U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation that would force employers, including Catholic institutions, to pay, directly or indirectly, for insurance for sterilization and contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs, stands as a religious liberty crisis. Scholars see it as the continuation of struggles faced by people of faith throughout the nation’s history.
John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America in Washington, said that the first battle over religious liberty in the United States dealt with the established church of Virginia, the Church of England, after the Revolutionary War. “It had been a thorn in the side of dissenting Protestants — Baptists and Presbyterians in particular — who for theological reasons objected to paying for the support of any established church,” he said. Read more »