On NRO today, lawyers Noel J. Francisco and Paul M. Pohl provide an admirably clear account of the moral complicity that the so-called HHS mandate “accommodation” coerces. Some excerpts:
The nonprofit plaintiffs in these cases — faith-based schools and organizations such as Catholic Charities and Thomas Aquinas College — have a religious objection to hiring any insurance company that will provide their employees with coverage for abortifacients or contraceptives. They believe that hiring or maintaining a contract with any such company would make them complicit in sin. But the government’s regulatory mandate forces the plaintiffs to do exactly that: hire a company that will provide the objectionable coverage to their own employees in connection with their employer-based health plans.…
The government has spun a narrative in which plaintiffs are somehow eligible for an exemption from the contraceptive mandate and are stubbornly objecting only to the simple requirement that they file a two-page form asking for the exemption. But that is completely and utterly false. In fact, there is no way for plaintiffs to get an exemption, because there is no way for them to avoid hiring and maintaining a contract with an insurance company that will provide the objectionable coverage to their employees.…
But this supposed fix [the form] does not accommodate the plaintiffs’ religious beliefs at all. It still forces them to hire and maintain a contract with an insurance company that will provide the objectionable coverage to their employees in connection with an employer-based health plan. Maintaining this relationship is exactly what the plaintiffs find religiously objectionable: They believe that it makes them complicit in sin to offer their employees a health plan that comes with contraceptive and abortifacient coverage. Indeed, by filing the form to invoke the “accommodation,” the plaintiffs effectively amend their own health plans to make it possible for the objectionable coverage to be provided by their own insurance company.…
The moral principles underlying this religious objection are based on common sense. Imagine that you hire a piano tutor for your children and learn that the tutor is supplying them with free cigarettes. You might object to maintaining the arrangement, regardless of whether you are paying for the cigarettes. Or imagine you have a religious objection to alcohol and learn that the caterer you have hired for your wedding is going to serve free booze to all of your wedding guests. You might want to fire the caterer.