I saw the news last night that a lawsuit against the HHS mandate had been dismissed by a federal judge. The news reports all focused on the seven states and the attorneys general who’d filed the suit. Some of the reports eventually got around to referring to "an individual" who had also signed on to the suit.
But that individual has a name. It's Stacy Thomlison, a Catholic convert and FOCUS missionary who agreed to be a plaintiff in the suit against the HHS mandate because she didn’t want to pay for insurance that covered abortifacients, contraceptives and sterilization procedures.
When I learned the lawsuit was tossed last night I gave her a call. I decided against calling the attorneys because I figured all I’d get from them is a “statement” that’d been crafted by three p.r. professionals, edited by two lawyers, and examined by a bureau or bureaucrats. I prefer to speak with humans. Stacy used words like “surprised” and “saddened" when I spoke with her.
It seems the judge, a Nixon appointee, decided that no “real injury” had been done to Stacy because the mandate hadn’t yet gone into effect and besides, the Obama administration has promised to make some kind of “accommodation” that would make it perfectly fine for Christians to act against their beliefs. In short, the judge seems to have believed the Obama administration.
Stacy? Not so much.
“The Administration says they’re going to work with religious people,” she said. “But actions carry more weight than words.”
The judge would have Stacy wait until "real injury" was done to her before she could have standing to question the HHS mandate. But what does “real injury” mean for her?
It means exactly that. Real injury. For years, Stacy has suffered from Crohn's disease. She's had surgeries to repair damages from the chronic illness. She nearly died from complications. She told me that she lives with the knowledge that any moment she might need to be hospitalized. This is a young woman who needs insurance. Since a recent surgery, medical supplies cost her up to $400 a month. She knows that because of her illness she’ll eventually have to go back on medication that costs anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 a month.
But Stacy told me she will cancel her insurance if she’s forced to pay for coverage of abortifacients and contraceptives. “I’m willing to trade health, finances, and maybe my very life to follow my conscience,” she said. “I’m happy to be a witness to the faith I say I believe in.”
“If that’s what it takes to wake people up I’m glad to do it,” she said.
So, it seems that a young woman with a chronic disease and a conscience actually has to go without insurance before a judge sees any “real injury.”
Is it just me or is it true that whenever Planned Parenthood files a lawsuit against a pro-life law, judges grant injunctions to prevent the law from coming into effect to prevent “real injury” to Planned Parenthood. But now judges can’t do anything for Stacy who just doesn’t want to pay for coverage she believes sinful. I guess to many, that’s not as noble.
But I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Stacy remains hopeful. Jubilantly so. She’s intent on praying about it. She doesn't do much without praying about it. She, along with the other plaintiffs are considering an appeal. She’s not deterred at all. To speak with her is like sitting near a campfire. Bright and warm. The funny thing about campfires is they sometimes grow brighter when kicked. “I’m going to continue praying and fasting for our country and for our leaders and try to spread awareness about the issue,” she said. “When push comes to shove and the law is enforced and I have to choose between health insurance and my conscience I will follow my conscience.”
Let’s think about the kind of country we live in that's forcing a young woman to make a decision between her health and her conscience. Let's all think about that. And then let's pray. That's the kind of appeal that always gets heard.
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Thank you for this post - what a bravce person!
Correction - brave
Am I the only one who thinks this woman’s line in the sand is misplaced? First of all, the HHS mandate is just like a tax in the sense that we’re all paying for it. Does she pay income taxes? If so, why? Our income taxes have been supporting abortions and other atrocities for years. Second, when this lady doesn’t pay, she’ll eventually end up in bankruptcy and likely on medicaid where the rest of us will be paying for her. And when she’s on medicaid, contraception and sterilizations will be covered whether she uses them or not.
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I don’t know, maybe I’m a sell out. But I can’t see what this woman is doing as particularly brave.
As another person with Crohn’s, I would argue that Stacy ALLREADY suffers real injury. Stress is a trigger for Crohn’s, and I would think that this would qualify as being highly stressful. She is just one of many many people, like myself, wondering what we are going to do once all this starts to really go into effect.
