Catholics Sue Over Health Mandate

[tigerbob]

I'm not a Catholic, and I have no problem with contraception, but I think this is the thin end of the wedge. You want to work at Notre Dame and use condoms / the pill? Tough. Pay for it yourself or find somewhere that does cover it.

I appreciate the compromise the Government has tried to work out but, seriously, how to you mandate that insurers pay for people who want contraception but not pass on the cost of providing it? This legislation is as well thought out as a tossed salad.

The University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and 41 other Roman Catholic institutions sued the Obama administration in federal court Monday, the latest push against a requirement in the health-care-overhaul law that employers cover contraception in workers' health plans.

The lawsuits were brought in a dozen different jurisdictions in the U.S., and plaintiffs included the Catholic University of America and archdioceses serving Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

"The government…cannot justify its decision to force Notre Dame to provide, pay for, and/or facilitate access to these services in violation of its sincerely held religious beliefs," Notre Dame's lawsuit argues. "If the government can force religious institutions to violate their beliefs in such a manner, there is no apparent limit to the government's power."

The Senate voted 51-48 in March against an effort that would have scrapped the contraception requirement. Republicans warned against forcing religious institutions to violate their beliefs, and Democrats accused their rivals of seeking to roll back women's rights.

Since then, polls have suggested that the Republicans hurt their standing with women voters in the debate, while Democrats continue to see the issue as a winning one for them.

The plaintiffs object to a provision that requires most employers to cover all preventive health services including contraception as part of their insurance policies, without out-of-pocket costs for consumers. Sterilization was one of the methods of birth control included, as was the so-called morning-after pill.

After heavy criticism, the administration said in February it would modify the requirement to allow Catholic employers to avoid directly providing birth control in their policies. Instead, insurance companies would be required to provide contraception for participants who wanted it, without explicitly charging either the religious employer or worker. Federal officials are still working out how to implement its proposal.

Catholic leaders have been doubtful that proposal could work, noting that it would be difficult to keep religious employers' dollars from subsidizing any insurance coverage of contraception.

But they have also expressed broader concerns, saying that even if a compromise is worked out for religiously affiliated institutions, it wouldn't address the objections of employers who are Catholic and run secular businesses.

Notre Dame, Dioceses Sue Over Birth-Control Mandate - WSJ.com

 

[Ariux]

Liberals perverts who are completely intolerant of others.

In a sane world, the government wouldn't have mandated that Catholics provide, or pay for, contraception. In a sane world, there would be no question that the courts would rule in favor of the Church's First Amendment rights over the non-right to force someone to pay for or provide birth control.

 

[whitehall]

The operative word is "forced". Religious institutions are forced to violate their own belief system by supplying free methods of contraception to employees. The mandate is probably an intentional insult directed at the Catholic church which has been a vocal opponent of the powerful abortion industry.

 

[konradv]

They're not being asked for free anything, just access to insurance. It's really an equal protection issue.

 

[Ariux]

It's really an equal protection issue.

How so, shitbrain?

 

[Rozman]

I think the Obama team played this brilliantly...
They knew the Catholic Church would react the way they did.
It gave the Obama crew an opening to lie and say that the GOP was taking contraception away from women...
The Libs fell for it all the way and now the GOP had to spend weeks cleaning up the mess that Obama caused and left the GOP looking like the bad guys.