U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) said Monday she supports birth-control insurance coverage for all women who want it, as well as freedom of religious conscience, and is interested in working it out so that both positions can be possible.
Other federal officeholders and candidates contacted Monday divided along party lines on the new policy of the Department of Health and Human Services denying religious-based institutions an exemption from the requirement that they offer contraceptive coverage to employees.
Miss Kaptur, who was interviewed Monday by The Blade's editorial board, expressed doubt that the Obama Administration had issued its final rule. She also indicated she found it suspicious that the divisive issue for Democrats was arising in an election year.
"I don't want to deny women or families the right to have full health-care choices, and I don't want to deny religious conscience either," Miss Kaptur said.
"It seems to me if we can land a man on the moon and if we can figure out how to take out Osama Bin Laden, we ought to be able to find a way to do this, where we don't deny health coverage to any woman, and we protect religious conscience. There has to be a way to do this," Miss Kaptur said.
She said she planned to seek information from the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as from some of the Catholic institutions that will be affected by the new federal edict.
"I happen to be a Catholic myself. How do I proceed on the religious front? I am going to talk to those who are the hands and feet of Christ. I am going to talk to those who are running these institutions. I'm going to be guided by what they say to me," Miss Kaptur said.
"I don't think it's fair to deny people who are working in kitchens, who are scrubbing floors, who are scrub nurses, who are working in the hospital system, a choice of insurance coverage for family planning if that's their decision. The question is how does one do that when the institution wishes to deny that coverage to them?"
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Jan. 20 that it had released its final rule requiring that all insurance plans include contraception coverage, with no co-pay or deductible, with a narrow exemption for religious institutions that employ only people of their own religious persuasion.
The rule was attacked vehemently by the Catholic Church, including Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair who issued a letter condemning the rule as an infringement on religious freedom and which was preached about in some Catholic churches on Sunday.
One of Miss Kaptur's opponents in the Democratic primary to represent the 9th District, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland, did not return a phone call seeking his stance on the issue.
Her other primary opponent, Graham Veysey, provided The Blade with a comment via email that health-care providers should be mandated to give women birth-control coverage and that he would not support a wider exemption.
U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green) announced he's backing legislation that would exempt institutions from requirements of the new national health-care law that violate their religious beliefs.
"The President has once again ignored the conscience rights of Americans. This mandate will cause religious organizations to stop offering health insurance to their employees or violate the beliefs of their faith," Mr. Latta said in a prepared statement.
He said he would work to enact House Resolution 1179, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, according to an email from his staff. He was not available for an interview, spokesman Isabel Santa said.
Mr. Latta's opponent on the Democratic side, Angela Zimmann of Springfield Township, said in an interview with The Blade that she felt conflicted on the issue but came down on the side of mandating contraceptive coverage.
She said her employer, Bowling Green State University, does not offer contraceptive coverage to her, yet makes Viagra available to men.
"I think they should cover it," said Ms. Zimmann, who is an English instructor.
"Yes, I do believe it should be a part of the minimum mandated coverage."
She said she was conflicted because, "I don't like the government to come in and say you have to do this, you have to do that."
She said that a hospital or a school, even if church-related, is a corporation and therefore different from a church.
A Lutheran minister, Ms. Zimmann said her views on the issue are the same as those of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, running for the Republican nomination for the 9th Congressional District, in a comment e-mailed to The Blade late Monday, blasted the mandate and blamed both Miss Kaptur and Mr. Kucinich for its existence in the first place.
He said that since the founding of the country the government “has respected the right of religious institutions to refuse participation in certain programs based on their religious beliefs, especially when it comes to the dignity of human life.”
“Those protections ended with the administration of Barack Obama, and his allies Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich. In his new mandate from Health and Human Services, institutions like Catholic hospitals and charities are now forced to provide contraception, including the controversial morning-after pill, in their insurance plans against the mandates of their conscience and firmly held beliefs. This action by the Obama administration is completely unacceptable and must be fought, and that is exactly what I plan to do if I’m elected,” Mr. Wurzelbacher said in his written statement.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), who is up for re-election this year, said that he does not support legislation to widen the exemption.
The campaign of Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate to run against Senator Brown, responded with a statement that Mr. Mandel opposes the "federal takeover of the health-care system" as an "unprecedented and unconstitutional intrusion into the private decision-making processes of American families."
Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.
First Published January 31, 2012, 5:15 a.m.
