WASHINGTON — The new health-care bill was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s ticket to his re-election. But, for now, those hopes have dimmed, as the White House fights to defend its controversial policy to require Catholic institutions to provide contraceptive services in their employee health plans.
Under President Obama’s health-care overhaul law, most private employer health benefits will have to cover birth control, free of charge, as a preventive service for women. For much of 2011, the U.S. bishops lobbied for a broad religious exemption that would shield church-affiliated hospitals, social agencies and universities from being forced to provide health services that violated their teachings.
Instead, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approved a narrow exemption, provoking an immediate outcry from church leaders when the decision was announced on Jan.20. Now, the agency’s policy has roiled Capitol Hill, as unexpectedly strong opposition from Catholics across the political spectrum has created an opening for the GOP leadership and presidential hopefuls eager to attract swing voters.
“I stand with the Catholic bishops and all religious organizations in their strenuous objection to this liberty- and conscience-stifling regulation,” stated Mitt Romney in a Feb. 3 column published in the Washington Examiner.
“I am committed to overturning Obamacare root and branch. If I am elected president, on day one of my administration I will issue an executive order directing my secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a waiver from its requirements to all 50 states.
“And on day one I will eliminate the Obama administration rule that compels religious institutions to violate the tenets of their own faith. Such rules don’t belong in the America that I believe in.”
Romney’s stance has been challenged by his closest rival, Newt Gingrich, who has argued that the former Massachusetts’ governor’s 2005 decision to require Catholic hospitals in the state to provide “emergency contraception” to rape victims, despite the objects of Church-affiliated hospitals, suggests that he has flip-flopped on the issue.
Romney’s defenders contend that the governor only enforced that policy after state Democrats overrode his veto
But Romney is only one of several high-profile Republicans to address the issue this week. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill designed to repeal the HHS rule, and then House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, argued that the HHS policy violated First Amendment rights protected under the Constitution.
In a Feb. 3 statement, Speaker Boehner vowed that if the White House did not reverse the federal rule, the House would take action.
“The rule put forth by the Department of Health & Human Services must not stand. The Obama Administration must re-evaluate this decision and reverse it. If it does not, I believe the United States Congress, acting on behalf of the American people, will,” said Boehner, in his second statement on the issue that week.
‘Unconstitutional’
The previous day, during a press conference, the Speaker framed the mounting political challenge for the president and his allies.
“There is obviously a lot of opposition to … requiring religious organizations to violate their beliefs in ordering that all insurance policies provide certain contraceptive benefits. I think this mandate violates our Constitution. I think it violates the rights of these religious organizations, and I would hope that the administration would back up and take another look at this,” stated Boehner.
While the White House press secretary Jay Carney has continued to insist that the policy would remain in place, groups like Democrats for Life of America, which successfully advocated for passage of the 2009 health bill, despite ongoing concerns about potential conscience violations, have stepped up the pressure.
“Forcing religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for services that are directly in opposition to their moral beliefs is very clearly wrong,” said Kristen Day, the executive director of Democrats for Life of America, in a published interview. The group includes pro-life House Democrats who ultimately backed the bill.
Seeking to tamp down the uproar, which has ignited protests from evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews, Cecilia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, issued an seven-point defense of the policy on Feb 1.
“Under this policy, women who want contraception will have access to it through their insurance without paying a co-pay or deductible. But no one will be forced to buy or use contraception,” said Munoz.
She insisted that “[d]rugs that cause abortion are not covered by this policy: Drugs like RU-486 are not covered by this policy, and nothing about this policy changes the president’s firm commitment to maintaining strict limitations on federal funding for abortions. No federal tax dollars are used for elective abortions.”
She stressed that “over half of Americans already live in the 28 states that require insurance companies cover contraception: Several of these states, like North Carolina, New York and California have identical religious employer exemptions. Some states like Colorado, Georgia and Wisconsin have no exemption at all.”
Muñoz repeated statements made by other administration officials, who have noted that Catholic social agencies have received “substantial resources” in federal funds over the past three years.
