The Right to Contraception Act fails in the U.S. Senate

 

Senate rejects ‘Trojan horse’ Right to Contraception Act

By Kate Quiñones

CNA Staff, Jun 5, 2024 / 18:10 pm

The U.S. Senate has rejected the “Right to Contraception Act,” which would create a federal right to contraception with ramifications on religious freedom and protections for minors. 

The legislation failed to reach the 60 votes it needed to move forward, in a 51 to 39 vote. Most Republicans voted against the bill.

Framed as a reproductive freedom issue by supporters, the bill had legal implications that could have affected religious freedom and even codified a federal right to sex-change surgeries for minors, according to its opponents. 

Terry Schilling, a Catholic and president of the socially conservative think tank American Principles Project, condemned the legislation in a statement, saying that “in the details lurks a radical change, which the vast majority of Americans oppose.”

Schilling called the act “a Trojan horse for a very sinister aim: establish in federal law a right for minors to undergo sterilizing sex-change procedures.”

The bill defined contraceptives broadly to include sterilizing drugs, both those “specifically intended to prevent pregnancy or for other health needs.” Schilling said, quoting the bill in a post on X. This could lead to the repeal of any state laws protecting minors from sex-changing surgeries, he argued. 

“While Democrats will of course deny this, the opening in the text is plain as day,” Schilling added in his statement. “And all it will take is one far-left judge to interpret it this way for every state-level protection for gender-confused kids to be completely wiped out.” 

Montana Senator Steve Daines told EWTN News Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales that the measure was an election year “stunt.” 

Republican Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina agreed, saying of the Senate's Democratic majority “They're just trying to make an issue of something that is not even an issue. There's no states that are out there that are trying to ban contraception, so I just think it's an election year stunt; it’s poor form, it’s poor politics."

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in his Wednesday speech in support of the bill that it is “utterly unacceptable for Americans to even question whether or not access to birth control should fall at risk.”

“Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms,” he continued. “We also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control. That’s utterly medieval.” 

But some politicians opposed the bill out of a concern for religious freedom for those whose faith teaches that contraception is immoral. 

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, spoke out against the bill, calling it a continuation of the Democrats’ “summer of scare tactics” in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday.

“Once again, the bill tramples on foundational religious liberty protections that have long been bipartisan — and truly should remain bipartisan,” Britt said in a speech where she emphasized that she supports access to contraception. 

“The goal of my Democrat colleagues right now is to scare the American people, to scare women across our great nation,” she added.

While most Americans — 88% according to a 2023 Gallup poll — believe birth control is morally acceptable, the Catholic Church has been consistent in its teaching against any form of contraception. This has already led to legal conflict, most predominantly in the decadelong religious liberty battle fought by the Little Sisters of the Poor. 

The Holy See addresses the worldly lies about birth control

 

The United Nations Headquarters in New York  (ANSA)

VATICAN

• UN
• DEVELOPMENT
• ABORTION
• HOLY SEE

Holy See: ‘Birth control is not the key to sustainable development’

As the U.N. marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) this year, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia reiterates that promoting birth control policies does not help eradicate world poverty and promote sustainable development.

By Lisa Zengarini

Nearly thirty years have passed since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, which transformed the global approach to population and development issues, and defined a bold agenda for sustainable development.

The Cairo Programme of Action 

The conference was held in the Egyptian capital from 5-13 September 1994 gathering some 20,000 delegates, and resulted in the adoption of a landmark Programme of Action (PoA), which  affirmed that inclusive sustainable development is not possible without prioritizing human rights, and addressing inequalities as well as the needs, of individual women and men.

Its ambitious goals, included the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the achievement of universal primary education, the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, the reduction of child mortality, and the improvement of  maternal health.  

The UN 2030 Agenda

Since then, there have been significant advancements in development, notably with the adoption in 2015  of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to eliminate poverty, achieve gender equality, and secure the health and well-being of all people. The 17 global goals, known as Agenda 2030, call for collective effort across a wide range of areas – including environmental action, public health, human rights, education, and much more – to usher in a new era of development around the world.

Eradication of poverty facing new challenges

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Thirty years on, however, growing inequalities, prolonged crises and a retreat from multilateralism threaten the legacy of that landmark achievement, and progress is at risk of stagnation or even reversal.

