Bishops oppose Assembly bill

The bill now goes to the State Senate, which has passed a different version of the bill. The Conference represents the bishops of the state in matters of public policy.

The Assembly's Women's Health and Wellness bill contains several provisions supported by the Conference, including increased access to screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer and osteoporosis. However, it also mandates that group health insurance plans cover contraceptive drugs and devices, many of which actually cause abortions of newly conceived human life.

Such a mandate is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Conference explained, adding that the bill provides only extremely narrowly drawn conscience protections for religious institutions.

While the Assembly has moved off of its previous refusal to accept any conscience clause, a conference spokesman said that the religious exemption in the new bill is so narrowly drawn as to be almost useless. It would put Catholic hospitals, Catholic charities, Catholic colleges, and many Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the untenable position of canceling employees' health insurance or purchasing insurance plans that include items the Church considers to be morally offensive.

Earlier, the Catholic Conference had vigorously opposed a similar bill that subsequently passed in the State Senate.

"Sadly, the Assembly has put the politics of contraception ahead of the First Amendment," said Richard E. Barnes, executive director of the Catholic Conference.

He called on both houses of the State Legislature to immediately pass a Women's Health and Wellness bill that includes the preventive health screenings, and to debate the merits of contraception coverage in separate legislation.

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