“This work includes partnerships with Catholic social-service agencies on local responsible-fatherhood programs and international anti-hunger/food-assistance programs. We look forward to continuing this important work,” she said in a statement that implied church-affiliated groups should be content with the trade-off.
Damage Control
UPDATE: On Feb. 3, the USCCB issued a statement that described the White House’s sevenpoint response to critics as “false and misleading.”
In response to Muñoz’s assertion that abortion-inducing drugs are not covered, the USCCB stated: “The policy already requires coverage of Ulipristal (HRP 2000 or “Ella”), a drug that is a close analogue to RU-486 (mifepristone) and has the same effects. RU-486 itself is also being tested for possible use as an “emergency contraceptive”—and if the FDA approves it for that purpose, it will automatically be mandated as well.”
Planned Parenthood also has launched an ad campaign in selected cities to defend the controversial policy.
But the belated damage control effort by the White House and its allies has yet to contain the outrage, which has begun to surface on public-radio talk shows that previously ignored or downplayed the U.S. bishops’ concerns about the HHS mandate.
In a Wall Street Journal column this week, Peggy Noonan, who endorsed Obama’s first presidential bid before reversing course, described the White House’s divisive policy as “a battle the president can’t win.”
“President Obama just may have lost the election,” contended Noonan, who suggested that the controversy had awoken “the sleeping giant” — those swing voters who began supporting the GOP during the Reagan presidency.
“There are 77.7 million Catholics in the United States. In 2008 they made up 27% of the electorate, about 35 million people. Mr. Obama carried the Catholic vote, 54% to 45%. They helped him win,” said Noonan.
“They won’t this year. And guess where a lot of Catholics live? In the battleground states.”
While Romney and other GOP presidential contenders are already using the controversy to draw support for their campaigns, it’s not clear what Republicans on Capitol Hill will do now. Rubio and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., who had already introduced his own broad-based bill to bolster conscience protections under threat by the new health bill, believe that the party will rally around strong bill that defends 1st amendment rights.
In a blog post last week, National Review’s Ramesh Pomeru took a look at both bills and suggest that it “might make sense to merge these bills or in some other way work out a joint strategy for advancing the cause that the senators share.”
Fortenberry reports that his bill has received a jump of support since the contraception mandate surfaced, but many more co-sponsors are still needed for the bill to stand a chance in the Senate.
“My bill takes care of this by upholding the fundamental American principals of rights of conscience and religious liberty. The government should not force Americans to pay for things that violate their moral tenets,” Fortenberry told the Register, noting that conscience concerns were not just an election-year issue for him.
“My bill, introduced a year and a half ago, anticipated this problem. What happened in the new health-care law was that the HHS secretary received new authority to implement preventative mandates. They have claimed that a whole host of services that were never mandated before are necessary for preventative medicine.
He added, “The president has vastly overreached, and people of good will see it as an abuse of power. If it’s not an election-year issue, we’re in trouble.”
UPDATE: A Feb.6 USA Today editorial attacked the federal rule,stating that it “violates religious freedom.”
“The administration’s best option now is to reopen discussion with those affected and widen the exemption in a suitable way. The number of people affected will be relatively small — far too small to justify yet another court fight over the Affordable Care Act— and having freely chosen their employer, they’d have a dubious case for grievance against institutions that choose not to offer contraception coverage. As Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops put it, “When you go to a Jewish deli, you are not expecting pork chops.”
On Feb. 5, the Sunday television news shows reported that the federal rule was poised to become an election-year issue. “This is a tremendous infringement of religious liberty,” Newt Gingrich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Every time you turn around the secular government is shrinking the rights of religious institutions in America.”
UPDATE: On Feb. 5, Sunday news shows reported that the contraception mandate was poised to become an election year issue. On CNN, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, dismissed Catholic concerns as “hyperventilating,” But New Gingrich and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, attacked the federal rule.
Register senior editor Joan Frawley Desmond writes from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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Marital sex without contraception is true lovemaking. Is that really so hard to believe?
And the Buddhists are against contraception too, though for different reasons. It’s a way to learn some discipline, say the Buddhists. It’s a way to make sex into true lovemaking, open to life, which is much more exciting, say the Catholics.
