A conference of interest: "Contraception and Conscience"

Contraception and Conscience:  A Symposium on
Religious Liberty, Women’s Health, and the HHS Rule on Provision of Birth
Control Coverage for Employees

Georgetown University Law Center

McDonough Hall

Philip A. Hart Auditorium

600 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC

 Friday, September 21, 2012

9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

A conference examining the legal, theological, health, equality, and ethical issues relating to the recent Rule promulgated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “Coverage of Preventive Services Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

The symposium brings together legal, religious, and cultural scholars and
practitioners for a day-long conversation about the increasingly contentious
public debate surrounding the HHS Rule requiring employers to subsidize
preventive health services for employees, the religious accommodations in the
HHS rule, and the lawsuits filed by religious objectors challenging the rule.

Continental
Breakfast—8:30-9:00

Introduction—9:00-9:10

Dean William M. Treanor,
Georgetown University Law Center

Panel One – 9:10-10:45

The Legal Challenges to the HHS
Contraception Rule.
 What is the nature of the HHS Rule and its religious accommodations?
 What is the status of the more than two dozen lawsuits challenging the
HHS Rule?  How are the courts likely to resolve the statutory and
constitutional issues?  How do claims of religious conscience apply to
institutional employers, including for-profit employers?  What are the
relevant state interests—should the Rule be viewed as simply about enabling
access to preventive health care, or also about ensuring equality in the
workplace?  How do these cases reflect broader trends in the development
of the law of religious liberty?  How should HHS frame its promised
additional religious accommodation? 

Panelists

Martin Lederman, Georgetown University Law Center

Louise Melling, American Civil Liberties Union

Melissa Rogers,Wake Forest University Divinity School, Center for Religion and
Public Affairs

Robert Vischer, University of St. Thomas School of Law

Lori Windham, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

Panel
Two – 11:00-12:45

What is the Burden on Religious Exercise? Does the HHS Rule put
religious employers to an untenable choice between obeying the law and honoring
religious obligations, and if so, how?  Does it require individuals or
entities to “cooperate with evil” in a manner that their faith forbids?
 Does compliance with the law prevent them from “bearing witness” to their
faith or create “scandal” by conveying endorsement of activities to which the
employer morally objects?   



Panelists

Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College

Patrick Deneen, University of Notre Dame

Cathleen Kaveny, University of Notre Dame

Michael Kessler, Georgetown University

John Langan, S.J., Georgetown
University

Robert Tuttle, George Washington University School of Law

Panel
Three – 2:15-4:00

A Broader Focus.  How and why did this particular issue engender
such concern and controversy?  What are the historical antecedents?
 What does it tell us about how religious communities and institutions
(especially those involved in provision of education and social services) can
and should navigate rapidly changing norms in the public square?
  What are the implications of this debate for preventive health
services?  For women’s equality in the workplace and elsewhere in public
life?  What are the ethical implications for physicians and other
health-care providers?

 

Panelists

Gregg Bloche, Georgetown University Law Center

Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University

Eduardo Peñalver, Cornell University Law School

Robin West, Georgetown University Law Center

Robin Fretwell Wilson, Washington & Lee University School of Law

 



Please RSVP by September 19 to [email protected]






The conference is co-sponsored by the
Georgetown University Law Center and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,
and World Affairs at Georgetown University.  It is made possible through a
grant from the Ford Foundation.