“It is evident that numerous challenges persist, especially in the pursuit of the eradication of poverty”, noted Archbishop Gabriele Caccia the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations on Wednesday.

Birth control and abortion don't help stem poverty 

Speaking at an event organized in New York to mark the anniversary, the Vatican Observer lamented that over the past three decades, the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA) has become “increasingly narrow in focus,” with a “consequent shift away from addressing development issues.”

Archbishop Caccia referred specifically to the ongoing emphasis given by the United Nations’ agencies to birth control policies, including abortion, as a means to stem poverty and promote development, which has been a contentious issue since the Cairo Conference.

“The discussions have regressed with many attempting to frame population as an issue to be ‘solved’. This is clear in the push for abortion under the guise of politically correct language, making it the focus of ICPD and the implementation of its PoA”

“This is not just a harmful misunderstanding of the PoA, but of development in a wider sense”, he said. “It also leads to the erosion of respect for the sanctity of human life and the inalienable dignity of the human person.”

Population control is not the key to sustainable development

Concluding, Archbishop Caccia once again rejected the “notion that population control is the key to sustainable development.” Instead, he said “it is essential to guarantee that all men, women and children are afforded the opportunity to actualize their full potential.”

The Holy See has engaged extensively in United Nations negotiations on issues concerning sexual and reproductive health rights as they have emerged and evolved in a dynamic global agenda over the past three decades and has said that suggesting that reproductive health includes a right to abortion explicitly violates the language of the ICPD, and defies moral and legal standards.

Artificial contraception now a OTC option

 

FDA approves first over-the-counter birth control pill

Washington — July 13, 2023

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The Food and Drug Administration announced July 13 it approved the sale of a birth control pill without a prescription for the first time in the United States, a move that will increase the availability of oral contraception and impact ongoing debates about abortion policy.

In a statement, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the approval of Opill, a progestin-only pill, "marks the first time a nonprescription daily oral contraceptive will be an available option for millions of people in the United States."

"When used as directed, daily oral contraception is safe and is expected to be more effective than currently available nonprescription contraceptive methods in preventing unintended pregnancy," Cavazzoni said.

Currently, a woman seeking to use birth control pills must do so with a doctor's prescription.

While some have called for expanded access to contraception in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the high court's jurisprudence on abortion as a constitutional right, others have argued that proliferating contraception without medical supervision could lead to more unintended pregnancies.

Opill is expected to be available for retail sale in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2024, its maker, Perrigo, said in a statement.

The FDA said the most common side effects of Opill include irregular bleeding, headaches, dizziness, nausea, increased appetite, abdominal pain, cramps and bloating; and the drug should not be used by those who have or have ever had breast cancer.

USCCB opposes making contraceptive over-the-counter; fertility is a gift, not a disease says Bishop Barron

 

Catholic bishops to FDA: Don’t make ‘minipill’ contraceptive over-the-counter

By Kevin J. Jones

Denver, Colo., May 16, 2023 / 14:10 pm

Federal regulators with the Food and Drug Administration should reject proposed over-the-counter use of the progestin-only “minipill” contraceptive, the U.S. bishops have said. They echo other critics who say the drug’s side effects mean patients should have physician supervision while taking the drug.

“It is concerning that the FDA has a recommendation before it to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraception when there is strong evidence of the many harmful risks to women’s health,” Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, said May 15.

An advisory panel to the FDA on May 10 unanimously voted to recommend approval of the Opill birth control pill for over-the-counter availability. A final decision is expected this summer.

The progestin-only contraceptive, sometimes called the “minipill,” was proposed for over-the-counter use by its France-based manufacturer Laboratoire HRA Pharma.

“I urge the FDA to reject this recommendation,” Barron said.

“Fertility is a gift, not a disease,” Barron’s statement on behalf of the USCCB continued. 

“Contraceptives exist to suppress the healthy functions of human reproduction. The mounting evidence of the many harmful side effects of hormonal contraceptives demonstrates that they are not good medicine,” the statement said.

To allow hormonal contraception access without medical supervision, he said, is “antithetical to the Hippocratic Oath that guides physicians to first ‘do no harm.’” 

