Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, cl@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2012 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:

On February 15, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said Catholic insurance carriers will not be given an exemption from the mandate requiring insurance companies to provide for contraceptive, abortifacient and sterilization services. She explained, "Religious insurance companies don't really design the plans they sell based on their own religious tenets." This is an outrageous smear.

Last month, Our Sunday Visitor ran a splendid article on this subject titled, "Investing with a Clear Conscience." It listed the following companies as following Catholic investment principles: Ave Maria Mutual Funds; Christian Brothers Investment Services; Epiphany Funds; First Affirmative Financial Network; Investing for Catholics; LKCM Aquinas Funds; Prosperitas Wealth Management; and Trinity Fiduciary Partners.

The article also listed the six investment principles as laid out in the bishops' 1991 statement on socially responsible investing (it was revised in 2003): Protecting Human  Life; Promoting Human Dignity; Reducing Arms Production; Pursuing Economic Justice; Protecting the Environment; and Encouraging Corporate Responsibility.

Sebelius, of course, is a champion of partial-birth abortion, so she obviously fails the bishops' test. That is her business. But she has no business misinforming the public about the honorable role played by many Catholic insurance companies.

The Catholic League uses Christian Brothers as its insurance carrier, and we will fight attempts by the Obama administration to undermine its integrity.