Health care coverage at Catholic organizations could be in jeopardy if a federal mandate requiring most insurance plans to cover contraception for women free of charge is not reversed, the leader of the Boston Archdiocese said in a recent message to the faithful.
In a posting on his blog Saturday, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley cited a message he had released to Catholics in the region a few days earlier, in which he assailed the mandate as an attack on religious liberty.
“And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled and must be prepared either to violate our consciences or to drop health coverage for our employees [and suffer the penalties for doing so],’’ O’Malley wrote.
Under the 2010 health care law, insurers are required to offer preventive health services without charging for them. The Obama administration recently issued a rule implementing the law, but the church has strongly opposed being required to provide insurance that offers free contraception to employees of Catholic hospitals, colleges, and charities.
Churches and houses of worship are exempt from the mandate.
Representatives of several Catholic-affiliated colleges and other nonprofits in the Boston area did not return messages seeking comment on O’Malley’s remarks last night. Dozens of such organizations are active within the archdiocese.
Officials at the archdiocese would not answer directly when asked if O’Malley could compel affiliated organizations, which operate independently of the archdiocese, to drop health coverage for employees.
“The cardinal is the spiritual leader of 1.8 million Catholics in the archdiocese,’’ spokesman Terrence Donilon said in a statement. “Our people and institutions look to him for guidance and what constitutes Catholic teaching and identity.’’
Tricia Wajda, a spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, criticized O’Malley’s remarks in a statement yesterday.
“At a time when people are out of work and the cost of health care continues to soar, we should be implementing policies that expand access to affordable care, not restrict it,’’ she said.
Peter Cataldo, chief health care ethicist for the archdiocese, said in a phone interview that the church is not seeking to restrict health care access.
“The church wants to be able to do everything it can to continue to offer health insurance,’’ he said. “That is seen as something that’s important for social justice.’’
Religious organizations have until Aug. 1, 2013, to comply with the mandate, the US Department of Health and Human Services said last month.