The Obama administration announced today it will wait for a year (coincidentally until after the elections) before requiring religious organizations to comply with an Obamacare mandate that they provide coverage for contraception — including controversial drugs that can abort an early pregnancy.
This started with a decision by the Obama administration last summer listing the “preventive” services that must be covered by health plans under Obamacare without charge to patients, and the list included contraception.
This is another assault on the Constitution and the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called the federal regulation an “unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom.”
The Obamacare regulation gives faith-based institutions, like Catholic universities and hospitals, the choice of violating the fundamental tenets of their faith by covering the federally mandated coverage in their employee health plans, or of dropping health insurance for their employees — in which case they would be fined for violating the employer mandate.
This is an outrage. Belmont Abbey, a private Catholic college located in North Carolina, is being joined by several other universities in suing the government over the mandate. The administration gave religious organizations a very narrow exemption from the mandate, only if the group’s employees are primarily of one faith and primarily serve members of that faith.
Belmont Abbey says that Catholic universities that employ non-Catholic professors or Catholic hospitals that provide care to non-Catholics don’t qualify. Even Jesus wouldn’t qualify as religious under the regulation’s definition, the Bishops wrote in earlier comments about the rule!
USCBB president Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has established a Bishop’s committee on religious liberty, headed by Bridgeport, Ct., bishop William Lori. The committee is going to have a great deal of work to do in defending the faith against Obamacare’s many assaults.
As I told Kathryn Lopez for a recent article, there is a war on religion from the Left, and it is very dangerous to the institutions that make our civil society function.
The Catholic Church historically has been a vital part of the safety net — providing aid for the poor, care for the sick, shelter and food for the homeless, and care for mothers in need, as a few examples.
The health-care law threatens to tear gaping holes in that safety net by forcing Catholic health plans to cover contraception, by denying funds to Catholic adoption agencies, and ultimately by forcing taxpayers — including Catholics — to fund abortion.
This is dangerous to the very fabric of our society. It’s a crucial reason why the whole health law, with its centralized control over health-care decisions, must not stand.
And the beat goes on.
Wait until Fake Marriage is the law of the Land- then you will really see the "law" push faithful Christians to the margins of society.
Never in history has a country's elite had such contempt for their *own* country's traditions, beliefs, principles and institutions.
Lord have mercy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse-- "an Obamacare mandate that they provide coverage for contraception — including controversial drugs that can abort an early pregnancy." --
Well, please -- list these "controversial drugs", then, or are we just blowing smoke? Sorry to bust your bubble, but "contraception" means it *prevents* pregnancy, so how can these drugs abort a pregnancy that hasn't happened? And why should non-Catholic employees be deprived of contraception coverage? After all, they might just be the responsible-minded type who believe in not having babies they can't afford. (Yep, there are plenty of white Catholics on the welfare rolls, believe it or not.) OK, here's a deal -- Obama can take back the requirement for contraception coverage and *also* refuse coverage for Viagra! What's that? Some boo-hisses I hear? Figures.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMind you, this 'edict' comes from a man who professes adherence to religious doctrine. Heaven knows what that doctrine is, given his failure in three years to find a church to attend regularly, never mind, join, in Washington. If he couldn't make it any clearer through his governing decisions, our current president worships at only one altar: left-wing secularism noted particularly for its hostility to religious expression in any form. We simply cannot tolerate another term for the most radical, America hating, redistributionist president this country has ever had the misfortune of electing to office.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe political calculation behind this violent assault on religious liberty is just breathtaking. A one-year extension will keep the fascist religious types sufficiently quiet through the election; after that, they'll have an nice ultimatum: violate what you take to be the moral law, or stop offering healthcare coverage (and get punished accordingly).
I really hope the Republican candidates raise hell about this. We can count on Santorum to do so; we can probably trust Gingrich to do so, as well. I don't know about Romney and Paul. I also hope Archbishop Dolan uses his public presence to reiterate his demand that Sebelius & co. be denied communion. Not that they've actually been to mass in years, of course.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust imagine what will we become in the event Barack Obama is reelected.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis has already happened in Massachusetts with homosexual marriage. When gay marriage became legal Catholic adoption agencies were sued for not allowing homosexuals to adopt children through their agencies. The result was that the Catholic adoption agencies were forced to shut down. It's interesting that this kind of pressure isn't put to bear on Muslim institutions or Orthodox Jewish institutions. I guess there are no major Muslim charities providing healthcare in this country. If there were they'd undoubtedly get an exemption.
