Dolan: ‘Mr. President, You’re Pushing Aside Some of Your Greatest Supporters’ with Mandate

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cglw1Yqd8eY

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, made clear that the Catholic Church remains adamantly opposed to the president’s health-care law because of what the Church considers its assault on conscience rights. “We bishops have been really kind of in a tough place, because we’re for universal, comprehensive, life-affirming health care,” Dolan said on Meet the Press, noting that the Catholic Church in the United States has supported the goal of universal and affordable health care for almost a century.

But the so-called HHS mandate, which requires all health-insurance plans to cover without co-pays contraception, sterilization, and drugs that may work as abortifacients, has made it impossible for Catholics to support the president’s efforts, Dolan said. “Mr. President, you’re really pushing kind of aside some of your greatest supporters. We want to be with you, we want to be strong, and if you keep doing this, we’re not going to be able to be one of your cheerleaders,” Dolan said. “That, sadly, is what happened.”

This past week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the contraception mandate from Hobby Lobby, a retail chain owned by Evangelical Christians.