ETBU president testifies on health insurance mandate

WASHINGTON, D.C.—A Health and Humans Services mandate requiring religious institutions to provide contraceptives as part of health insurance coverage for employees violates religious freedom, East Texas Baptist University President Dub Oliver told a congressional committee.

The Obama administration's mandate, under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, would require religious groups to violate conscience by paying for contraceptive drugs that cause abortions, Oliver asserted.

East Texas Baptist University President Dub Oliver testifies before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington D.C. (SCREENSHOT: oversight.house.gov)

"East Texas Baptist University has a religious objection to this mandate, and this mandate violates our constitutional rights," Oliver testified before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Capitol Hill. "There is a wide agreement that abortion is wrong. And we believe, based on the Bible, that life begins at conception."

The administration's mandate covers emergency contraceptives such as Plan B—the so-called "morning-after pill"—and ella—sometimes referred to as the "week-after pill," he said.

"Our faith and the most recent science tell us that these drugs cause abortions. But under the administration's mandate, my university will be required to buy insurance so that our employees can obtain these drugs for free, as if these drugs are no different than penicillin. We believe that is wrong," Oliver said.

Others on a panel testifying against the mandate were William E. Lori, chairman of the ad hoc committee for religious liberty with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Matthew C. Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; C. Ben Mitchell, professor of moral philosophy at Union University; Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University; Craig Mitchell, chair of the ethics department at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; John H. Garvey, president of the Catholic University of America; William K. Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College; Allison Dabbs Garrett, vice president for academic affairs at Oklahoma Christian University; and Laura Champion, medical director Calvin College Health Services.

"Baptist in America, by virtue of our history, are particularly sensitive to coercive government actions that infringe upon religious liberty," Oliver said in his testimony. "But it's not just about us. Baptists are alarmed whenever any religious group's rights are threatened. As the famous Baptist preacher, George W. Truett once said, 'A Baptist would rise at midnight to plea for absolute liberty for his Catholic neighbor, and for his Jewish neighbor, and for everybody else.'"