Religous Liberty, Politics and Women’s Health Care
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-02-08/religous-liberty-politics-and-women%E2%80%99s-health-care
Yesterday senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod indicated that the administration may seek some kind of compromise on the new rule which requires religious institutions to include access to contraceptives in their employee health plans. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney seized on the issue calling the rule an assault on religion. Please join us for a conversation on religious liberty, politics, and women’s health.
Guests
Barry Lynn
executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and author of "Piety & Politics" (Harmony Books)
Anthony Picarello
associate general counsel, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Laura Meckler
White House correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.
Sarah Brown
ceo, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy
Comments
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The Susan G. Komen Foundation has a policy to not supply funding to institutions that are under criminal investigation. Seems to me they were forced by politically motivated fanatics to cave.
Planned Parenthood has been and is under congressional and criminal investigation (by attorneys general, local prosecutors and various regulatory agencies in Arizona, Indiana, Alabama, Kansas and Texas) for allegations including failure to report criminal child sex abuse, misuse of health-care and family-planning funds, and failure to comply with parental-involvement laws regarding abortions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020436940457720669245110896...
mob rule
• n. control of a political situation by those outside the conventional or lawful realm, typically involving violence and intimidation.
If I had a suspicious mind, I might think there's some connection between the improving economy and the re-emergence of the culture wars.
For the Susan G Komen SAGA. My view is BOY l miss Mother Theressa (SP) She was a true fighter and role model in Charity works.
Politics is getting dirtier and is dividing the Nation. This is not good for America. For the pill issue it would have been refreshing it the Catholic Bishop cameout with the same fire when the abuse cases came to light. Why are politicians calling Birth Control - Abortion? Newt said so yesterday in Cincinnati.
If the catholic church can get away with this what is next? Another church can comout and say it is our religious freedom to have more than one wife????
The Culture Wars greatly resemble other hopeless causes like the War on Drugs or the War on Terror. Politicians are manipulating our traditional instincts. And this is a diversion from economic crisis.
Dictates from religious authorities negate free will and bodily integrity.
How can we have freedom of religion under religious authoritarianism?
The first amendment also protects us from zealots.
Yep, this boils down to a war on women, and a war on men who truly care about women's rights.
I don't understand. The Cathalic church don't want women to have abortions but they also don't want us to prevent the pregnacy.
monte,
If this was the policy then why did SGK continue funding clinics at Penn State University who is under all sorts of investigation?
A hypothetical: should "religious freedom" allow a company associated with Christian Science to refuse to provide employees with any health insurance at all (aside from prayer), or exempt them from penalties implied by the Affordable Health Care Act?
Oh, well, I must be 'about my father's business', and 'get me to a convent' and transfer this infant over to the Poor Claires.
If only there was a convent for employees of Georgetown Univ., Catholic Univ, and all the various religious institutions, even Bob Jones, could get to a convent, that hadn't been sold for its prime real estate value .
Justice Scalia will take care of the business of our holy see. Wait and see. He will reopen the convents rather than donate any funds to planned parent hood. Of course, it is the ex nuns that no about all the foolishness that was taken care of in convents and orphanages world wide. Especially in Ireland. But same everywhere. What do you expect, it is only venial, not mortal sin. They are only human, and God will take care of them. If they insist on not funding birth control, let them be forced, i.e. claw back the funds to buy the back the Orphanages and Convents, and rehire the 'Good Sisters'. if they can find any!
Incense Please!
The Catholic Church controversy is simple. The separation of church and state works both ways. The church stays out of government and the government stays out of the church. This is not a discussion about if the doctrine being taught in the Catholic Church is correct or not. It is clearly about the government telling the Church to go against it's teachings. This was a bad call by the Administration.
Give me a break! First they don't allow a government sponsored health plan, and now they want to allow the Catholic church to determine benefits for women; it all goes back to the old saying "If men could get pregnant, birth control would be a sacrament"
Does the mandate require insurance companies to provide coverage of contraceptives at zero cost to those covered? I keep hearing "free" contraceptives, but wouldn't most plans require a co-pay or some sort of partial pay?
What about sterilization? What types of sterilization would be covered and under what circumstances?
Thank you,
Michelle
San Antonio, TX
are we not asking the gov to reinforce the churches doctrine on employs and thereby becoming am arm of the church
If religious institutions don't want the government to tell them what to do then they should not accept federal funding. A true separation of church and state would not allow the government to fund any of these institutions.