No one is forcing her to make a choice between her health and conscience. According to Catholic Answers, it is morally permissible for an individual to purchase health insurance, even though the company would cover contraceptives, should the patient hand in a prescription for them (and presumably draws upon their income to pay out to other patients who put in the scripts). And wouldn’t the principle of double effect come into play here? She’s doing this action - purchasing health insurance (a good so that she nor her family goes bankrupt paying for her care - what of other relatives they may all have to care for as well?) with the intent of managing her condition, not with the intent of “oh, i’m buying this specifically because it covers x,y,z)?
I will pray for this young woman, but that she get to a spiritual director or contact the Center of Bioethics or something to see if this “boycott” of insurance is really all that prudent.
Why are people so hateful. Are you all so threatened by her act of prayerful witness that mocking it is the only option you have. Bravo for Stacy! Prsyerful sacrafice always makes a difference!
May I suggest she break the stress, awful medicines, awful finances, more stress, vicious cycle, by investigating homeopathic medicine? It’s safe, cheap AND effective, and very helpful with chronic illnesses. See a TRUE homeopathic physician by looking up the National Center for Homeopathy.
It’s the original holistic medicine, and certainly takes the mental/spiritual aspect of wellness into account. I’ve used it for 33 years, with great results, and thank God for this gift.
Mary Weaver Mann,
Off topic,sorry, but I’ve got to respond that homeopathic medicine has absolutely NO chemically traceable amounts of the substances they claim to contain.The pills are simply sugar & filler materials.Nothing else.We still have homeopathy because it was grandfathered in years ago.
It may, as a placebo, offer psychological benefit, but it’s more of a belief system than medicine.It’s a free country & I’m not at all opposed to folk seeking alternatives,I’m very glad it’s worked for you. But I wish homeopathy would use more “truth in advertising” when it comes to content.
Again, sorry.This was supposed to be about the HHS mandate.
God bless Stacy for her stand.I think our nation has rough seas ahead.
Homeopathic medicine is hardly the answer for this young lady (or anybody). It’s pretend medicine - placebos.
Mary, I completely agree. Big pharma would like us to think they are quacks but in an age where our govt leaders arw elected without regard to any issues except and ir doesnt really matter because all are electwd w/ big pharm and agribuisness money and under same regulation. When the govt is mandating more vaccines and we have an autism epidemic and that same govt refuses to indepwndently examine the only viable sources of the epedemic who is running the country? Who are quacks? When will Americans wake up?
Eileen, you’re a sell-out, so are you anonymous.
You can hardly compare the way in which your income tax money is spent to being forced to spend your personal money on something you find abhorent. She currently has insurance for which she is not required to pay a premium for services she is morally opposed to & will never use. The administration has given over 3,000 businesses exemptions from the law, the Amish are exempt, Muslims may or may not be exempt; this law does not apply to all equally.
Why not just pay for her insurance and justify it under the principle of double effect? If you can justify the death of civilians in war by saying that their deaths weren’t intended, surely you can justify a few dollars going towards abortion because your intent was to pay for insurance you would actually use. I don’t think she’s being brave at all; she’s being foolish at best. If she wants to jeopardize her health, that’s her choice, but the fact that she can have insurance but would choose to risk her life is not something we should applaud.
@Kat - what does being anonymous have to do with anything? I got news for you - no law applies equally, particularly when it comes to taxes. Some animals are more equal than others. It’s always been that way and it’s worse now than ever. How about the Catholic bishops (who must bear some responsibility for the creeping in of socialized medicine) start participating in civil disobedience. Then I’ll applaud. If this lady really foresees all those medical bills in her future, her bills are greater than her insurance payments anyway (which, I believe, is the whole point of the article). She’s technically not paying for anyone’s contraception - the contraceptors are paying for her.
If you’re a regular reader of “National Review” online, her story was featured not too long ago. So it’s getting out there!
Eileen, I’m not going to get into your second post. However, you do seem to have the HHS mandate confused with the ACA overall. The Supreme Court did rule that the latter was constitutional as a tax; however, the HHS mandate is not the same thing and is being challenged separately.
You can rationalize doing anything. It is about time Catholics stand up for themselves and do something!!! Let’s do it fellow Catholic Christians and others that are with us!!!! Let’s go!!!!!!
