Preventative Service Mandates 'Affront to the Natural Rights to Life, Religious Liberty, and Personal Conscience'

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to fully consider the impact of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendation to make  women’s preventative services a federal mandate for all health insurance plans. In a letter, Hatch said the mandates were an “affront to the natural rights to life, religious liberty and personal conscience.” 

“I firmly believe, along with millions of other Americans, that the right to life comes from our Creator, that this right is the fundamental philosophical commitment of our nation’s founding and that abortion violates this right,” Hatch wrote. “Adoption of the IOM recommendations would not only further undermine the right to life, but would substantially erode the First Amendment’s right to free exercise by compelling both religious and non-religious persons and institutions that oppose abortion to subsidize it. If adopted by you, the IOM recommended benefits would force individuals to bear costs associated with drugs that violate their religious and philosophical commitments.”