This is why health insurance should not be connected to employment.
Either the secular government makes the laws or we are run by some religion.
It would seem that the government should be able to set the rules for what is acceptable treatment for people.
The Church should be able to preach and run their Church as they see fit.
Once a Church crosses outside preaching and tries to set laws the rest of us have to live by they are overstepping their bounds.
This includes running any other endeavors other than the Church.
I've constantly asked this question and to date no one on either side of this issue has responded.
Catholic hospitals both cover and perform vasectomies. I know because I received a vasectomy at a Catholic hospital. The vast majority of vasectomies if not all, are done for birth control. Why is it wrong to provide contraceptive measures for women but not men?
Craig Rhodes
"No immunizations" "They are of the Devil" - New American Primitive Gothic Mind
This is why I stopped going to church. There is a reason there is a separation of church and state. If religious people think this is an act against god and believe that. Then let god deal with it. Do your job and preach not legislate.
Great job Anthony Picarello on rebutting the corporate conscience argument by explaining the expansion of freedom! I support separation of church and state also but that socialist Barry Lynn (yes, his argument suggests the government can tell employers what benefits to give employees) needs to find a new country to live in.
Thank you Anthony for your commitment! Barry, get a new job friend.
If we are to believe that 98% of Catholic women use birth control, it is their responsibility to demand these services. Clearly many of them are presently under insurance from employers and religious affiliates. Several states mandate these products. We will never fix our health system if everyone wants an exemption.
Regarding the issue of being forced to pay for things that are morally repugnant, we were all forced to pay for the Iraq war and the Viet Nam War, for example. I remember feeling physically sick on the day I learned we were bombing Iraq.
We are all forced to pay for extended end-of-life care even in cases where the patient may not want it, but someone else does.
This is an issue of control -- but the control is over women.
Rosemary Hays-Thomas
The Catholic Church is immoral, anti-scientific, and misogynistic in its stance on birth control, and deserves to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century, when birth control allowed people to stop having unwanted babies. The Church is in the same position they were when they insisted that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
12 years of Catholic schools. Lived across the street from the priest and across the alley from the Nortre Dame nuns. No longer Catholic but retain some core beliefs and the effect of the social justice values ingrained into many of the students by the example of the sisters.
But how could anyone take a job or be a student at a Catholic institution and not know that Catholic institutions would not support birth control coverage especially the abortives? How could an individual not realize this?
The vast majority of the institutions which the Catholic Church asserts are extensions of the church are organized as corporations. A corporation is a fictitious individuals which are created which are then liable for the actions of the corporation. In other words corporations are formed so that those who form it can escape the liabilities associated with the actions of the corporation.
It is the height of both hubris and hypocrisy for the Catholic Church to hold themselves without liability but then assert moral authority. If the Church really felt strongly about the issue they could simply reorganize their hospital directly as an element of the church. Then they could hire, fire and insure as they please. They will not do that because they do not wish to expose the Church to that liability.
Once you form a corporation you are doing business and if you are going to do business then you need to do so on a level playing field with everyone else who is doing business. Otherwise the church could simply assert that all employer obligations were morally repugnant.
I am morally opposed to the death penalty. Yet, my taxes pay for the executioner.
Why should the Catholic church be entitled to deference to their moral beliefs, but not me?
People have choice to some extent where they work, don't they? They may seek out jobs that carry the kind of insurance they want or they may accept the jobs with the coverage offered. That has how it is, now, it seems to be. Some places don't cover dental, eyecare, etc., either.
There are a lot of these "religious" institutions (hospitals, universities, etc) that hire non-religious employees. The new regulation will ensure that these employees have access to needed health services. The employees still have the option of choosing to use contraception or not, so they still enjoy their religious freedoms. Besides, these institutions take federal dollars and should have to abide by federal regulations. If they don't want federal dollars, like Hillsdale College, then they should be free to chose their health care coverage. If they do take federal dollars, then they need to abide by federal regulations.
A hospital is not a religious institution, a church is a religious institution. I don't understand why they should not follow the law of the land. My church understands, for example, that if we set up a school, we would have to follow the law of the land.
Diane - Sarah or Laura just suggested that a work around is for the insurance agency to offer birth control for free... a business cannot "offer birth control for free" and not pass the cost on to its customers. This is a corruption of accounting, and obvious error, it cannot be seriously considered as an argument.