Think about the brothers and sisters you’d have, if your parents hadn’t used so much contraception.
A contraceptive mentality toward sex makes sex less enjoyable.
A 48 year old woman I know died from a stroke, from 30 years of oral contraceptive usage.
Always using contraceptives, year after year, just doesn’t lead to happiness. You’ll have better sex if your sex life is open to children.
It’s not always easy to follow, but it’s a good teaching.
The HHS mandate reveals a basic misunderstanding on the part of the Obama Administration of the core beliefs and teachings of religious institutions like the Catholic Church. Catholic doctrine REQUIRES all Catholics to live out the Gospel message in their daily lives. In other words, just going to church on Sunday isn’t enough for salvation. Hence the Church has established the St. Vincent DePaul Society, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic hospitals, etc. in order to fulfill this Gospel-mandated mission. The narrow religious exemption in the HHS rule would have us believe that the practice of our religious faith stops at the threshold of the church building or perhaps extends to whatever activity is conducted on the building grounds, such as a parochial school or soup kitchen. Its an absurd interpretation of religious activity as carried out by believers in the real world. I’m not a lawyer or historian, so I don’t know whether the mandate will withstand legal scrutiny, but it certainly doesn’t pass the test of common sense. Does the Obama Administration really want to shut down these charitable operations or limit them only to co-religionists? That’s the effect this rule will have unless further reflection is done inside the White House.
Faithful Catholics consider this a political declaration of war. Many Protestants see the writing on the wall. Force us to kill babies? We have tried to get along, some have tried to go along… no more. No faithful Catholic will vote for a single person who defends, supports, or rationalizes this decision, and many less loyal Catholics will do what they do on Easter and Christmas, remember that they are Catholic Christians and they will vote against those who support the venal arrogance displayed in this action. Many Protestant who also have hospitals, colleges and schools, and also oppose abortion on demand, will vote against these leaders. The rest… I pray for their weak and flaccid souls.
They really, really screwed up.
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“I am committed to overturning Obamacare root and branch. If I am elected president, on day one of my administration I will issue an executive order directing my secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a waiver from its requirements to all 50 states.”
Well thanks, Mitt, but I’m not sure I want another president who rules by executive order.
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Thank you, Democrats for Life. Thank you for not sharing the totalitarian impulse at work here. You really expose who the fight is between.
Please, please, wake your fellow Catholics up re this issue. The Bishop’s letter was read at Holy Mass and most were half asleep! Pray and fast, trust in the Lord!
There may be a lot of Catholics who use birth control, contrary to the Church, and there may be a lot of Catholics who have had an abortion, contrary to the Church. And most likely there are many Catholics who were sterilized against the Church’s beliefs. BUT HOW MANY SERMONS HAVE WE HEARD ON SUNDAYS THAT SAID THESE ARE NOT ALLOWED??? My own mother used to say “Well, we have to do what we think is best.” That was ignorance. She’d never read Humanae Vitae, nor had a priest quote to her, or explain why, and she certainly didn’t have the internet available. If there is any blame, it is the priests, bishops (WHOSE FIRST TASK IS TO TEACH). “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” (Cool Hand Luke…) Like parents of spoiled children—once the damage is done, can you really expect the ignorant kids to help fix problems? Some major communication needs to be happening. Why didn’t ALL bishops respond with a letter? Why didn’t all parishes of the bishops who did respond read the letter????? Failure to communicate the rules, failure to enforce the rules… chaos.
This is one of the most frightening government mandates in history.
The Obama Administration is taking a hardline position in the culture war. They not only want ACCESS to contraception, they want forced PARTICIPATION on their side from all Americans.
The situation could have been easily avoided. Instead of mandating coverage, the Administration could have required employers to make an additional contribution to an FSA/HSA to cover the cost of contraception if the employer opted out for reasons of conscience. The Catholic Church would have not been participating in anything immoral because they are just giving money to the employee to spend as she feels fit. The employee would, of course, be free to spend that on contraceptives if she chose to do so. Or she could spend it on some other medical care. It would be her choice.
