Obama Administration: Catholic Conscience Not to be
Tolerated
On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration made an unprecedented
move to curtail the freedom of religion in the United States. It mandated
that all institutions providing health insurance to their employees must also
provide for sterilization, artificial contraception and abortifacients (drugs that
induce abortion), religious beliefs notwithstanding. Despite many attempts
to get the government to respect the conscience of Catholics and others who
hold contraception, abortifacients and sterlization as morally evil, Kathleen
Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,
confirmed that the present administration will allow no exemptions.
Church-affiliated hospitals, universities, dioceses, agencies and charities are
now being mandated to pay for services that clearly go against the teaching
of the Catholic Church. One concession. Nonprofit employers who do not
currently provide such coverage in their insurance plan because of religious
beliefs have a grace period of one year before they must comply with
President Obama’s healthcare bill, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Really? One year to be free before being forced to violate their conscience.
The U.S. bishops are not alone in opposing this new mandate. Other religious
leaders who find mandated contraception, abortifacients and sterilization
morally wrong are speaking out as well. These procedures are not
preventative medicine. Unless, of course, you consider the birth of a child a
disease!
The final ruling of Department of Health and Human Resources is insidious.
Yes, it does touch on what should rightly be considered preventing a
disease. But deeper than that, it is the blatant, insensitive and unnecessary
undermining of our constitutionally protected freedom of religion. This is the
first instance in the history of our country that any administration is forcing
some of its citizens to purchase something that violates their conscience.
Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center
for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, also challenged this latest ruling of
Health and Human Resources. He said, “What we are seeing here is
precisely what the First Amendment was intended to prohibit: state action
targeted against the religious consciences of particular religious communities,
and intended to attack their conceptions of justice, equality and the common
good. It is tyranny, pure and simple. The stakes go beyond the questions of
contraception and abortion to the very meaning of American democracy”
(Joan Frawley Desmond, “HHS Secretary Sebelius: Church Groups Must
Provide Contraception,” National Catholic Register, January 21, 2012). Just
one day before the Obama Administration announced its final decision not to
allow any reasonable exemption to Obamacare on the basis of religious belief
or conscience, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to some U.S. bishops on their ad
limina visit. He warned them precisely about what we are witnessing in this
decision.
The Pope said, “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the
United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral
witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression
in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs
to be appreciated…” What will be the results? Will Catholic institutions,
including schools, universities and Catholic Charities, no longer be able in
conscience to provide health insurance for their employees? Will we see other
rights soon denied by a government that refuses to respect conscience? Will
the government mandate other morally objectionable practices in the future?
Why not? Once the moral conscience of a substantial group of Americans is
simply swept aside by any government, no right remains safe.
In this most recent ruling on healthcare, a government that avidly promotes
freedom of choice has decided not to allow Catholics the freedom to choose.
It need not be this way. But, the line has been drawn in the sand. Can
Catholics simply accept the fact that the Catholic conscience is not to be
tolerated in America?
