NAPLES, Florida, May 24, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Florida’s Ave Maria University announced Monday that it will no longer require students to have health care coverage effective this fall because of the Obama administration’s mandate requiring insurance packages to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs.
Jim Towey, president of Ave Maria University, says the mandate is “an affront to our core values” and insisted the University “will not offer or pay for health insurance plans that violate our deeply-held religious beliefs.”
The announcement came within a week of a similar action by Ohio’s Franciscan University of Steubenville.
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According to Towey, Ave Maria’s current health plan “specifically excludes benefits for elective abortion, sterilization, and other morally objectionable services because the University is Catholic and follows the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
However, because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Ave Maria students would have to pay for these services and would also see an increase in their premiums and deductibles.
The university was told by their insurance carrier that they would have to “pay all claims for ‘preventative care services’ regardless of the fact that they are specifically excluded in the Ave Maria group plan.”
“It is a sad day when Ave Maria’s students are forced to choose between enrolling in a health insurance plan that is both costly and offers morally objectionable benefits, and having no coverage at all,” said Towey.
The mandate has been slammed by bishops and Catholic organizations across the country as a grave threat to religious freedom. This week, 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations joined Ave Maria University and others in launching a set of lawsuits to overturn the mandate.
“The University remains confident that it will prevail in this litigation,” said Towey, though he lamented that “the Obama Administration’s promised ‘safe harbor’ for faith-based institutions is turning out to be no harbor at all.”