Does the USCCB Really Think Sibelius Will Listen to Them?

Obviously, the USCCB has to say something about this. But it is also more for show than expecting any real action on the part of the HHS. The fact is, after the way the Catholic Health Association & the huge group of LCWR member orders were able to give Pelosi cover for passing ObamaCare with no consequences, why should Sibelius listen to them now?

& even more so, with the current track record of the administration, does the USCCB really think this time arround they will care about anybody's "rights of conscience" in this case either?

All this is going to do is funnel more money into Planned Parenthood's coffers as they provide the various forms of contraception & after it fails, the abortions that will follow. & given that some PP clinics also provide sterilization, this will give more of them the incentive to offer it. Although I am honestly surprized any PP sites offer it as it is less likely to fail & result in a pregnancy. But even sterilization is not 100% guarenteed.

So, we can honestly expect HHS to allow this latest handout to PP. & the USCCB will do all it can to avoid taking any responsibility for their part in letting things get to this point.

USCCB Officials Urge HHS Not to Require Coverage of Contraception, Sterilization

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not require coverage of contraception or sterilization in group and individual health plans as part of “preventive” services for women, said representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this week. The HHS is currently deliberating on a final list of required preventive services under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
“These drugs, devices and procedures prevent not a disease condition, but the healthy condition known as fertility,” said Anthony Picarello, USCCB general counsel, and Michael Moses, associate general counsel, in a September 17 letter to HHS. They added that contraception and sterilization “pose significant risks of their own to women’s life and health; and a federal program to mandate their inclusion would pose an unprecedented threat to rights of conscience.”
Picarello and Moses argued that contraception cannot be considered “preventive” on the grounds of preventing abortion because “abortion is not itself a disease condition, but a separate procedure that is performed only by agreement between a woman and a health professional,” and “studies have shown that the percentage of unintended pregnancies that are ended by abortion is higher if the pregnancy occurred during use of a contraceptive.”
They noted that at least one drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for “emergency contraception,” known as ella, can actually cause early abortions, as it has the same biological effect as the abortion drug RU-486. Thus, a mandate of prescription contraception coverage as a preventive service would “be in direct tension with [PPACA’s] statutory prohibition on mandating any abortion service.”

They also noted that such a mandate would threaten “rights of conscience for religious employers and others who have moral or religious objections to these procedures."
"In this regard, the Administration’s promise that Americans who like their current coverage will be able to keep it under health care reform would be a hollow pledge," they wrote.
They added that this “would also contradict longstanding federal precedents on respect for conscientious objection to such procedures and such coverage,” including the Church amendment, which since 1973 has protected conscientious objection to abortion and sterilization.
Click here for the full text of the letter.