But that is not the goal. The goal is to reduce choices through a subtle coercion to a lifestyle chosen by our government betters. Note that only certain kinds of birth control are covered. Natural Family Planning classes are not covered. Condoms are not covered. The government not only wants you to have access to birth control, but they want to “help you choose” what kind of birth control you use. And they claim to want to keep the government off of women’s bodies!
But even if you agree with the birth control mandate (and I’m sure someone will post that they do.) Remember, that the Democrats won’t be in power forever. How would you feel if a Republican Administration required your employer to cover religious counseling and anti-gay “therapy”?
Freedom of conscience means freedom of conscience for everybody. Either everyone has it or no one does.
Thank you to NC Register, and JFD, for following this outrage closely! We need in-depth coverage because this is obviously part of an anti-Church strategy: a piece with the USCCB being denied an HHS grant for anti-trafficking work over a contrived, phantom need to abortion services and the solicitor general’s arguments against the first amendment in the Hosanna-Tabor case.
Planned Parenthood alumni and other supporters have essentially proven after the Komen uproar that they can rally and fund the services that Obama wants to mandate Catholic employers directly cover. As long as they are getting free birth control, etc., why would they care who is picking up the tab? And will the new health insurance mandates include coverage for assisted reproductive technologies, or is it only to expand free access to preventing and terminating new life? What about mandating coverage for health-related services that result from natural family planning? If, as so many supporting PP believe, it is so very hard to abstain from intercourse during fertile times to prevent pregnancy (knowing how impressively effective birth control overall seems to be, noting how minuscule the number of elective abortions are performed each year), then certainly progressives would support my chosen form of birth control - which is to get a hotel room in a neighboring city for three nights each month. Works for us! And at about $150 per month, it is roughly equivalent to the penalty fee Catholic employers will have to pay per employee each year if the employer chooses not to cover contraceptives, etc. And while we are discussing women’s health, numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of coffee. Can’t we lump coffee coverage into the health insurance mandate? So if an employer offers basic coffee at their business to their employees, and I choose to work there, I should certainly have access to more free options. For me, I prefer a daily Starbucks for about $5, as my physician and I have discovered this coffee works best for my body. To all taxpayers that do not drink coffee and don’t want to pay for my coffee or anyone else’s, tough luck. Maybe if you started drinking coffee too you wouldn’t feel like a minority who is being taxed for the well-established healthy choices of another! And don’t forget that all employees’ health is best served by a healthy diet. Who’s for our employers supplying us with fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and wheat bread each week? That may even have a bigger overall public health impact than employer- funded birth control, as it certainly seems a lot easier to find privately-funded free birth control than privately-funded free healthy food!
When president Obama says contraception including aborticient drugs or sterilization as preventive care, does he think that unborn babies are disease? Does he believe his daughters were also diseases during the stage of the unborn?
Nope. Not if it’s true that 98% of Catholics have at some point used birth control. If you think the average Catholic will be voting with this one issue in mind, you’re very misguided. Sorry to relay reality but the average Catholic is in prime position to commit the sin of recidivism by pulling the anti-life Obama lever again. Be it Romney or G’rich, neither will possibly motivate Catholics, independents or youth for that matter.
Insurance covers health care. Contraception is NOT health care as pregnancy is NOT an illness.
Says it doesn’t pay for abortive contraception….does is cover Mirena? The “new IUD”? Because the advertisements themselves warn that any pregnancies could be abruptly ended if using Mirena. Does it cover tubal ligations? Vasectomies? If it covers these today, then what will it cover tomorrow?
And what do they mean, our tax dollars don’t cover abortions??? Who are they kidding? Millions are sent overseas to pay for abortions!
Unfortunately, most ‘Catholics’, will ignore their bishops come election time in November and continue to support the Democratic party of death. The apathy of the non churchgoing ‘Catholics’ towards this issue will be clear again in November and this country will continue its moral demise.
We have to hope and pray and ELECT pro-life candidates. We can do what we can do and that is vote and pray. I am responsible for my own soul and I have to do what God wants me to do and that is pro-life in all matters. Please stand with me and derail this person we currently call President.
You sit on your couches and complain, but you don’t look into the background of things. You take the media’s word for everything…(and they are not
bias)?
