The Obama administration had dragged its feet on providing the final version of HHS mandate regulations, a tactic that effectively prevented many groups suing for their religious freedom to be allowed to do so, on the basis that the government had not actually finalized the regulation they were objecting to.
They released it today, and it makes no serious accommodations of those whose conscience forbids cooperation with the moral evils of contraception, abortion and sterilization. Monstrous:
According to the regulation, when a religious non-profit insures its employees through an insurance company, the insurance company will be required to provide free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to the religious non-profit’s employees free of charge. Theoretically, the particular health insurance plan that the religious non-profit buys from an insurance company will not itself buy these things. Instead, in theory, the insurance company providing the health insurance plan to the religious non-profit will use other money that is theoretically walled off from the premiums it received from the religious non-profit to buy the services that violate the non-profit’s religious beliefs.
Figuratively, the insurance company will take the money for the insurance premiums from the religious organization and put them in its right pocket. When the insurance company needs to pay for a sterilization procedure or an abortion-inducing drug for one of the religious organization’s workers, it will take the money to pay for that out of its left pocket.
When a religious non-profit self-insures, the third party administrator will either have to pay for the sterilizations, contraceptives or abortion-inducing drugs itself, or arrange for an insurance issuer to do so. In this scenario, the regulation says the government will compensate the third party administrator or insurance company by providing it with an accommodation in the fees it pays to the state insurance exchange.
The regulation does not address the right of insurance companies or third-party administrators not to be forced by the federal government to pay for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Thus, people whose religious and moral beliefs hold that these things are immoral will be precluded from operating businesses in these industries.
For example: A Catholic university could not contract with an insurance company owned by a Catholic family to provide its insurance–because the Catholic family just like the Catholic university would be prevented by its faith from paying for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Under the final regulation, the insurance company for a Catholic university will be forced to pay for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
Catholic non-profits, under the final regulation, will be forced to patronize for-profit businesses that have no problem with killing unborn children.
The only people left in America who would be able to operate health insurance companies and third-party administrators would be those people ready and willing to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.
The regulation itself can be viewed on the government website here.
Profound shame on every Catholic organization that declined to state clearly their objection to these evils–and shame on the lay people and the clergy who could have spoken up but failed. Thanks to the so many who DID. There is more heroism that will be needed.
But you know what, this is not simply a “religious freedom” issue. Oh, our religion obliges us to follow the natural moral law, so in that sense we’re calling for our freedom to practice our religion. But too often we have stopped short of what we should have been all along stating before the world, in charity: that contraception and sterilization, as well as abortion are objectively grave moral evils, are bad for women, men, children, families and society. We shouldn’t cooperate with these evils, not simply because we are religious, but because they are wrong and ultimately harmful to everyone. And same for sodomy and all homosexual behavior. Same for fornication and concubinage. Same for masturbation and pornography. Same for greed and theft and financial exploitation. Same for drunkenness and drugs and violent ways.
Above all, we are about Yes to the good. But in a way, this must preceded by a No to what is bad or simply a distraction, in order to make room for the good, which is otherwise crowded out, marginalized, compartmentalized. This doesn’t happen in a day, and it doesn’t happen without the grace of God. (Come, Holy Spirit) Empty yourself absolutely of every evil, everything worthless, and say YES to Christ Crucified, and follow Him and may the goodness of your life, your humility, your piety be a light.
Have you avoided telling others that you believe contraception is morally wrong and harmful to everyone? How about homosexual behavior? We need to speak the truth in charity. Do you talk about marriage in a way that makes it more understandable, that shows its truth and beauty? How about chaste unmarried life? It’s not that life is all about these issues, but confusion about these things keep people separated from God and the Church, and the government is conspiring with satan to bring about their eternal suffering. There is a stark choice. Do people see your joy in God and your simple love for the Catholic Church?
Finally, please come to the weekly 7pm Thursday evening Rosary Rallies on the State Street Steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol!
Elizabeth,
The term “Final Solution” has historically been used to described the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany under Hitler in World War II. Your characterization of the HHS mandate as “Obama’s Final Solution” is a wretched example of inflammatory reporting and an insult to both survivors of the Holocaust and their families. I have many friends and relatives who are Jewish and they have recounted the horrors of the “Final Solution”.
I also see the HHS mandate as an abridgement of freedom of speech and religious practice. But your analogy is cheap and sensationalistic and requires an apology.
PermalinkJim, the connection is that in both cases certain innocent people were scapegoated and killed, ostensibly to solve society’s problems. Contraception (much of it abortifacient) and direct abortion are absolutely integral and considered vitally necessary to the “progressive” idea of how to grapple with the issues of poverty and the environment. In our society, it’s the unborn, targeted by abortifacient birth control methods which employers are obliged by the HHS mandate to participate in the provision of.
I have met holocaust survivors, I have also met postabortive moms who suffer intensely from regret and horror of their “choice” in regards to their own baby’s life, and I myself, when I was a poorly catechized fallen-away Catholic, was once a fornicator and contraceptor and have wept and wept over the knowledge that I may have conceived children who I killed through the use of contraceptives.
Today’s scapegoating and holocaust of the next generation is all the more insidious precisely because it is far more hidden, because the people dying are not ones with a story of their own, and particularly in the case of the very early embryos that die through the use of contraception that sheds the uterine lining before they can implant and continue to grow, there is no picture of them, and if there could be, one does not see a face. They received no love; no one got to meet them. Is that cheap and sensationalistic? I was mocked once, with nasty laughter, by a “pro choice” person who did not respect my grief, and if you do not believe in life from conception, I suppose it will not surprise me if you also will not respect what I am saying. The massive slaughter by the Nazis produced stories, statistics, photographs of so many people, of so much suffering and torment. The survivors remained in our communities, the dead have been remembered, we remind each other, never forget. Let it never happen again. Truly listening calls us to stop dehumanizing people, including the unborn, and stop the way death is actually being dealt in our own time and place.
