What should be one's moral response to the HHS "contraceptive mandate"?
This article asks how one should morally respond to the HHS contraceptive mandate which is now law and part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This article first presents the historical background of the Obama Administration altering the government's 'final rule' for providing health services and protecting conscience rights. The mandate compels individuals and religious groups to provide insurance coverage for contraceptive, abortifacient, and sterilization services even though they are contrary to their values, and it narrowly defines what constitutes a religious group so fewer of them can claim exemption. Hence, the question is: Can individuals and religious groups obey the law without acting against their moral values or denying their religious identity? Using Church documents, the article answers that one cannot formally cooperate in evil but under certain conditions one can materially cooperate. The article uses the Summa Theologiae of Aquinas to explain what constitutes formal cooperation and how obeying the law can be material but not formal cooperation. It then examines whether the present conditions warrant material cooperation. It concludes that they do not and that religious groups are called to act as martyrs and give witness to their religious identity and moral values by resisting the law.
Associate Professor in Moral Theology, Immaculate Conception Seminary/School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ., USA.
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Jerome Bracken
formal and material cooperation; mandate; religious liberty