If you don’t stand up now, then don’t complain later when a law is passed that threatens your way of life…..this is only the beginning.
This administration is EVIL
Catherine P., if the 98% of Catholics in that survey were answering yes to having ever used birth control or had an abortion, that doesn’t mean they currently use it or are pro-choice. Even though I fall into that 98%, I am now pro-life and understand and follow the Church’s teaching against birth control. I’m sure that there are a great deal of Catholics who are like me, so that the 98% figure does not reflect reality- and that is: how many Catholics are currently using birth control, not how many ever did at one time.
Until we stop OBAMANISM in the tracks, we will lose in Nov. and the blame goes largely to the USCCB for being afraid to use Canon Law 915 on the likes of Kennedy, Kerry, Pelosi & those signers of Kennedy’s letter warning the Bishops to back off from doing what they should have been doing. With almost 70% of “catholics” using some form of birth control and/or abortion, these people will not listen to the cry-baby Bishops now. Instead of wasting time to mess with the Mass, they should have been telling us not to vote for politicians that goes against the teachings of the Church. Most of our Bishops are afraid of the back-lash from the media & the loss of money from their flocks, if they were to teach the truth about birth control, abortion, “sex education” & the death-style of the homosexuals (the Bishops are asleep on this as Obama is pushing this onto our school children, and the Bishops are Not even concerned). Pope Benedict has told the Bishops to start preaching on the hard topics & of course, they refuse to obey & we are still getting mush. Here in Fitchburg, Mass. we only have a few Priests that spoke out against these crimes against God & the back-lash (by Catholics) has not been nice. I believe that most of us know that, despite the lies of Munoz, our tax-money is being used for abortions, not only here in America, but, through-out the world, as the Hyde Amendment has been watered down with the exemptions on it. Obama has taken great pains to learn how Hitler took over Germany & he is doing everything by the “book”. We as Catholics (and hopefully all Christians) NEED TO FAST AND PRAY for Holy Spirit to change Obama & give him a heart of flesh, no, I am not talking about the USCCB’s version of fasting, as they have been listening to Gore & Green Peace, with their nonsense of fasting to “save the world”, which is NOT the fasting of God that Jesus & Mary have done, and are still telling us to do in order to SAVE OUR SOULS & to chase the evil one away from us. Obama is very dangerous & he will pull the wool of so many people, especially the college age crowds & us senior citizens. PRAY, PRAY & PRAY SOME MORE. Maybe the Bishops would realize that we have the two greatest weapons that can & would defeat Obama: THE MASS & THE ROSARY, of which, so far, they seem to be unaware of. How many people were worshipping the false god of football on the Lord’s Day, compared to the people that were worshipping the True God on Sunday morning (as Pope John Paul & Pope Benedict, both said, as Sunday is the DAY OF WORSHIP)? See the problem here? We are trying to serve two masters instead of the one & only God & God is trying to wake us up. Thank you Bishops of the USCCB for allowing us to be bought down to our knees by your lack of being men of God. +JMJ+
Catholics who ignore this…sorry, American’s who ignore this are misguided. Every single time we allow our standards and our rights to be eroded, we make it easier for the next time. Imagine if, in the 60s, we didn’t let sangor and her pr people push us into accepting that everyone is damaged by not embracing our sexuality and accepting condom sales to become widespread for even minors. How much relaxing that one thing has taken us down this path. We cannot give even an inch more. I sat my children down and tried to make them see that our priests are lecturing from the pulpit…it just doesn’t happen. Please pay attention.
I signed the petition. this is a slippery slope that started with Obama appointing total anti Catholics to various positions, overriding HHS staff on the human trafficking contract and so much more. They seem to never stand for Christians in the middle east. And are saying nothing about things like Occupy Providence attacking Catholics and smashing statues of the Blessed Mother. Their masters are at the NYT which is beyond belief. I honestly am beginning to feel afraid. this cannot and will not stand.
The devil is fast at work today and will take a lot of people with him. I pray that the catholic people will finally wake up and not vote for Obama. I still say some people are so democratic that if satan was on their ticket they would vote for him. Please vote for what the person stands for and not repulican or democratic. Life in the womb comes first,after all if GOD didn’t want it to happen it would not be.
