Leila Abolfazli, Senior Counsel

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Health of the Energy & Commerce Committee held a hearing titled "Do New Health Law Mandates Threaten Conscience Rights and Access to Care?" If you are wondering how an HHS Interim Final Rule guaranteeing no cost-sharing coverage of contraceptives threatens access to care, you are not alone. The whole point of the regulation is to dramatically increase women's access to contraception because it is critical preventive health care for women. In fact, it is not the new health care regulation that threatens access to care but the exemption HHS included in the regulation allowing certain religious employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage.

This exemption has no basis under the Affordable Care Act, the Constitution does not require it, and it takes away critical health care for many women. Despite these serious problems with the very existence of an exemption, a minority of people think the exemption does not go far enough. Against this backdrop, the Subcommittee convened the hearing to debate the exemption and proposals for expanding it to include a much larger group of religious employers, like hospitals and universities.

After attending the hearing, I think a better title would have been the question so aptly posed by Representative Schakowsky in her opening remarks, "Why should the conscience of an employer trump a woman's conscience?" Because that is exactly the position the three witnesses in favor of expanding the exemption took during the hearing.