In Nov. 14, 2022, comments submitted to the FDA advisory panel, the USCCB joined the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association, and the National Association of Catholic Nurses, who represent thousands of health care providers and medical ethicists, to oppose allowing over-the-counter use of Opill.

“The failure rate of the minipill is higher than that of other hormonal contraceptive methods and will result in many unintended pregnancies, leading to potentially more abortions,” the letter said. It warned of serious harm to teens who will have access to the drug without parental notification.

The letter cited the potential for negative side effects such as organ failure, cardiovascular disease, or neurological issues. The hormonal contraceptive may cause abnormal bleeding, ovarian cysts, and depression. Prescription use, the letter said, would allow the oversight from health care professionals that is necessary to monitor side effects.

Physicians and other health care professionals, the letter said, should monitor a patient’s use of the drug for side effects. Prospective patients should also be screened for known or suspected pregnancy, known or suspected breast cancer or other progestin-sensitive cancer, undiagnosed abnormal uterine bleeding, hypersensitivity to Opill components, acute liver disease, and benign or malignant liver tumors.

The USCCB cited the FDA’s May 2022 change to safety prescribing protocols because of evidence that hormonal contraception increases breast cancer risk. The change came in response to a Citizen’s Petition from the Contraceptive Study Group. The group of concerned health care professionals and educators submitted their analysis of hormonal contraceptives’ harmful side effects and asked the FDA to add a “black box” warning to the drug labeling requirements to inform the public of these risks.

According to the USCCB, the FDA offered “modest acknowledgment” of the risks of breast cancer and “quietly changed” safety protocols for prescribing hormonal contraception and the required information to be dispensed to patients with a prescription.

Progestogens, also known as progestins, are synthetic hormone drugs that mimic progesterone, a natural hormone vital for menstruation and pregnancy. Progestogen-only contraceptives are provided in various ways: as an implant, a hormonal intrauterine device, a contraceptive injection, or the “minipill.”

In March Oxford researchers published a study showing a 20% to 30% relative risk for breast cancer associated with progestogen-only contraceptives, compared with women who did not take oral contraceptives. The study drew on data from almost 10,000 U.K. women who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer over a 21-year period and data from more than 18,000 women who were not diagnosed with breast cancer.

These contraceptives differ from the most popular contraceptive drug, a combined oral contraceptive pill that includes estrogen.

The World Health Organization’s International Association for Research of Cancer on its website lists estrogen-progestogen oral contraceptives as among 122 carcinogenic agents. It also notes “convincing evidence” that the drug has a “protective effect against cancer in the endometrium and ovary.”

Pope Francis rejects artificial birth control, endorses Human Vitae and Natural Family Planning

 

Pope Francis upholds Catholic ban on contraception

Pope Francis has sent a message to a Natural Family Planning (NFP) conference in which he upheld the central teachings of Humanae Vitae, the papal encyclical of 1968 that prohibited married Catholics from using contraception.

The Pontiff stated that the unitive and procreative aspects of sexual intercourse were “inseparable” and he called for a counter-sexual revolution.

He warned Catholics that the widespread use of contraception had impoverished many societies and that some countries were now in danger of demographic collapse.

“There is a need always to keep in mind the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meanings of the conjugal act,” he said in a message to a Rome conference celebrating the Billings Ovulation Method of NFP.

The Pope said: “When these two meanings are consciously affirmed, the generosity of love is born and strengthened in the hearts of the spouses, disposing them to welcome new life.

“Lacking this, the experience of sexuality is impoverished, reduced to sensations that soon become self-referential, and its dimensions of humanity and responsibility are lost.”

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said that “the use of methods based on the natural rhythms of fertility should be encouraged, emphasising the fact that they ‘respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favour the education of an authentic freedom’.”

“In the aftermath of the so-called sexual revolution and the breakdown of taboos, we need a new revolution in our way of thinking,” reported Catholic News Agency. 

“We need to discover the beauty of human sexuality by once again turning to the great book of nature, learning to respect the value of the body and the generation of life, with a view to authentic experiences of conjugal love.”

