On January 20, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approved a mandate that will force Catholic institutions to provide contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortifacients in their health care plans, effectively forcing Catholic employers to violate their consciences and fund practices that are morally offensive.

On February 8, the Catholic Information Center hosted a panel discussion "Contesting the HHS Mandate." On February 10, President Obama announced a modification to the mandate in attempt to accomodate religious liberty, by making the insurance company pay for contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortifacients in the health care plans that of religious institutions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded that the mandate remains problematic because it maintains that all insurers must include coverage for the objectionable services.

Since the continuing debate has been framed as a conflict between women's health and religion, the women's web-magazine, Altcatholicah, is pleased to join the Catholic Information Center in hosting this all-women panel to discuss continued challenges the HHS mandate poses for women and the Church.

CARRIE SEVERINO is chief counsel and policy director to the Judicial Crisis Network. In that capacity she has briefed Senators and Congressmen, appeared on MSNBC, FOX, CNN, and C-SPAN, and regularly speaks and writes on judicial issues, particularly constitutional law, the Kagan nomination, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She filed amicus briefs on behalf of 43 U.S. Senators and and Speaker Boehner in the Supreme Court litigation challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Until March 2010, Carrie was an Olin/Searle Fellow and a Dean's Visiting Scholar at Georgetown Law Center. She was previously a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School, cum laude, of Duke University, and holds a Master's degree in Linguistics from Michigan State University.

DR. MARIE ANDERSON M.D., F.A.C.O.G., OB-GYN, is Chief Medical Officer of the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Virginia. Dr. Anderson received her M.D. from Georgetown University and completed her OB-GYN residency at Georgetown in 1993. She has been board certified since 1995 and joined Tepeyac in 1997. Along with her duties as Medical Director, Dr. Anderson founded The Kristen Anderson Perinatal Hospice Program. This unique, compassionate program offered by Tepeyac, provides families with the greatest amount of time with their sick, unborn children—children, in uterero, who are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Dr. Anderson was the first physician to join Dr. Bruchalski at Tepeyac Family Center. Dr. Anderson is President of the Northern Virginia Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.

GLORIA PURVIS is a Board Member for the Northwest Pregnancy Center and Maternity Home. Having received her B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies at Cornell University, she is a policy director at a major financial services company. She has served on the National Black Catholic Congress' Leadership Commission and as an Advisory Board Member on the Maryland Catholic Conference's Respect for Life Department as well as the Archdiocese of Washington's Pastoral Council. She has taught Natural Family Planning as a member of a Pre-Cana team in the Archdiocese of Washington. Gloria is the creator and host of an upcoming new EWTN series, Authentically Free at Last, which deals with the modern challenges to the expression and understanding of authentic human freedom.

MARIA MONTSERRAT ALVARADO is the Director of Operations for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Montse received her B.A. in Political Science from Florida International University and a Master’s from the George Washington University School of Political Management concentrating in Advocacy Politics. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Shepherd’s Table, a homeless shelter in Silver Spring, Maryland, a Commissioner at the Montgomery County Commission for Women, and contributor to Altcatholicah. Montse speaks Spanish, French, and Italian and is a competitive classical and jazz vocalist.

ASHLEY MCGUIRE is editor in chief of Altcatholicah. Currently a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow, she is currently writing a book about the cultural disempowerment of girls and women. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and First Things, among others. Ashley is a graduate of Tufts University in Boston.

This event is free and open to the public.

Time:
Monday, February 27 at 6 PM

Place:
The Catholic Information Center
1501 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005