The Obama administration announced Friday a proposal to broaden religious conscientious objection exemptions to the president's controversial contraception-abortifacient mandate, but Florida’s conservative, pro-life leaders are not exactly greeting the news with enthusiasm.

“The Obama administration is playing another shell game; it's par for their course, their standard MO,” Florida House Majority Leader Steve Precourt, R-Orlando, tells Sunshine State News. “They just make it up as they go along, with no respect for the U.S. Constitution or the law of the land.”

Precourt chairs the Florida Legislature's newly-formed Religious Freedom Caucus.

The Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, implemented pursuant to certain provisions of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), had required that employers obligated to provide health insurance under the new health care law include provision of all FDA-approved contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs in their plans.

The mandate contained a narrow religious exemption that only applied to houses of worship or to charitable institutions that primarily employed and served members of one particular sect.

The new proposal broadens the exemption to cover all institutions designated "religious" by the IRS, which would include schools and charities affiliated with a religious denomination but that employ and serve people of other faiths. The exemptions still do not apply to "secular" nonprofits or to for-profit employers who have conscientious objections to subsidizing contraception and abortions for their employees.

Precourt tells the News he seconds the reaction offered by the Rev. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life.

“[W]e at Priests for Life remind the administration that religious liberty does not just belong to religious groups and individuals; it belongs to all Americans,” Pavone said in a statement following the administration’s announcement. “Objections to contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs aren't based just on dogmas and Bibles, but on adverse health consequences and the fact that human beings, no matter how small, should not be killed.

“We see only one acceptable change regarding the mandate: rescind it completely.”

Bill Bunkley, who represents the Florida Baptist Convention on the newly-formed Florida Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (of which he is also president), offers a more nuanced response.

“Any microstep to the full accommodation of a person or a business in this country having the availability to have protection under the First Amendment – in this particular case, the Free Exercise Clause – is a step in the right direction,” he tells the News. “This [mandate] is really causing some serious difficulties not only for some of our ministries, but also for some businesses who legitimately have a very long and very public track record of their faith persuasion carrying over into business practice.

“I am far from thinking that this is anywhere near a solution to the problem, especially among faith-based social conservatives.”

Dr. Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, is still more cautious.

“This may remedy the situation the Church finds herself in, but the civil rights of individuals who are having their own religious liberties violated remains an issue of concern to us,” he tells the News. “From the very beginning, the bishops have expressed concern over the religious liberties of individuals whose constitutional rights are being violated by this.

"We’ll have to wait and see, but we’re grateful that at least things appear to be moving in the direction that we would like.”

Attorney Carrie Eisnaugle, president of Florida Right to Life, tells the News her organization is still analyzing the revisions.

"The [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] mandate and the burden on faith-based organizations are highly important for Florida Right to Life,” she says. “Our staff is still reviewing the compromise language and we will be happy to issue a statement when we have specific details on how it will impact our state."

The Catholic Archdiocese of Miami is one of at least 130 religious organizations and other conscientious objectors challenging the constitutionality of the contraception-abortifacient mandate in federal court. Attorneys representing the Archdiocese tell Sunshine State News they are reviewing the proposed rules, and are not willing to offer comment at this time.

The case, Archdiocese of Miami v. Kathleen Sebelius, is before the U.S.  District Court for the Southern District of Florida.




Reach Eric Ginta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.