Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is demanding that the Obama administration take back the requirement in its health plan that all employers offer coverage which includes contraceptives and "abortion-inducing drugs."
Chaput and other bishops around the country voiced their opposition to the Jan. 20 announcement by the Obama administration. Letters from Chaput and other bishops were read at Mass a week ago Sunday all over the U.S.
In his letter Chaput says that the federal ruling compromises "both the principle of religious conscience and the First Amendment to the Constitution in an unprecedented way… faithful Catholics will be forced either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees," the archbishop said, according to the Inquirer.
Religious leaders weren’t the only ones opposing the administration’s decision. On NBC's “Meet the Press,” Newt Gingrich said the contraceptive coverage mandate is one of many government assaults on Americans' religious rights.
Further outrage came about when multiple media outlets reported that Army chaplains were instructed not to read the bishops’ letter from the pulpit. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the Army violated its chaplains' constitutional rights to religion and free speech.
The Inquirer spoke to local church-goers about how they felt about the issue.
"This has broad implications not just for Catholics, but for evangelicals, Orthodox Jews," Christopher Jungers, a member of St. John the Evangelist parish in Center City, told the Inquirer. "The downfall is going to be that organizations say, 'We aren't going to provide health care to our employees,' " he said.
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Though the administration ruled that churches and houses of worship do not have to comply with the new requirement, organizations run by religious institutions, such as hospitals, colleges and charities, will have to, reports the Inquirer.