Actually, I take that back: I will get into your second comment a bit. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America estimate that 1.4 million Americans have some kind of inflammatory bowel disease. On the other hand, a 2010 fact sheet from the Guttmacher Institute states that “among the 43 million fertile, sexually active women who do not want to become pregnant, 89% are practicing contraception.” Apparently IBD sufferers are outnumbered 27 to 1 by contraceptors in this country. If the patients with Stacy’s insurer are representative, it is unwise to just assume that they are necessarily paying for her or that it would be a wash.
Since this is a Catholic website, I am guessing it is safe to say that this whole debate makes me think of 2 Maccabees 6:18-26.
People then only had to eat pork every month or so, it wasn’t much. Lots of Jews were doing it to, rather than face government imposed penalties. I bet there were even more than 89% giving in then, but it still did not make it right….
“C’mon Stacy. Take the insurance. You can just use the parts that are acceptable to you, and pretend to accept the requirements as prescribed by the HHS.”
We know how a socialist government, in any and all all of its many forms and disguises, deals with religious conviction. There is no spirit of the truth in the Obama administration, and if he is elected again you will find out that our religious freedoms have been seriously compromised. For the first time in our history (?) this election will either save or destroy the Constitution and the greatest experiment in representative government. It has taken the Democratic Party since Yalta to surrender our government to some of FDR’s best friends that were Communists. The American people need to take back their nation and send Obama and the Democrat traitors into exile. If the wayward “Catholic” traitors that elected Obama the last time want a chance for salvation, they had better correct their mistake this time.
As for the question of double effect:
I suppose it would be possible to make the argument that, under double effect, a Catholic can purchase an insurance policy even knowing that said policy covers contraception/abortifacients. I am not going to debate whether this would or would not be an accurate use of double effect, but I think an argument could be made.
However, double effect says what you CAN do, it doesn’t say what you MUST do. In other words, just because one could, under double effect, do X does not mean that they must do X. For an excellent example, St. Giana could have, using double effect, pursued a hysterectomy, even knowing that it would have resulted in the death of her unborn child. However, she was not obligated to do so. Likewise, Stacy could, potentially, choose to accept insurance that covers contraception/abortifacients, but she is not obligated to do so, and, I would argue, that this is the more noble and courageous choice.
I admire her bravery, but I hope we are all prepared to chip into a fund for her if she goes off her insurance. If Catholics are going to opt out, we’d better be ready to take care of our own… or we’ll be worse than Obama.
I have long been under insurance that covers these things. We have little choice in the matter. To get the coverage we need so that we can afford the care that keeps my husband alive and able to support our family, we had to choose from his company’s offerings of employee group coverage. He is uninsurable otherwise, and even if the ACA corrects that fault, the insurance is entirely unaffordable. However, if I were a business owner or an administrator at a Catholic institution and making the decisions regarding contract plans to offer my own employees, I would feel obligated to follow my Catholic conscience. So yes, people are being forced to choose insurance or violating their conscience by the HHS mandate. And the fix for this would be such a simple thing for the Obama administration—widen the religious exemption clause to respect freedom of religion rather than just the narrowly construed freedom of worship. There’s a huge difference between the two.
Bob Rowland…...........Great post! This country had better wake up! Like he told the Russians, once he wins the election, he will have a lot more flexibility. GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Meredith makes an excellent point, because that’s exactly what we all will be doing at some point for Stacy - chipping in to fund her care. When her medical bills eventually result in her losing her home, and becoming bankrupt and destitute, we will be paying for her care. I wonder how she’ll feel then about her decision to stop paying for insurance, ruin her life, and pass the cost for her care onto the taxpayers? There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity.
If we all did what she did. What would happen. Lets get our act together, we the people. If we go with God’s plan. How can we loss.
I just want to make the point that if my diabetic boyfriend wanted to get off insurance and let his decline in health “show them”, I’d be more than upset. I think there’s a difference between martyrdom and choosing to harm/kill yourself. FOCUS provides insurance for its missionaries, were they a part of the lawsuit too?
Otherwise, I hope some kind of agreement can be found that Stacy can get her medicine for less somehow. She is certainly in my prayers.
People, the interest this post has gwnerates should be an eye opener. Wby are we allowing policy matters regarding our very lives and health be driven by revenue generating special interest groups. Is this what our grandparents did. We have alliwed ourselves to be held hoatage by pgarmeseutucal companies and packaged food. Takw back your life. And there really are things worse than death…
Posted by Zeke on Thursday, Jul 19, 2012 10:17 PM (EST): There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity.”
