[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 8, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H584-H585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   OBAMACARE VIOLATES FIRST AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Harris) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, once again we are reminded why we need to 
repeal the President's Affordable Care Act, which most Americans know 
as ObamaCare. Mr. Speaker, a majority of Americans already understand 
how harmful ObamaCare will be to American health care, especially to 
the millions of seniors on Medicare who will have that program cut by 
$500 billion if we don't repeal it.
  But 2 weeks ago, the latest administration rule implementing 
ObamaCare was announced by the Secretary of Health, and that rule would 
impose the latest mandate, this time, a mandate on all religious 
institutions to provide government-mandated coverage for drugs and 
surgery that is contrary to the beliefs of those religions.
  The greatest uproar was from the Catholic Church over the rule that 
would force Catholic institutions to pay the full cost of all 
government-mandated drugs and procedures, and that would include 
sterilization and abortion-causing drugs. That mandate would put those 
institutions in the position of either paying the full cost of those 
drugs and procedures that violate their beliefs or paying a government 
fine. I repeat: It would end up being a government-imposed fine to 
practice your religious beliefs, with the administration using the 
broad mandates of ObamaCare to impose those fines.
  But the religious intimidation by the administration didn't stop 
there. When the Archbishop for the Military Services, Timothy Broglio, 
wrote a letter about this new mandate to his diocese to be read at 
Sunday services, the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains, a recent Obama 
appointee, ordered his chaplain corps not to read the letter at those 
Sunday services. Mr. Speaker, you know that those services are attended 
not only by the military, but by family and DOD employees. And this 
order was a clear violation of the First Amendment guarantees not only 
of the freedom of religion but the freedom of speech.
  Let me read from the letter, and you will see why the administration 
was so concerned:

       Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: It is imperative that 
     I call to your attention an alarming and serious matter that 
     negatively impacts the church in the United States directly 
     and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious 
     liberty for all citizens of any faith. The Federal 
     Government, which claims to be `of, by, and for the people,' 
     has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those 
     people--the Catholic population--and to the millions more who 
     are served by the Catholic faithful. It is a blow to a 
     freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have 
     seen your buddies fall in battle.
       The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced 
     that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will 
     be forced to offer their employees health coverage that 
     includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and 
     contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to 
     include those immoral `services' in the health policies they 
     write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that 
     coverage as part of their policies.
       In so ruling, the administration has cast aside the First 
     Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying 
     to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, 
     that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule 
     is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to choose 
     between violating our consciences or dropping health coverage 
     for our employees.
       We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law. People 
     of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. We are already 
     joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many 
     others of good will in this important effort to regain our 
     religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come 
     to these shores to help build America's cities and towns, its 
     infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, 
     only to have their posterity stripped of their God-given 
     rights.

  Mr. Speaker, after protest, the Chief of Chaplains finally allowed 
most of the letter to be read, but ordered that the line ``We cannot--
we will not--comply with this law'' still not be read.
  Mr. Speaker, now you can see why The Wall Street Journal--not usually 
a paper that comments on religious matters--found this issue so 
compelling

[[Page H585]]

that today's lead editorial deals with this under the headline, 
``ObamaCare's Great Awakening,'' with a highlight line, ``HHS tells 
religious believers to go to hell. The public notices.'' Yes, Mr. 
Speaker, the public noticed.
  Let me just read the opening of that editorial:

       The political furor over President Obama's birth control 
     mandate continues to grow, even among those for whom 
     contraception poses no moral qualms, and one needn't be a 
     theologian to understand why. The country is being exposed to 
     the raw political control that is the core of the Obama 
     health care plan, and Americans are seeing clearly for the 
     first time how this will violate pluralism and liberty.

  Mr. Speaker, in the last few days, a strategist in the President's 
campaign--not the Secretary herself or an administration official--has 
suggested that, well, maybe something can be done. Really, Mr. Speaker? 
Are we leaving dealing with First Amendment rights violations to 
campaign staff for resolution?
  This latest controversy has given us yet another reason to repeal 
ObamaCare, a bill forced on America by the last Congress and this 
administration. Given the obvious willingness of regulators to force 
their value system on all Americans regardless of religious belief, the 
editorial comes to the right conclusion: ``Religious liberty won't be 
protected . . . until ObamaCare is repealed.'' Mr. Speaker, the time 
for repeal is now.

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