Will Option of Contraceptives Kill ‘Religious Freedom’? Philly Catholic Church Says Yes
There’s a new controversy coming out of the federal government. And a new source of outrage. It’s the Department of Health and Human Services’ requirement that health plans cover contraceptives for women under Obamacare. The source of outrage? The Catholic Church.
I assume I don’t need to list the reasons the Church is against contraceptives. After all, it’s right there in Genesis 38: 8-10: “Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.’ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also.”
Thou shalt not pull out, either. Apparently.
Either way, in 1968, Pope Paul VI re-emphasized this fight against birth control and the Catholic Church has been on the decline ever since. This new controversy—which has actually been in place since last August and goes into effect in 2013—stems from the idea that Catholics believe requiring insurance plans for faith-based employers to cover contraception infringes on their religious freedom. They’ve been able to avoid state mandates for contraception for years. Federal health care reform changes that. HHS requires health coverage for contraceptives and reproductive services, even for employees of religious institutions. The mandate was recommended by the Institute of Medicine, which is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. They consider access to birth control a measure that improves both infant and maternal mortality rates.
“For the first time in history, the federal government is requiring people to buy a product that violates their conscience or religious freedoms,” said Jason Adkins, of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.
Local Catholic leaders have jumped in the mix, too. Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput actually went as far as to tell the Catholic News Service that, “The very principle of religious freedom, the first freedom in the Bill of Rights, is at stake here. That’s a lot to be at stake. Once it’s lost, you don’t get it back.” Chaput even suggested that once in effect, Catholic institutions could stop offering health insurance as an employee benefit. “Or we can stop helping people who aren’t Catholic, but Catholics always take care of other people,” Archbishop Chaput said. He went onto tell the News Service that arguments that this is a women’s health issue is essentially hogwash, and that the Catholic Church is a great supporter of women’s rights.
Harrisburg Bishop Joseph McFadden piled on, too. He wrote a letter calling this requirement “an alarming and serious matter that poses the greatest threat to religious liberty in our lifetimes.”
McFadden’s letter also threatened this could lead to “sterilization” and “abortion-inducing drugs,” even though they’re not in the HHS requirements. Perhaps McFadden is getting his information from World Net Daily?
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president Timothy Dolan put out a statement saying “Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience…This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”
The option of contraception is really doing all this?
Of course this is all going on at a time when Catholic diocese the country over have been suffering multi-million dollar lawsuits from former parishioners who’ve been raped and tortured by church leaders, and who’ve often shown little remorse. In Philadelphia, Church leaders are even being prosecuted for knowingly allowing priests to remain in the parish to continue destroying people’s lives. It’s directly after two former Philly Church officials are pointing fingers at each other for covering up the rape conducted in an institution once known (whether it was true or not) for its strict values in both preach and practice.
Given that, opposing contraception seems like one of those issues the Catholic Church is just really far behind on. Everyone—save Rick Santorum—has moved on, and polls show a majority of Catholics even support same-sex marriage, another societal progression the Church is fighting tooth and nail from the top. To make matters weirder, Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey is on the forefront of this today, now that it’s in the news, saying he opposed this requirement from the start.
Your article is quite accurate in giving the facts but I confess to finding it, as I find much current journalism , intellectually shallow and unable to grasp the issues at stake. You quoted Dolan in your article in a sentence that seems to me to require serious attention:
“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience…This shouldn’t happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”
Statistics on Catholic belief and who is behind and who is forward are all irrelevant. The question that should concern you (in the great tradition of journalism) is whether the government in this particular case is violating treasured freedoms enshrined in our laws or not. Is this, indeed, the state passing a Rubicon as Catholics claim it is?
In Iran right now Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian Pastor has been in prison for 3 years and is daily in danger of being executed for his refusal to recant his Christianity. His case shows that there is something inviolable in the human person, a sovereign seat of freedom which it is iherently unjust to violate. The contention of the Catholic church is that this ruling violates this same inalienable center of the human being which we often call conscience.
The fact that the matter in question seems small to you or anyone else is not really relevant either.Here is where I would ask for more intellectual engagement.
Randy, sterilization is included, as well as the lack of conscience (in other words, a doctor or nurse who didn’t participate in the taking of life would have to, or find another job they hoped wouldn’t put them in the situation/so much for first do no harm).
As far as your Think Progress poll, i’m sure their fingers are on the pulse of mass going Catholics. Let’s be real, those aren’t Catholics (see Pelosi, Biden, Sebelius, Dodd, rip Kennedy, etc., refer also to the Supreme Ct. questioning of nominees by ‘catholics’ re: abortion support the last decade).
Funny how I hear separation of church and state if a kid wears a t-shirt or someone (except muslims), wants to say God in school. I guess that only works one way. The only thing to do is shut down all Catholic institutions from shelters, hospitals, adoption/foster care agencies, to schools, universities, refugee resettlement, mission work that goes out from the US to hurting countries, etc.. That should make a lot of folks out there happy.
BTW, this isn’t about classical liberalism, it’s something much worse. Re-read history.
I hope you figure it out before it’s too late.
Not being snarky, just honest. I do like your straight forward reporting style; We need more of it.
[...] and organizations cover contraceptives for their employees. It began with the Catholic Church (which we covered here), wiggled its way through the Republican National Committee and its affiliates, and is now in full [...]
[...] and organizations cover contraceptives for their employees. It began with the Catholic Church (which we covered here), wiggled its way through the Republican National Committee and its affiliates, and is now in full [...]