facebook
rss
twitter
  • About
    • Contact
    • Elementary & Secondary Education Department
    • Social Concerns Department
  • Legislative Review
  • Issues
    • Catholic Education
    • Faith and Politics
    • Health Care
    • Life and Dignity
    • Marriage and Family
    • Religious Liberty
    • Social Justice
  • Bishops’ Statements
    • En Español
  • Resources
    • Bulletin Inserts
    • Church Documents
    • PA Catholic Statistics
    • Related Sites
    • Send A Letter to The Editor
  • Subscribe
    • RSS Feeds
    • Via E-mail
  • Contact
  • Podcast

“Respect for conscience rights and personal autonomy has been a part of the fabric of our nation since its inception.”

October 05, 2011
by
Archdiocese of Philadelphia, H.R. 1179, HHS, mandated contraception, Rights of Conscience, S.B. 1467
Comments are off

Steven Bozza, director of the Respect Life Office at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has written a letter to the editor in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the HHS mandate and religious liberty.

In his letter, “Patient protection act poses serious threat to our autonomy,” he writes,

Throughout the existence of our nation, the right of every person to act according to his or her conscience has been written into federal and state laws and upheld by the courts. Our founders recognized that authentic freedom can only be achieved when the individual is able to actively pursue the truth and act in accord with the truth he or she has discovered.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “[N]o provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.”

The right of conscience is closely linked to autonomy. As humans, we have the capacity to make informed, uncoerced decisions about the actions we take. Autonomy is a fundamental and essential ethical principle in all our decision-making.

Until the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the government has never attempted to violate these sacred and essential functions of the human intellect. Among the features of PPACA is a mandate for coverage of contraception and sterilization in almost all health plans in the United States regardless if that coverage violates the consciences of individual Americans, agencies, or business enterprises.

At first glance, mandated coverage of contraception and sterilization would seem to be of concern only to those among us who believe these practices are immoral. However, this mandate exposes a more sinister threat that has ramifications for all of us.

This mandate is a violation of the fundamental rights of conscience and autonomy. Thus, it puts a barrier to human freedom and in doing so, it denigrates human dignity.

Read the entire letter here.

Send a message to Congress encouraging the passage of the Rights of Conscience Act by clicking here.

 

Social Share
  • google-share

News From Around PA

  • Our Sunday Visitor names Gretchen R. Crowe as editor-in-chief of OSV News
  • 5th Circuit urged to keep injunction in place on HHS transgender mandate
  • Whispered Word Clearly Heard
  • Diocese of Pittsburgh Releases Local Synod Report
  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg and Tort Claimants Committee reach agreement in Chapter 11 Reorganization
  • Bishop Bambera Announces Clergy Appointments
Click To Read More

Post Archives

@·
now

Reply on Twitter Retweet on Twitter Like on Twitter Twitter

Recent Posts

This Week in PA Catholic Schools; 8-8-22
Aug 08, 2022
This Week in PA Catholic Schools: 7-29-22
Jul 29, 2022
This Week in PA Catholic Schools: 7-22-22
Jul 22, 2022

All Issues

  • Catholic Education
  • Faith and Politics
  • Health Care
  • Life and Dignity
  • Marriage and Family
  • Religious Liberty
  • Social Justice

banner

Sign up to join the Catholic Advocacy Network today!

CClogo© 2021 Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Bookmark and Share Site by Halibut Blue® | Login