People are on high alert not to accept their neighbors being rounded up, herded behind barbed wire, and gassed, shot, or starved/worked to death! Yes, they had better be! But there are methods now that do not strike the senses in this hideous way, but on the other hand promise liberty, sexual pleasure, more worldly opportunity for for women, and easier and wealthier life with less children or no children. Most people are quite willing for this, and the international community gets together to support and promote it as a great boon, instead of prosecuting it as crime. Really, it is a much more effective “final solution,” acceptable to far more people, with an even more notable effect on the population. Plus, anyone who objects strenuously can be attacked as being cheap and sensationalistic.
Contraception is bad for women, men, children, families and society. The fact that so many contraceptive methods can be abortifacient is only one of the reasons why it is problematic. Refusing to participate in this is not simply a practice of a particular religion, but is a life and death moral matter.
PermalinkI agree with the gentleman who posted above. Elizabeth, you certainly seem sincere in your faith, which is admirable I suppose. But science proved Greene’s beliefs faulty at best. An IUD is not an abortifacient. For all of the knowledge in the Vatican library, it’s a great shame to see it go to waste. Married people need contraceptives too, not just single females opening legs. Further, no mandates were passed about them providing viagra or granting vasectomies, and these “religious observers” had no problem with covering that for the males. Additionally, Greene invests the company’s 401K in Plan B. Please explain how it is acceptable to profit from what you consider to be death, but it’s not okay to continue comprehensive coverage that never posed a threat to a tenet of faith until the ACA. I am not certain as to who you all picture when thinking of those in need of such preventives, but i taught at an inner city mission school and worked at night a domestic violence shelter. I watched two of my junior girls asked to leave this catholic school due to their pregnancy (both girls chose to continue in their pregnancies), and nothing was done to the boys who impregnated them. The women and children I sat with at night tore my heart to pieces – marital rape and abuse, an 11 year old boy with PTSD who wet his pants every time someone accidentally slammed a door or spoke in a loud tone, 8 year old girls who were molested. I do not think anyone is pro-abortion. I believe a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy the way a trapped animal wants to chew its own paw off to free itself – out of necessity. I have never seen a woman take the issue lightly, but I have seen grateful women walk away knowing that they, and their kids, would be okay. Each of these women have a story, and many of these woman deserve the right to control how many are in their family. You cannot stop biological urges – the church has ridden that horse for 2K years, and because of this disastrous attempt at controlling morality human behavior coupled with church followers who want to follow the dogma, we are left with countless orphans (such as in Africa), unwanted children – neglected – and abused children. I am sorry that I am not sorry for how I feel, but i think the church is way over reaching it’s power in getting involved in secular politics. I left the church years ago as did most of my friends because we refuse to belong to any group that deems us incubators for sterile families, that likens the leadership of women in the church to child abuse, and frankly who hides pedophiles. And yes, if you tithe, you are associating yourself with that regardless of what you are told to believe. The jig was up for me when I wanted to be an alter boy in second grade but couldn’t because i was a girl. All i kept thinking was, but i pray as hard as the boys do. I don’t pray anymore – i am an atheist, but i certainly hope that you guys eventually come full circle to what i can only assume what jesus would have wanted – based on his teachings, he would be disgusted with the displays of wealth when 26000 children starve to death daily.
PermalinkDear Jessica, I appreciate your leaving a note. You remain a Catholic, God loves you, and please always know you can come home. I was a fallen-away Catholic and an atheist, and I tell my story of how I came back to the Faith in another blog article. I am a poor woman, my diocese and my parish are decidedly not well off, and like other Catholics I am committed to helping the poor both in my own city and in other countries, so your thoughts about that seem unconnected to the reality. And I got to Mass every day so if the Church hated women I would have noticed by now. On the contrary the Church upholds my dignity in ways the world seems bent on destroying. Come and see. You witnessed some brokenness in the Church in your youth. There’s no getting around the fact the members of the Church are sinners–and the 60s and 70s and even into the 80s were an especially rough stretch because of the impact of the sexual revolution. The Church also has the means of healing, especially the Sacraments. Jesus offers mercy, so His Church offers mercy.
We need to be there for pregnant women so they don’t chew their own paw off. There are multiple groups in my area that seek to give this assistance. We also need to be there for our sisters, friends, daughters, nieces. Men need to be sexually responsible which means making and keeping a marital commitment and being committed to their children. They need to choose not to use porn, not to get into drink and drugs, nor do the other things that harm marriages. Couples need to not get into the child-rejecting mentality by use of contraception. By training people to have sex and trivialize and recreationalize sex, without respecting the biological purpose of becoming a father or mother, contraception has hindered the real maturing of men and women, and fostered the massive boom in direct abortion.
There is another approach that you may never have considered at its full potential, which is chastity before marriage and commitment of spouses to their children and to marital fidelity. The normal result of adhering to the traditional moral principles is intact families. You may not know an increasing number of married couples are turning to natural family planning based on scientifically accurate fertility awareness and using periodic sexual abstinence to space pregnancies. This requires communication, self-control and mutual respect! It makes for personal growth and good marriages, avoids health risks of artificial contraceptive methods, and leaves the couple’s union open to fruitfulness. For Christians, marriage is not just following instincts but has a high purpose in God’s plan. Then there are those like myself who are unmarried and chaste. The Catholic Church has always valued both marriage and celibate chastity.
One intelligent book you might find thought provoking is Mary Eberstadt’s Adam and Eve After the Pill. She also wrote a digestible article in the Wall Street Journal a while back: “Has the sexual revolution been good for women? No.”.
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