The US Catholic bishops have rejected the “compromise” proposed by the Obama Administration regarding its mandate requiring religious groups to place their employees in health insurance schemes covering abortion-inducing drugs, contraception and sterilisation.

In a statement yesterday, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan (pictured) of New York, said that the new proposal fell short of addressing the bishops’ concerns.

The new proposal divides religious employers into three categories. The first is those who serve the needs of their own faith community first and foremost such as parishes. This category is exempt from the mandate.

The second consists of not-for-profit religious schools, hospitals and universities that serve the wider community. This group will have to place their employees in insurance schemes that cover abortifacients etc but these will be notionally provided for free.

The concession by the Obama administration means the employer’s contract with a health insurance company would not mention contraception coverage, but the female employees (and dependents) of childbearing age would be informed that the insurer provides the coverage at no cost to them.

However, the Catholic Church among other religious groups wants to place their workers in insurance schemes that do not cover the offending items..

The third category consists of for-profit organisations such as Christian businesses. They are not exempt from the mandate in any way and must pay for abortion-causing drugs etc.

Cardinal Dolan said the proposal released last week by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concerning the mandate in the Affordable Care Act indicates that the administration “seeks to offer a response to serious matters which have been raised throughout the past year”.

However he said that having evaluated the proposed rules, the bishops stood by the statement on the HHS mandate issued last March in which they expressed concern over the mandate.

Cardinal Dolan faulted the proposed rules for maintaining an “inaccurate distinction among religious ministries,” noting that HHS “offers what it calls an ‘accommodation,’ rather than accepting the fact that these ministries are integral to our church and worthy of the same exemption as our Catholic churches”.