I 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3982 

To prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services from implementing 

certain rules relating to the health insurance coverage of sterilization 

and contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 8, 2012 

Mr. LUETKEMEYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

from implementing certain rules relating to the health 

insurance coverage of sterilization and contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Religious Liberty Pro5 tection Act of 2012’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Deeply embedded in the history and tradi2 tions of the United States is the protection of reli3 gious freedom. The First Amendment of the United 

4 States Constitution states ‘‘Congress shall make no 

5 law respecting an establishment of religion, or pro6 hibiting the free exercise thereof’’, and thus, it gives 

7 general protection for individuals’ religious beliefs 

8 and practices. 

9 (2) Repeatedly during the existence of the 

10 United States, Congress has reaffirmed the freedom 

11 of religion by enacting, among other things, title VII 

12 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Church amend13 ment, the Weldon amendment, section 245 of the 

14 Public Health Service Act, and the Religious Free15 dom Restoration Act of 1993. Through their pas16 sage, the United States has augmented religious 

17 freedoms and set the precedent of protection of con18 science rights. 

19 (3) The Weldon amendment has been regularly 

20 included in appropriations legislation for the Depart21 ment of Health and Human Services. The Weldon 

22 amendment prohibits Federal agencies, States, and 

23 local governments that receive the appropriated 

24 funds in the respective Act from discriminating 

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1 sionals, organizations, facilities, and plans on the 

2 basis of a health care entity’s refusal to provide, pay 

3 for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions. 

4 (4) The United States has a history of pro5 tecting individuals, organizations, facilities, and 

6 plans from being penalized or discriminated against 

7 due to their religious beliefs and moral values. Until 

8 the enactment of the Patient Protection and Afford9 able Care Act (Public Law 111–148), the Federal 

10 Government has never sought to impose specific 

11 health care coverage or care requirements that in12 fringe on the conscience rights of insurers, pur13 chasers of insurance, plan sponsors, beneficiaries, 

14 and other stakeholders, such as individual or institu15 tional health care entities. 

16 (5) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care 

17 Act grants the Department of Health and Human 

18 Services the authority to provide a list of detailed 

19 services to be included as essential health benefits 

20 (as defined in section 1302(a) of the Patient Protec21 tion and Affordable Care Act), and preventive health 

22 services described in section 2713 of the Public 

23 Health Service Act. These services represent a new 

24 nationwide coverage requirement for health plans. 


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1 (6) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care 

2 Act provides a narrow exemption for religious 

3 groups that object to participation in government 

4 health programs generally, but it does not allow pur5 chasers, plan sponsors, and other stakeholders with 

6 religious or moral objections to specific required 

7 items or services to decline providing or obtaining 

8 coverage of such items or services, or allow health 

9 care entities with such objections to decline to pro10 vide them. 

11 (7) By creating new barriers to health insur12 ance and causing the loss of existing insurance ar13 rangements, these inflexible mandates in the Patient 

14 Protection and Affordable Care Act jeopardize the 

15 ability of individuals to exercise their rights of con16 science and their ability to freely participate in the 

17 health insurance and health care marketplace. 

18 (8) In a significant move from the current free 

19 insurance coverage market, the Department of 

20 Health and Human Services issued an interim rule 

21 on August 1, 2011, requiring individual and group 

22 health plans to cover free sterilization and all con23 traceptives approved by the Food and Drug Admin24 istration. 


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1 (9) Within the list of contraceptives approved 

2 by the Food and Drug Administration are drugs 

3 containing abortifacient substances and effects, in4 cluding Levonorgestral commonly known as Plan B 

5 and ulipristal acetate marketed as Ella. Thus, the 

6 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act effec7 tively mandates employers to provide health care in8 surance covering abortion drugs and services, which 

9 is a violation of numerous Federal provisions afore10 mentioned. 

11 (10) On January 20, 2012, the Department of 

12 Health and Human Services announced that it 

13 would not broaden the religious exemption it in14 cluded in its August 1, 2011, interim rule. Instead, 

15 it gave institutions and employers with religious and 

16 moral objections to including free sterilization and 

17 all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug 

18 Administration in their offered health insurance plan 

19 an additional year to ‘‘adapt’’ their consciences to 

20 the mandate. 

21 SEC. 3. PROTECTING RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. 

22 (1) PROHIBITION ON IMPLEMENTATION OF

23 CERTAIN RULES.—Notwithstanding any other provi24 sion of law, the Secretary of Health and Human 

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1 sion of the interim final rule published on July 19, 

2 2010 (75 Federal Register 41726) or any amend3 ment to such rule, including the amendment pub4 lished on August 3, 2011 (76 Federal Register 

5 46621), insofar as such provision or amendment re6 lates to requiring any individual or entity to provide 

7 coverage of sterilization or contraceptive services to 

8 which the individual or entity is opposed on the 

9 basis of religious belief. 

10 (2) CLARIFICATION ON APPLICATION TO PPACA

11 REQUIREMENTS.—Section 1302(b) of the Patient 

12 Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 

13 111–148; 42 U.S.C. 18022(b)) is amended by add14 ing at the end the following new paragraph: 

15 ‘‘(6) SPECIAL RULE.—A health plan shall not 

16 be considered to have failed to provide the essential 

17 health benefits package described in subsection (a) 

18 (or preventive health services described in section 

19 2713 of the Public Health Service Act), to fail to be 

20 a qualified health plan, or to fail to fulfill any other 

21 requirement under this title on the basis that the 

22 plan does not provide (or pay for) coverage of steri23 lization or contraceptive services because— 

24 ‘‘(A) providing (or paying for) such cov25 erage is contrary to the religious or moral beVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:53 Feb 10, 2012 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3982.IH H3982

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1 liefs of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offer2 ing the plan; or 

3 ‘‘(B) such coverage, in the case of indi4 vidual coverage, is contrary to the religious or 

5 moral beliefs of the purchaser or beneficiary of 

6 the coverage.’’. 

Æ 


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