Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State.
Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom
of Conscience?
US House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
16 February, 2012
Testimony of
Laura
Champion, M.D.
Medical Director
Calvin College Health Services
This is not about politics, this is not about
contraception, and this is not about depriving women of health care.
Rather, this is personal. This is about my daily life as a physician, a
Christian, and a Medical Services Director.
Good morning Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings:
[PDF File] I appreciate your invitation to share my concerns about the
contraceptive mandate.
My name is Dr. Laura Champion and I am the medical director and a
practicing
physician at Calvin College Health Services in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I
graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1996
and
have been Board Certified in Family Medicine since 1999. I provided
primary
care in a private practice in Grand Rapids, MI until June 2011 when I
assumed the
medical director role at Calvin College. I want to share my concerns
with you as a
person who medically understands what is at stake and who has the
responsibility
for negotiating and providing the student insurance coverage to the
students at
Calvin College, a private, accredited, four-year, Christian liberal arts
college. We
are an institution whose religious character and mission is central to
everything we
are and everything we do.
Great care was taken in crafting the student
health plan to ensure that it reflects the values and beliefs of Calvin
College and the Christian Reformed Church.
In order to understand our religious objection, you need to
understand that we take
seriously our faith commitments, our holistic student health services,
and our
intellectual mission. Since 1876, this Christian liberal arts college in
Michigan has
built a sterling reputation for academic excellence. Consistently ranked
in U.S.
News and World Report as a top liberal arts college, it is one of only
four colleges
in the nation to receive a Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus
Internationalization. This contraceptive mandate jeopardizes our
commitment to
international students who would be negatively affected by the college
not being
able to provide a health insurance option to them. Calvin is fortunate
to have a
fully staffed Health Services Department to serve the medical needs of
our student
body. We require that each student have health insurance to attend our
school. We
offer an affordable option for those students who enroll under-insured.
Contraception is not controversial at our
school. Clinicians write prescriptions that include contraception for a
variety of reasons, including the prevention of pregnancy.
I am concerned about the many specific facets of these regulations
and I am
concerned as a health provider about the wide sweeping regulatory
overreach that
the mandate on contraceptives signals. Contraception is not
controversial at our
school. Clinicians write prescriptions that include contraception for a
variety of
reasons, including the prevention of pregnancy. However, abortifacient
agents are
not prescribed, nor are they covered in our health care plan. The
advocacy of these
agents is profoundly inconsistent with the belief system of our college
and our
religion. To force the access of such agents upon our students would
violate our
religious liberty. Calvin College is committed to ethical, moral and
spiritual higher
education. To teach one set of values and beliefs and then to provide
abortifacient
agents for students would lack integrity. We cannot expect to train
ethically
minded leaders for the future and then require a compromise of values
and beliefs
by the colleges and universities that supply such leaders.
Requiring coverage of abortificient agents is in
direct contradiction to the spiritual and behavioral standards that
Calvin College expects of ourselves and our students.
I want to underscore that our College and our Health Services
Department would
be severely harmed by the mandate requiring abortion causing drugs. We
challenge
our students to live out the values they believe. Our intent and purpose
is that our
entire faculty, staff, and students are living examples of believers
trying to follow
in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We make every effort to ensure that
our practices
follow our beliefs. Forcing Health Services to be part of the
distribution of
abortificient agents is an affront to our principles and sends an
inaccurate message
to our students. Requiring coverage of abortificient agents is in direct
contradiction
to the spiritual and behavioral standards that Calvin College expects of
ourselves
and our students.
Plan B and Ella should not be considered
equivalent to cancer screening or vaccinations. Pregnancy is not a
disease. This is a premise that I reject both religiously and medically.
Even when Americans hold vastly different views on the sanctity of
life, this
mandate raises a point that should be examined by all: do we value
religious
freedom in our country or not? Further, the mandate elevates
contraception and
abortive drugs to the level of preventative health care. They are not.
Plan B and
Ella should not be considered equivalent to cancer screening or
vaccinations.
Pregnancy is not a disease. This is a premise that I reject both
religiously and
medically.
Recently the White House purported to offer an accommodation-perhaps
the
most fundamental flaw of which is that religious liberties are not
something that
any president has the legal authority to recognize or deny. As
Christians, we
believe these rights come from God, and as US citizens, we believe our
Constitution affirms and guarantees our right to religious liberty.
There is a limit to
what government can compel us to do or not do particularly in matters of
faith and
conscience. It is in the best interest of all Americans, of every
ideological stripe,
that this limit, this line, not be crossed.
This is not about politics, this is not about contraception, and this
is not about
depriving women of health care. Rather, this is personal. This is about
my daily
life as a physician, a Christian, and a Medical Services Director.
Whether I will be
able as a physician to practice medicine within my belief system.
Whether Calvin
College will be able to continue its historic tradition of living out
the faith it
teaches. A government that is of the people, by the people, and for the
people,
should not force the people to violate their consciences.
I oppose this mandate for the reasons and rationale above. I
respectfully request
your help so that Calvin College does not have to violate its religious
beliefs.