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I think that’s where prudence & discernment comes in.Best practise for Catholics would be to discuss matters like these with their pastor or spiritual director.I’m guessing Stacy’s done that.
As a fellow Catholic who knows Stacy, I know that her heart is in the right place and I applaud her immensely for being willing to risk her life for her faith.
As a response to the anonymous writer on July 19, I don’t think that Catholic Answers would support what you are saying. EWTN and Catholic radio, on which Catholic Answers has a show, has been behind the bishops fight against the mandate and has been encouraging Catholics to stand up against the mandate and stay strong in support of Christ. God bless you all and keep fighting Stacy!!!
It’s one thing to pray for and root for people willing to take a stand against the government or even a large private company. It’s another to support a lawsuit, which if it’d been successful in (effectively) killing off Obamacare, which even the Supreme Court refused to do, based on this objection over birth control, abortifacients, etc. It’s not a matter of whether I or any Catholic likes this or not. But, what’s stopping us from asking ourselves how selfish this looks to the vast numbers of people suffering from other diseases they would not be given any chance of receiving any coverage for under the old predominately “for profit” system run by and for the big Mammon First, God Last private health insurers? Who the hell designated us to the the proverbial brake pullers on a fast-moving crowded train? Oh, well, one might snicker, where’s that train headed to, hell? No. But pulling the brake lever down will surely cause a lot of collateral casualties in the process. Who’s going to pay for that. Or will the more high n’ holy mighty arch-conservative wing of the Church finally belly up and pay the tab for all its barkin’ at the bar of bloviators about who should do this, or not that, etc. during all this health care debate for the past 3 years? That’ll be the day.
I can remember working for a private college and a state university where I’d have a nice health benefits package and a variety of insurers to pick from. Unfortunately, all of the best ... and with four little ones, you don’t scrimp on their care, regardless of how many soapboxes you want to stand on, carried these words, “termination of pregnancy” when it came to coverages.
Remember the “death panels”? They’ve been around for decades, especially since the health insurance industry went from their long-time non-profit role to the moment they received permission during the Reagan years to join the rest of the Wall Street Famiglias. What a coincidence, human life started carrying dollar signs in the private sector. Oh, but we won’t talk about the private sector, those job creators, will we. No matter how many tax goodies, no matter how well we greased their skids to make more money, they continually found more inventive ways of “cutting costs” even if doing so meant taking decisions behind closed [private] doors.
If the pedophile priest/episcopal coverup scandals don’t empty parishes to the point where priests are holding Masses on Sundays for less than a 100 people, this will when the larger Catholic population as a whole catches on to what a handful of wealthy Catholics are up to and expecting the vast number of non-wealthy Catholics to support them in the risky business of sacrificing AFFORDABLE health care for the nation so they can strut their ideological stuff. Remember, among this crowd are the same bunch who want Romney as president; the same Romney who wants to raise your taxes so he and his rich pals can enjoy a tax break you and your children, and grandchildren will be paying for in the decades to come ... all the while they will have pulled any chance of you or your parents or very sick children being able to live longer lives because your present health coverage will be cheapened by voucher tickets. There are two words for people like this in the Bible: Hypocrites and Pharisees.
This past is so outrageously mis imformed that I was tempted to let it slide and then I thought, the post is so old pronanly everyone else has moved on and there is a small part in me that just cannot let a self rigeous bigot have the last word. This post was about a courageous catholic choosing to make a stand for somethimg she and millions believe in and have for 2000 years. And yes, pedophiles in priests clothing did in fact infiltrate our church. If you were a true cathlic you would realize the secular misinformation regarding the catholic church is just smoke and water. The church began cleaning up its act in the 80s, when current research began to suggest thT pedaphiled cannot be rehabilitated. The Catholic church, in its great love of children began its keeping children safe initiatives-,well in advance of many other entities, including tje public school system. But that was only one tiny part of your outrageous tirade. If you think obamacare is going to help people just look at his cozy relationshio w/ PP who peddles clearly harmful and carcinogenic drugs to women. Contrast it against the churches 2000year history of helping. Really, who does a sane person, catholic or not believe.
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