Women Speak for Themselves Talking Points for June 13, 2013

The Government proposed two so-called“ compromises,” but neither one gave adequate religious freedom protection.

• The first “compromise” merely extended the date of enforcement for religious organizations. In effect, religious organizations were given one year to figure out how they were going to violate their consciences.

• The second “compromise” very narrowly expanded the definition of a religious organization, but is nearly coextensive with the first regulation. Religious organizations which exist to spread the faith (i.e. Churches)--when they also do things like serve the poor or educate kids in a religious school--may have the exemption for those ministries as well as the Church itself. Religious institutions who are considered as not being primarily in the business of spreading the faith--likely hospitals, schools, charities, etc.--can have an exemption after a complicated "self-certification" procedure, but their employees, the employees’ daughters (including minors), and students, will get free contraception and “education”-- under separate policies issued directly by the insurance company with whom the employer contracts. 

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 Helen Alvaré is a co-author of the open letter Women Speak For Themselves. She is an Associate Professor of Law at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, where she teaches and writes in the areas of family law and law and religion. She is a consultor to Pope Benedict XVI’s Pontifical Council for the Laity, a consultant for ABCNews, and the Chair of the Conscience Protection Task Force at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. She co-authored and edited the book, Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak For Themselves, to be released September 20, 2012. Professor Alvaré received her law degree from Cornell University and her master’s in systematic theology from the Catholic University of America. 

Kim Daniels is a co-author of the open letter Women Speak For Themselves. She is the coordinator for Catholic Voices USA, a lay effort to increase the presence of well-catechized Catholics in the public square. She is an attorney whose practice has focused on religious liberty issues, particularly rights of conscience in health care. She is also a co-author of Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak For Themselves. Kim and her husband have six school-age children and are active members of their parish in Bethesda, Maryland. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School.

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