“In a world dominated by a relativistic and trivialised view of human sexuality, serious education in this area appears increasingly necessary,” Pope Francis said, “requiring an anthropological and ethical approach in which doctrinal issues are explored without undue simplifications or inflexible conclusions.”

The Pope also pointed out the benefits of the Billings method and others for using modern scientific findings to help couples struggling to conceive.

A greater understanding of the procreative processes, he said, “could help many couples make informed and ethically sound decisions that are more respectful of the person and his or her dignity”.

“Today the ideological and practical separation of the sexual relationship from its generative potential has resulted in the quest for alternative forms of having a child, no longer through marital relations but through the use of artificial processes,” he said.

“However, while it is appropriate to assist and support a legitimate desire to conceive with the most advanced scientific knowledge and technologies that can enhance fertility, it is wrong to create test tube embryos and then suppress them, to trade in gametes and to resort to the practice of surrogate parenthood. 

“At the root of the current demographic crisis is, along with various social and cultural factors, an imbalance in the view of sexuality.”

Pope Francis also spoke about the importance of an authentic sexual education and “the connection between sexuality and the fundamental vocation of each person, the gift of self, which finds particular fulfilment in conjugal and family love.”

He said: “This truth, while present in the heart of each human being, requires education in order to achieve full expression,” he said.

The remarks of Pope Francis will inevitably disappoint people who were hoping that he might attempt to reverse or modify the teachings of Pope St Paul VI, whose encyclical shocked many Catholics when it clarified the teaching of the Church against contraception.

The Holy Father explained in his address that the plea by Pope St Paul for scientists to discover new and effective ways of fertility regulation which respected Catholic moral teaching were already fully realised.

Francis said: “In the second half of the last century, as pharmacological research for fertility control expanded and the contraceptive culture was on the rise, John and Evelyn Billings conducted careful scientific research and developed a simple method, accessible to women and couples, for natural knowledge of fertility, offering them a valuable tool for the responsible management of procreative choices.

“In those years, their approach might have appeared outdated and less reliable in comparison with the purported immediacy and security of pharmacological interventions. Yet in fact, their method has continued to prove timely and challenging.”

He said the proven efficacy of NFP has spurred “a serious reflection” on “the need for education in the value of the human body, an integrated and integral vision of human sexuality, an ability to cherish the fruitfulness of love even when not fertile, the building up of a culture that welcomes life and ways to confront the problem of demographic collapse”.

The Pope’s message was sent to participants in an international conference called “The ‘Billings Revolution’ 70 Years Later: From Fertility Knowledge to Personalized Medicine”. 

Besides Billings, a variety of NFP methods have been developed in recent years. None is contraceptive in its action but instead rely on accurately identifying the fertile days of a female reproductive cycle and abstaining from intercourse then to avoid pregnancy. They included the Creighton method and NaProTechnology. 

Advocates say such methods are not only highly effective but are free, or comparatively cheap, environmentally friendly, and free from side effects.

The remarks of Pope Francis came about a month after a new report from the University of Oxford showed that every type of hormonal contraception dramatically increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.

Scientists have previously linked the combined contraceptive Pill – which is made up of oestrogen and progestogen – to a 20 per cent increase in developing the disease, while similarly high rates have been identified in the coil and contraceptive implants.

According to British researchers even the new generation of hormonal contraceptives can be just as dangerous.

A team analysed data from more than 9,000 women aged between 20 and 49 who developed invasive breast cancer and compared their lifestyles to 18,000 closely-matched women who did not develop the disease.

They found that women who had used the progestogen-only Pill, the newest generation of oral contraceptives, also increased their risk of developing breast cancer by 20 to 30 per cent.

Once women stopped taking the Pill, the risk of developing the disease progressively declined, according to findings published in the journal Plos Medicine.

Gillian Reeves, Professor of statistical epidemiology and director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, said: “Yes, there is an increase here, and yes, nobody wants to hear that something that they’re taking is going to increase their risk for breast cancer by 25 per cent.

“The main purpose of doing this research was really to fill a gap in our knowledge,’ she told the Daily Mail.

“We’ve known for many years that combined oral contraceptives, which women have been using for decades, also have an effect on breast cancer risk, a small increase in risk which is transient.

