Catholic Universities Have Been Paying for Abortions All Along
After three years of nearly constant Sturm und Drang on the part of U.S. bishops over the contraception mandate comes word that some of the same Catholic universities have been covering abortions all along. Loyola Marymount’s insurance plan, as its president recently confirmed, has included elective abortion coverage for the past 25 years.
The revelation comes with the news that the California Department of Health and Human Services has reversed itself and rescinded permission for two Catholic universities in California to remove elective abortion coverage from their employee insurance plans. It turns out that even as the bishops have been screaming that any attempt to force Catholic-affiliated organizations to cover contraception would be a heinous insult to Catholicism, Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara Universities have been covering abortions—including elective abortions—as California law requires coverage of all “medically necessary” services.
While a number of states have moved to ban private insurers from covering some or all abortions, California has both statutory and constitutional protections for abortion access which, according to the state Department of Managed Health Care, means that health plans must treat “legal abortion neutrally” and may not place any exclusions or limitations on coverage for the service.
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