Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of New York, joined an alliance of over 500 Catholics, Protestants, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Latter-Day Saints, Jews, and Muslims in rejecting the so called accommodation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in its mandate requiring employers to pay for, either directly or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives. The

The National Catholic Bioethics Center posts here Thomas Jefferson’s "Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom," drafted in 1779, and passed by the Virginia Assembly in 1786. The document is recognized as one of the most important precursors to the religion clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The statement of principle enunciated by Jefferson, especially as summarized in the second to last paragraph, is of particular relevance today.

The administration’s

On Friday, March 23, 2012, an amici curiae brief was filed in the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District, in  support of the conscience rights of pharmacists and pharmacies, violated by a ruling (Rule) by the State of Illinois [68 Illinois Administrative Code, Section 1330.91(j)].  This Rule mandated that pharmacists and pharmacies stock and dispense emergency contraceptives, such as Plan B and other potentially abortifacient drugs. The National Catholic Bioethics Center, in

Archbishop William E. Lori, newly appointed Archbishop of Baltimore, and Chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, has produced an excellent primer on the U.S. Health and Human Services’ mandate.  This mandate will  force employers to violate conscience and religious beliefs by requiring employers to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients for their employees.  The primer is available on the web page of the Bridgeport

Last August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandated that under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act almost all private health plans are to include with no co-pay “preventive services for women.” These “services” will include sterilization, all FDA-approved birth control (such as the IUD, Depo-Provera, ‘morning-after’ pills, and the abortion-inducing drug Ella), and the “well-women preventive visits,” described as