Catholic Action League Hails Trump Order on Conscience Protections

The following is a statement issued Friday by C. J. Doyle, Executive Director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, in response to a request for public comment from the Associated Press. AP contacted the League regarding the executive order, issued by President Donald Trump, allowing an exemption, based on moral and religious beliefs, to the Obama administration’s U. S. Department of Health and Human Services regulation—pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010—which mandated contraceptive coverage in employer sponsored group health insurance. AP also asked Doyle to comment on the decision of Massachusetts Attorney-General Maura Healey to sue the federal government.

Doyle commented: “No one has a moral or a constitutional right to demand that someone else pay for their contraceptives, abortifacients or sterilizations. President Trump is to commended for keeping his campaign promise to defend religious freedom.”

“Maura Healey, the only constitutional officer who has boasted of her endorsement by Planned Parenthood, believes that Catholics have no right to choose when it comes subsidizing other people’s birth control.”

Doyle’s statement was carried in AP stories appearing in, among other publications, the Boston Herald, Boston.com, the Miami Heraldand The Los Angeles Times.