“We weren’t absolutely sure what the corresponding effect of these progestogen-only contraceptives would be.

“What we’ve shown is that they’re just the same in terms of breast cancer risk, they seem to have a very similar effect to the other contraceptives, and the effect that we’ve known about for many years.”

In 2020 about 3.2 million women in England were using the combined Pill and a similar number were using the progestogen-only Pill.

Besides the Pill, studies around the world have also shown abortion to be a causal link in the development of breast cancer.

Scientists have said the cancer was caused by high levels of oestradiol, a hormone that stimulates breast growth during pregnancy. The effects of the hormone are minimised in women who take their pregnancy to full term but it remains at dangerous levels in those who abort.

There has been an 80 per cent increase in the rate of breast cancer since 1971, at the same time as the number of abortions rose from an annual 18,000 to well over 200,000 a year.

Click here to learn more: https://billings.life/en/

Biden administration continues to poke finger in the eye of people of faith

 

Biden administration seeks to remove moral objection exemption from Obamacare contraceptives mandate

By Peter Pinedo

Washington D.C., Jan 30, 2023 / 17:15 pm

The Biden administration Monday announced a proposal to eliminate employers’ ability to object to the Obamacare contraceptives mandate on moral grounds.

This change only proposes rescinding the moral objection exemption, not the religious exemption. The 2020 Supreme Court case Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania guaranteed that religious employers objecting to contraceptives on religious grounds would not be forced to provide birth control in contradiction to their beliefs.

The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department estimated that the proposed rule change would impact more than 100 employers and 125,000 employees, CNN reported.

While retaining the religious exemption policy, the Biden administration proposal would create a new way for employees of religiously objecting employers to obtain contraception with no out-of-pocket costs. 

The Biden administration's proposal states that workers of employers with religious objections will be able to obtain contraception “without any involvement on the part of an objecting entity.” Under the proposal, an insurance provider providing free birth control services would be “reimbursed for its costs by entering into an arrangement with an issuer on a Federally-facilitated Exchange or State Exchange on the Federal platform.”

The pathway to obtain free contraception also will be available to students at universities with religious objections, the proposal states.

Under the Trump administration, the Obamacare policy was amended to allow employers with religious or moral objections to contraception to opt out of offering it in their insurance policies without penalty.

The Biden administration's change won't take effect until the completion of a 60-day public comment period, which is set to begin Feb. 2 once the proposal is filed in the Federal Register.

Kristi Hamrick, chief media and policy strategist for the pro-life group Students for Life of America, told CNA that the proposal was part of “a vicious cycle with life-and-death implications” and that the Biden administration is “ignoring Constitutional rights of conscience that should be protected.”

“Students for Life of America does not take a position against birth control per se,” she said. “We oppose forcing people to buy or fund drugs and devices against their beliefs, such as nuns, and we oppose forcing people to pretend that abortifacients mislabeled as contraception should also be paid for.”

The rule proposal comes as the Biden administration has vowed to expand access to both birth control and abortion in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which overturned nationwide legalized abortion, freeing states to regulation abortion as they see fit. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tweeted that it “is committed to protecting & expanding access to reproductive health care, including abortion & contraception.”

Recent comments by the Pope concerning birth control/contraception

Pope Francis on birth control: Can the teaching of the Church on contraception change?

 

By Courtney Mares

Rome Newsroom, Jul 30, 2022 / 04:38 am

Can the Church’s teaching on birth control change? During Pope Francis’ return flight from Canada, a journalist asked him about the possibility of a development in the Church’s teaching on contraception.

“This is very timely. But know that dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction,” Pope Francis responded on July 30.

The pope went on to say that he thinks that the development of Catholic moral doctrine, in general, is fine but recommended in particular that it follows the rules outlined by the 5th-century theologian St. Vincent of Lérins.

Pope Francis explained that St. Vincent of Lérins taught “that true doctrine in order to go forward, to develop, must not be quiet, it develops ut annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate.”

“That is, it consolidates with time, it expands and consolidates, and becomes more steady, but is always ‘progressing.’ That is why the duty of theologians is research, theological reflection. You cannot do theology with a ‘no’ in front of it … the magisterium will be the one to say no,” the pope added.

