This video was posted on CNSNews.Com today. The following is from that post (emphasis added):
Oh, I wouldn't bet on that, Jay.(CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says there are no “constitutional rights issues” involved in a regulation issued by the administration that requires all health-care plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortions.Because the Catholic Church holds that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are morally wrong and Catholic cannot be involved in them, the regulation in combination with the Obamacare mandate that all Americans buy health insurance will force American Catholics to choose between following the federal regulation or following the teachings of their church.“I don’t believe there are any constitutional rights issues here,” Carney said when asked at today’s White House briefing about the regulation.“The administration believes that this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious beliefs and increasing access to important preventative services,” Carney told reporters.On Sunday, in Catholic churches around the country, priests read letters from their local bishops declaring the law an unconstitutional attack on the religious liberty of Catholics and calling on Catholics to oppose the regulation and fight to have it rescinded.“In so ruling, the Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty,” wrote Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in a letter representative of those sent by many other bishops last week. “As a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled either to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.“We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law,” said Bishop Olmsted.At one point in Tuesday’s press briefing, Carney said: “I would also just note that our robust partnerships with the Catholic Church and other communities of faith will continue.”