Natural Law, Religious Liberty, and the 2012 Contraception Mandate

Introduction to the Knights of Malta Conference “Defense of the Faith: A Forum on Religious Liberty"

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into federal law a controversial healthcare reform bill called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. On January 20, 2012, over repeated objections by the United States Catholic Bishops and other religious leaders, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reaffirmed a rule mandating that virtually all private healthcare plans must cover sterilization, abortifacients and contraception. Many religious leaders called this action an egregious violation of the first amendment, which states that: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." It is our hope that this forum will help you to better understand these issues facing the Catholic Church and nearly all employers in America today and encourage you to take action to ensure the continued protection of religious freedom.

Natural Law, Religious Liberty, and the 2012 Contraception Mandate

Grattan Brown, S.Th.D.

People dismiss the natural law but then come around to argue something like it. They intend that their arguments have force not because they say so, but because they are based on a moral order that others cannot deny. People ought to enjoy religious liberty because questions arise that demand true answers: Does God exist? How shall I understand myself? What shall I do for my neighbor? What shall we do together?

Seeking answers to these questions requires free inquiry into religious matters, the ability to organize with others to learn and discuss them, the ability to establish social institutions to show how religious beliefs are lived out and benefit society, the elimination of barriers to all the above and due regard for the public order.

Protecting religious freedom, then, requires civil authorities to identify the various ways in which their citizens are habitually forced to act contrary to their religious convictions while maintaining the public order.

As moral and political arguments move from general principles the ordering of society, expect controversy. Yet as Chief Justice Jackson observed: “we can from time to time discover these basic relationships which must be respected if we are to have an international order of peace and justice.”