Until The Gates Foundation I believe the Catholic Church was the biggest charity in the world. It has produced great people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Dr. Paul Farmer who founded partners in health. It's a religion that is the least tolerated in liberal society. Liberals are bent on corrupting the souls of the young, even children. In Massachusetts homosexuality is introduced into the public school curriculum as early as kindergarten in more liberal communities like Concord, Lexington, and Wayland. Christ said that it would be better to be dropped into the ocean with a millstone tied around your neck than to corrupt a child. How much longer do you think this country will last if Obama care becomes law? and where do we go to escape if he is re-elected?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou just know that some people on the Left get a sick pleasure in making people soil their own beliefs. I hope the employer mandate and the individual mandate are both overturned pronto!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe should ask Obama if Islamic soup kitchens must be required to serve pork.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Left loves to preach how all people have rights; that anyone crossing our borders, as if we have borders anymore,, should automatically be deemed a citizen with all the inalienable rights of a citizen. Yet, a helpless babe in the womb is not considered to be worthy of the same rights. What a messed up sense of priorities these people possess.According to them you can euthanize the old and abort the unborn. When it comes their turn, and it will, will they be so cooperative as to hop on the ice flow then freeze to death all in the name of social-planning? Me thinks not!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am a 63 year old Catholic, who has been frustrated by the liberalism of the Church. The majority of voting Catholics vote Democrat. My two Senators, who are Catholic both vote for abortion. Nancy Pelosi, who was born and raised as a Catholic, in my city, is a liberal. God gave mankind the opportunity to live in harmony here in the US and I believe he gave us B.O. to open our eyes to the corruption that the liberals have brought.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope the organizations affected have scheduled their day in court, and that we still have enough conservatives among the Supremes to hear them out by the time they get there.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis must be fought at every level. Gay marriage next will force religious people to go against their conscience, and the liberal left will simply laugh. Outrageous! Obama and his minions must be stopped. He hasn't got a clue, but blithely carries on, and his firends in the press and academia all support him. Stop Obama Now!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is yet another reason to get very worried. As I mentioned in a post on another column, the root cause of most of our tribe's problems is widespread deterioration of discipline and tradition.
Self-discipline is systematically being abolished by the collectivists, and tradition is not far behind. Self-control is replaced by institutionalized clean-up squads.
It is through tradition that discipline has been conveyed from generation to generation, and much of that tradition is firmly placed in the hands of faith and religion. When these go there will be absolutely no hope for us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn order for Obamacare to become permanent in the US, the federal government needs to get rid of religious healthcare organizations and hospitals. The next part is to get religious people out of medicine, as they will be the ones that object to many of the goals of nationalized "healthcare". When medicine is fully secularized, almost no one will object to abortion, euthanasia and healthcare rationing.
If we don't rid ourselves of Obamacare, say goodbye to the greatest healthcare ever known to man.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is all very frightening. We have to hope and pray that the supreme court overturns this debacle. And we must make sure to pick the best person to beat this guy next November. He is a dangerous man.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is nonsese. Our freedoms are safe.
Our brave military is defending our freedom on land sea and in the air. They are NOT in the miltary to milk the bennies; theyre in the military to be freedom fighters. Its why we're broke, but knowing our freedom is secure is well worth it. .
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnother step in the inevitable movement from the nanny state to the commissar state.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf Jehovah's Witnesses ever started a hospital, I would hope that the federal government would force them to administer blood transfusions, or shut down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCould someone please call Stupak for comment...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI am not sure what to make of all this.
The exception mentioned, "only if the group’s employees are primarily of one faith and primarily serve members of that faith" at first blush, sounds reasonable to me.
I would not want someone who worked for a books store owned by Jehovah's witnesses, assuming they had health benefits, to not have blood transfusions paid for because of JW beleifs. Or, if someone worked in a secular capacity for the Church of Scientology I would not want them to be denied psychiatric benefits, because the CoS considers psychiatry an abomination.
If a woman is pregnant and her life is threatened by the fetus and the employer does not think an abortion is morally acceptable then I would not want her to be denied that health benefit. Just to be clear, I am not attributing this specific view to the Catholic Church, but I can imagine many churches hold these views. I don't think they should be able to reject benefits for their secular employees because they don't like them.
I don't know all the specifics here and would welcome others take on this.
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