As a husband and father of two daughters, I believe insurance companies should have to cover services that many women want and rely on. But I also recognize that there are some people who, based on their deepest moral and religious convictions, don’t agree with me regarding some of those services. We must seek to respect their rights, too.
My predecessor, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, believed just as I do. In a 2009 letter to Pope Benedict XVI, he expressed his support for a conscience exemption: “I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health care field and will continue to advocate for it.’’
My opponent Elizabeth Warren wants to take us in a different direction. She tells us, in so many words, that a mandate is a mandate, and Catholics and others just need to do as they are told. She has endorsed this intrusion on freedom of conscience, and proclaims herself “shocked’’ that I or anyone else could disagree. Such a dismissive mindset is no more appealing coming from the left than it is coming from the right.
Warren claims the administration has found a “compromise,’’ but it has not. The church remains opposed and lawsuits are being filed.
I support a bipartisan bill in the Senate that provides a conscience exemption in health care for people of faith. The bill restores the relevant laws on conscience protection that existed before ObamaCare removed them. Some critics say the bill is overly broad and would permit non-religious employers to drop health coverage on a whim. But this is a red herring - the bill does not allow employers to do anything that was not already permitted under federal law as it existed prior to ObamaCare. In fact, the only people talking about dropping health insurance are religious-affiliated organizations that would rather pay a fine than submit to federal rules that would cause them to violate their beliefs.
