mandate that violate their religious beliefs, such accommodations can quickly be reversed by the current administration.
“This is really only a mirage as the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner is explicitly given ‘authority to issue guidance clarifying the services that qualify,’” Bracy said.
Overturning the accommodation would place the Little Sisters of the Poor in peril, forcing them once again to violate their religious principles.
“If these legislators truly believe that the State of Rhode Island has a compelling interest in providing free abortifacient and contraceptive devices and drugs — and indeed prioritizing this measure over above measures to revive our pandemic-ravaged state as our state Senate has already done — I would hope they could find other ways to provide them than by forcing Catholic nuns and other people of faith to violate their deeply held moral and religious convictions,” Bracy said in an interview with Rhode Island Catholic.
Although the House HHS hearing started at 6 p.m., the two bills serving as the focus for those seeking to preserve conscience protections for groups such as the Little Sisters of the Poor did not come to the forefront for discussion until 9:45 p.m. They were considered along with two other health-related bills for comment.
At one point in the hearing, Chairman Stephen M. Casey (Dist. 60-Woonsocket) noted that upwards of 200 people had signed up to offer telephone testimony on various bills under consideration. Others submitted written testimony through a House website portal.
“The Sisters should not be forced to violate their highly sincere religious beliefs,” caller Linda Doran said. “It’s an attack against good women serving the poorest of the poor in this state.”
“It is despicable that the General Assembly would even seriously consider persecuting Catholic nuns and other people of conscience who refuse to participate in the deliberate slaughter of preborn human beings in the early stages of their development,” Donna Carpentier, of Woonsocket, said of the legalization of abortifacients.
Donald H. Angelo described himself as staunchly pro-life in expressing his opposition to the passage of the bills.
“If a group chooses not to do something they should be allowed not to do it. If it’s against our religion or our conscience to do it, they should not be forced to do it,” he testified.
Terry Plante said in her testimony that she feels conscience rights are being disregarded in this legislation, especially for the Little Sisters of the Poor.
“Human life is precious and deserves protection from the moment of conception,” she said. “Why force violations of people’s consciences?”
The hearing on the bills closed at 11:03 p.m., when they were held for further study.