The bottom line is that the mandate is a violation of the religious liberties of faith-based institutions. If the government can force them to pay for surgical sterilizations, the morning after pill an dbirth control, they can later force Cahtolic nurses and doctors to assist in abortions, kill the elderly and terminally ill with euthanasia, etc., etc.
For those who ignore the serious threat there because they support birth control, wake up. This is how the camel gets inside the tent: a nose under the flap.
If members of these faith-based institutions want to use
Roman Catholic hospitals are staffed by persons of all faiths. What is next to be “uncovered” by Catholic hospital insurance plans????? Bishops: Address the Catholic hospital employees and let those who are not Roman Catholic follow their particular religious traditions, churches, and others teachings and admonitions. Despite what the Catholic Church believes (that Her members are unable to think or to make “right” choices)there are many who follow every mandate of the Church without question. How many of the very poor do we see who have three, four, or more children? How are they able to feed and care for them with no income and little in state and/or federal funds? If the Church would sanction birth control, abortion would not be such a huge issue. Get real and strive for holiness that comes about when all persons, situations, issues, abilities, genders, sexual orientations and other are negatively impacted.
My perspective on the topic is simple. The US Catholic bishops turnde the US Catholic population around on War and weapons a while back and later on teh death penalty. The Obama ND speech was a PR disaster. Many older US Catholics have memories of bigoted anti-Catholic attitudes and actions years back; they are still aware of how it still happens on TV and radio with evengelists and letters in media. The JFK election was a water-shed and brought out the depth of the underlying ignorance even as it changed many minds. The 60s turned many away from being Catholics and Democrats, Reagan swing them back, Bush 11 turned them off with the war.IF the bishops handle this well, do not do what some of them have done, in the past, in effect,“oppose abortion = vote GOP.” Dwell on the Amendment, enroll as many evangelicals and Orthodox Jews, to avoid making this a “catholic-sex” issue which it is not. That will tap into the opposition already rising against Barry O. He was too inexperienced, too young, was a Pied Piper after Bush 11, should have stepped aside for Hilary who was better qualified, not as left-leaning as he is.
It is my hope that this HHS debacle does derail his re-election. This is just a small tidbit of what this president is all about. He has had four years, and has failed in his presidency on all levels. If people take seriously their freedoms and their desire to give themselves a chance at living outside of the tentacles of big government, then Mr. Obama surely needs to be elected out of office in November. If people don’t want their country to go bankrupt, they need to elect him out of office in November. America deserves better. It is too great a nation to sucumb to a socialist/bordeline communist agenda. Let’s strengthen the economy, create more jobs, get government out of our back pockets, and get out of this mess.
I certainly hope that the excommunicated “Catholics” that helped elect Obama will come to their moral sense and decide to get back in good graces by trying to correct their serious lapse of faith. Obama has flawed the Constitution, rejected the Declaration of Independence, encouraged abomination, denied the sanctity of marriage and human life, and now has scrapped the First Amendment. What does it take to wake up the voters? If Obama is reelected, does anyone wonder what freedom he will do away with next. Reelection could well be a last course correction toward hell and oblivion for our nation. The Culture o Life must again reign and our heritage again honored.
I don’t believe any organization whose cause célèbre is destroying unborn human life can do anything good to compensate. Nor do I think any organization or anyone that supports Planned Parenthood can avoid the moral stigma of the Culture of Death that seems to have our nation firmly in its clutches. Do you think anyone has enough money to buy their way out of the judgment supporting genocide entails?
The next presidential election will greatly affect the future course of our nation, because the voters must clearly decide whether they intend to support morality and life or obomination (sic) and death. If the current administration is reelected do you wonder what freedom will be the next part of our heritage to be replaced by a failed Socialist philosophy?
The American voters had better come out of their freedom-threatening amnesia concerning our heritage before the God our nation once trusted is forced to respond to the unheard cries of 52-million slaughtered American citizens crying to heaven for vengeance and justice. God can no longer bless America.
I hope they opt for life,
I feel like this may be a way that Obama hopes to come out looking like the savior of the Church, the “little guy”, the poor, and the sick.
