- WASHINGTON — Minor children on their parents’ health-care plans will have free coverage of sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs, under the controversial Health and Human Services mandate. And depending on the state, they can obtain access without parental consent.
- Matt Bowman, senior counsel for the religious-liberty-focused legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said the mandate “tramples parental rights” because it requires them to “pay for and sponsor coverage of abortifacients, sterilization, contraception and education in favor of the same for their own children.”
- The Department of Health and Human Services ruled in January 2012 that most employers who have 50 or more employees must provide the coverage as “preventive care” for “all women with reproductive capacity.”
- The mandate also requires the coverage for beneficiaries, including minors, on the affected health plans, Bowman told Catholic News Agency Sept. 20. That means that a minor on her parents’ plan could be sterilized if she finds a doctor willing to perform the procedure.
HHS Mandate Allows Minors Free Contraception, Sterilization | Daily News | NCRegister.com