Francis also addressed the recent controversy over a book published by the Vatican’s publishing house, which discussed “the possible legitimacy of contraception in certain cases.”

The book “Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges” was a 528-page synthesis of a theological seminar sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2021.

Pope Francis said: “On the issue of contraception, I know there is a publication out on this issue and other marriage issues.”

“These are the proceedings of a congress and in a congress there are hypotheses, then they discuss among themselves and make proposals. We have to be clear: those who made this congress did their duty because they tried to move forward in doctrine, but in an ecclesial sense, not out, as I said with that rule of St. Vincent of Lerins.”

On the subject of birth control, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).”

St. Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, the landmark encyclical reaffirming Church teaching against contraception, on July 25, 1968.

In the encyclical, Paul VI warned of serious social consequences if the widespread use of contraceptives became accepted. He predicted that it would lead to infidelity, the lowering of morality, a loss of respect for women, and the belief that humans have “unlimited dominion” over the body.

A big legal victory for EWTN over the evil HHS mandate

EWTN wins lawsuit over HHS contraception mandate

November 30, 2018 CNA Daily News 

Washington D.C., Nov 30, 2018 / 08:45 am (CNA).- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit issued an order Thursday vacating a 2014 District Court decision against the Eternal Word Television Network in its lawsuit against the so-called contraceptive mandate issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. The order follows a settlement between the network and the Department of Justice, reached Oct. 5.

Under the terms of the settlement, EWTN will not be required to provide contraception, sterilization, or abortifacients through its employee health care plan.

“This moment has been a long time coming,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw.

“Almost seven years and two presidential administrations later, the government and the courts have now realized what EWTN has been saying all along, that the HHS mandate was an unconstitutional attempt to coerce us into violating our strongly held beliefs. This is the right outcome for EWTN and for all those who value religious liberty in America.”

The network originally filed suit in February 2012 in response to the mandate, which was introduced by the Obama administration following the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Under the provisions of the act, employer-provided health insurance plans are required to cover certain “preventative services.” These were defined by guidance issued by the Department of Health and Human Services to include all contraception methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including abortifacient birth control pills, IUDs, and sterilization procedures.

The specifics of the contraception mandate were not included in the original bill, but were announced in January 2012 by then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

EWTN’s initial suit was dismissed in March 2013 by the U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Alabama, following an initial effort by the Obama administration to amend the regulations.

When the administration’s revisions failed to address EWTN’s moral objections, a second suit was filed by the network in October 2013. In June 2014, the U.S. District Court of Mobile, Alabama ruled against the network, though an injunction was granted while the decision was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

In February 2016, a panel of judges voted  2-1 against EWTN, but suspended that decision pending the outcome of the case Zubik v. Burwell, which also concerned the HHS mandate and was then pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Zubik, the Court of Appeals vacated its own negative order against EWTN on May 31, 2016.  The court’s order asked for further briefing on the matter while the parties worked toward a settlement.

Attorneys for EWTN and the Department of Justice negotiated terms of a settlement under which the government agreed not to enforce the contraceptive mandate against the network, and that EWTN would ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate the District Court’s decision. The 11th Circuit granted that request on Nov. 29.

“I am confident this agreement will protect EWTN from such regulations, both now and in the future,” Warsaw told CNA.

EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 38th year, is the largest religious media network in the world. EWTN’s 11 TV channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 300 million television households in more than 145 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 500 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; the largest Catholic website in the U.S.; electronic and print news services, including Catholic News Agency, “The National Catholic Register” newspaper, and several global news wire services; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.

In a statement released by the network, Warsaw also praised the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, saying “I am grateful to our team of attorneys from Becket who have represented us from the beginning. They have been a tremendous partner in this fight for religious liberty.”

Becket Senior Counsel Lori Windham stated “EWTN has fought long and hard to ensure that its basic freedoms would be protected, and this victory ensures that EWTN can continue to serve as a voice for religious liberty for many years to come.”

On Nov. 7, the Trump administration released two updated rules concerning conscience protections for organizations and individuals in relation to the HHS contraception mandate.

Under the new rules, organizations and individuals objecting to the controversial mandate’s provisions on either religious or moral grounds will be exempt.