U.S. Catholic bishops plan aggressive expansion of birth-control battle
Email 
Print
(Bishops listen to proceedings during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Maryland November 14, 2011. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
U.S. Catholic bishops, energized by a battle over contraception funding, are planning an aggressive campaign to rally Americans against a long list of government measures which they say intrude on religious liberty. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plans to work with other religious groups, including evangelical Christians, on an election-year public relations campaign that may include TV and radio ads, social media marketing and a push for pastors and priests to raise the subject from the pulpit.
“We want to make it something that will get peoples’ attention,” said Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.
The bishops spent the past few weeks pressing President Barack Obama to exempt religious employers from a federal mandate that all health insurance plans offer free birth control. Obama agreed to modify the mandate a bit, so that religious employers wouldn’t have to pay for contraceptive coverage directly. That satisfied some Catholic groups, but the bishops were not mollified. They want the mandate repealed altogether.
And now, they are aiming higher still, lobbying Congress to enact a law that would let any employer opt out of covering any medical treatment he disagreed with as a matter of his personal faith.
So, for instance, a pizzeria owner who objected to childhood vaccinations on religious grounds would be able to request an insurance plan that did not cover them, in effect overriding a federal requirement that vaccinations be provided free with any health-insurance plan.
Read the full story by Stephanie Simon here.
.
Follow all posts on Twitter @ RTRFaithWorld
Follow all posts via RSS
Follow all posts via Google+
Comments RSSPost Your Comment
-
Author Profile
-
That photograph is really telling! All male celibate Catholic Bishops lack crediblity when it comes to issues of Human Sexuality, Women’s Health, and Contraception!
I don’t think this article describes the situation correctly. When they wanted to market the drug Thalidomide in the United States, only one FDA staffer, a woman, held up its approval. She saved thousands of lives. Contraception, sterilization and the Morning-After Pill are not indispensible to the human race. The U.S. Government has never intruded into controlling which health care procedures will be funded to this extent before. It’s easy to bash the Catholic Church, but someone has to slow this juggernaut of intrusion into personal autonomy.
If this whole scheme of “my company will only cover things I want in our insurance” continues to it’s logical conclusion, it should hasten the arrival of a true National Insurance Plan. One that every citizen can buy into and have decent coverage at an affordable price. Isn’t that what we really need? What we should already have?
Where does it stop? Are the Bishops pushing to omit coverage for tubal ligation or vasectomies? Those represent the ultimate in birth control but I haven’t heard those procedures mentioned. Next, are they going to push to omit coverage for HIV/AIDS? After all, neither the Catholics nor the Evangelicals approve of homosexuality, so unless the patient can prove that there was no gay sex involved, can they deny coverage for any HIV related issue? What about an unmarried employee who needs pregnancy coverage and maternity leave? They don’t approve of babies out of wedlock, so I guess that will be scratched from their policies too?
When are we going to stand up and say, NO MORE! When are we going to join the rest of the developed world and offer all our citizens a comprehensive health plan that is affordable? You would think that instead of undermining coverage, these so-called “Christians” would be advocating for a healthier population rather than pursuing this narrow minded petty agenda!
Sorry – the church when it ran the govt in the middle ages – it gave us the so called dark ages of zero social and economic progress. And endless wars
And a life for the people best described as brutish, cold and harsh.
this whole biz is just another attempt to deflect attention from the endless HIDDEN molestation of children by the church – world wide.
Is there anything more nauseating than a bunch of blowhard, geriatric pedophile coddlers, with an institutional record of retarding progress in science, health, and expression, telling the world that a requirement to pay for the same contraception that 98% of their flock use, is a violation of their “religious liberty?”
One of the legitimate functions of government is to promote equality and fairness for all, by having everyone play by the same rules. Absolutely no one is coming into our Churches and trying to tell parishioners what to believe…or forcing them to use contraception in any way. BUT If the Bishops want to start businesses that employ millions of people of varying faiths -or no “faith” at all- THEN they must play by the rules…ESPECIALLY if they use our tax dollars in the process. Just because a religious group in America claims to believe something, we cannot excuse them from obeying the law in the PUBLIC arena, based on that belief. They can legally attempt to change the law, not to deny it outright. And if they want to plunge overtly into politics from the pulpit, then they should give up their tax-exempt status. Did I miss something, or when it comes to the “sanctity of life”, is every single righteous Catholic still a card carrying conscientious objector, still refusing to take up arms, still totally against the death penalty, and still against contraception and birth-control in all its forms? Oh well, hypocrisy is at the heart of politics, and politics masquerading as religion even more so. This country is an invigorating mixture of all the diversity that life has to offer, drawing its strength FROM that diversity. True religious freedom gives everyone the right to make personal decisions, including whether to use birth control, based on our own beliefs and according to what is best for our health and our families. It fiercely protects the rights of all of us to practice our faith. It does not, however, give anyone, including the bishops, the right to impose their beliefs on others and discriminate in the name of religious liberty. People of faith should not let themselves be used as pawns in a fake war “against religion”’. The only war going on here is a war against women and families who want to control their futures….a war between the lie that this is about religious liberty… and the truth. Don’t believe the hype.
First, I don’t think the Govt should be butting their noses into what companies choose to offer their employees. But to appease the church forcing the insurance companies to pay for it is just as wrong. Dies that mean that the insurance company through my employer must give me birth control with no copay? Because that seems like the precedent that Obama is setting here. Or maybe this is just a slick way of testing the waters for his social medicine plan.
Second, if you decide that you are going to work for the Catholic Church then you should be prepared for their rules and their beliefs and understand what you are getting yourself into. I was raised catholic but I don’t agree with their position on birth control; however, if I went to work for them I wouldn’t expect that coverage.
In the Holy War on Religion, I’ve had enough. I’m surrendering! ‘Cause I’m gonna start my own religion. Definitely. Hey Newt -wanna join? We’re gonna have open marriages and multiple wives and all SORTS of neat stuff that you’re just gonna love! But no nasty stoning of adulterers. Promise! And for Mitt and Ron, hey, just for you guys: no taxes AT ALL …and human sacrifice of illegal aliens. Televised. Whoooppee! What a country!
You have to look beyond making the choice to work for the Catholic Church. There are some markets where that choice would not exist as they are the only game in town. For example, the Church runs hundreds of hospitals. For some communities, the Catholic hospital is the only one in the area. So if that’s where you live and you are a nurse (as an example) and not Catholic, you may not have access to birth control without this legislation. There aren’t always alternatives and the Church doesn’t just hire Catholics.