I think he is going to come out sometime over the summer and say that his administration needs to be reined in and that the state needs to partner with the Church. It will make him look like he is trying to control this gov’t monster that is growing out of control, AND it will win back the Catholics that don’t trust his administration.
I may be totally wrong, but I really feel like if he has any hope at all of being reelected, it will be because people feel they owe it to him for his magnanimity.
A LOT of Catholics got him into office, and it’s going to take a lot of them to keep him there.
Either that or he really is totally politically obtuse.
If it is true that the new Health and Human Services rules being defended by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and President Barack Obama violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, as I myself believe they do, those officials have violated their respective oaths of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” (Article Two, lines 407 and 408, Constitution of the United States), and there may be grounds for the impeachment of both of these officials.
The immediate question is this: Will the insurance companies obey these HHS mandates? Or will they have the courage to engage in civil disobedience and sue to preserve our liberties?
When you get life issues wrong, you get EVERYTHING wrong. This describes Obama and his administration. They are EVIL, EVIL EVIL.
I do not comprehend how anyone can vote for Obama a second time and still think he/she can stand before God and justify such cooperation with evil.
We are talking about your First Amendment Rights. Without the first Amendment we are no longer America.
Unfrotunately for years many of our religious have supported and backed
secular candidates to the peril of our own faithful.After spending 2 1/2
months reading this socialist legislation called Health Care it was obvious where this administration was going.Then to discover that in the Stimulus Bill was a 600 page ‘Ethic’s panel,i.e Death panels and the Stimulus Bill had funded this complete process.Every piece of legislation
that has been passed has 2-3-4 Bills tucked inside. The Church has better
designate religious to read all legislation and the Executive Orders.We are in a complete nighmare that only God can repair.The Church can no longer Trust our Congressman and Senators to read the Legislation and protect the American people let alone the faithful.When this president was a Senator he passed legislation in Illinois that stated, if a child lived through an abortion it was placed in a garbage can and left to die.To all the religious that voted for this unqualified president remember you have Catholic souls that you are responsibile for.
What I don’t understand is learning that 28 states allready have this type of law in effect. So can somebody please list these 28 states that allow this same type of law and explain if the Catholic Church is complying with it in those states? Because if that is true how come the Church is violating their conscience with these 28 states? That is what is ticking me off as a Catholic. I live in Illinois in the diocese of Joliet and I would like to know if the Catholic parishes here are complying with an Illinois law that compels them to buy this type of insurance for their employees and staff. Also this article said that in state of Ma. there is a law that the Catholic hospitals have to provide emergency contraception for rape victims. Is that true? How come the Catholic Church is complying with that????? The more I hear about this garbage the more disgusted I get.
Whether or not tax dollars are being used to pay for abortions is irrelevant in reguards to the HHS mandate. The dollars that pay for contraception, sterilizations, early abortions involved in the Catholic Church’s health plans will be coming directly from the collection plate!The Church is being forced to pay for services that are directly opposed to her teachings. The number of Catholics who have contracepted or aborted in the past is also irrelevant. It is against the teaching of the church,and anyone who does it is commiting sin. It’s not subject to popularity, it’s subject to Truth.
To paraphrase a popular feminist slogan, the Obama administration needs to “Keep your ovaries off our Rosaries!”
This is despicable that the federal government can mandate even the most established of institutions to violate their own tenets and beliefs. What could be the next thing, is that they will pass regulations that a Christian believer will not be allowed to bring a bible or wear a cross necklace into a federal building because it offends the unbeliever.
This isn’t the only mandate that Obama has up his sleave, the next mandate will be that women are only allowed one child, because it will reduce the population, the new czar he hired believes in that, so watch for that.Every church should be on alert. This guy has to be voted out of office.He stated that the constitution prevents him to really finsh his work. He only talks about the god given laws of the constitution, He doesn’t believe in the constitution it is to strick for him. I belive he has a problem because his mother married a keyan. The father had 6 wives each had six children that is why his mother divorse him and his mother remarried again. He has a problem of hate and He would get back at society.so does his secretary of health Sheibly.
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