Catholic Health Association Calls for Broader Contraception-Mandate Exemption

In its 6-15 comments to HHS (see link on this page), CHA has now rejected the "two-tier" accommodation that the Obama administration proposed.  CHA calls for an approach in which religious social services/healthcare providers etc. are fully exempted along with houses of worship--which avoids the bad precedent of putting the extremely narrow HHS "religious employer" language into federal law--and if the government wants to provide contraceptive access to these organizations' employees, it does so through a means entirely unconnected to the organizations or the employees' insurance policies.

The reactions have already started claiming (of course) that the CHA has "caved" to the bishops, whereas before (of course) it "caved" to the administration.  As I've followed the whole debate over the Affordable Care Act and the contraception mandate, in my judgment Sr. Carol Keehan and the CHA deserve much respect for trying to pursue a course of supporting healthcare access, supporting effective conscience accommodations, and engaging constructively with the administration.  It gives CHA extra credibility when it tells the administration that on this issue their position is still wrong.  (UPDATE: See also Michael Sean Winters' powerful post on CHA's stand and its moral authority.)