More interference in family life

HHS mandate allows minors free contraception, sterilization

Here is a Catholic News Agency story pointing out that minor children on their parents' health care plans will have free access to sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs, under the controversial HHS mandate, and depending on the state, they will be able to obtain access without parental consent.

Matt Bowman, senior counsel for the religious liberty legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the mandate "tramples parental rights" because it requires them to "pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception, and education in favour of the same for their own children."

The Guttmacher Institute, in a Sept. 1 briefing on state policies, said that an increase in minors' access to interference with reproduction over the last 30 years shows a broader recognition that "while parental involvement in minors' health care decisions is desirable, many minors will not avail themselves of important services if they are forced to involve their parents."

For full story see The B.C. Catholic website.