Birth control redux
WASHINGTON — Most Americans can hardly believe we’re having a national debate about birth control in the 21st century—more than 50 years after The Pill became available and decades after condoms became as commonplace as, well, balloons.
The reason for the incredulity is because we’re actually not having a debate about birth control. To repeat: The debate is about freedom of conscience. It ain’t about The Pill.
This particular episode is significant because the Obama administration has provided the narrowest conscience protection in our nation’s history, according to legal experts who are challenging the administration’s rule. We have a long tradition in this country of working around religious differences so people are not forced to violate their religion to satisfy a secular mandate. This is the essence of the debate.
To women who merely want help paying for birth control, this may seem an obnoxiously silly discussion. Noted. But the larger issue is worth paying attention to even at personal inconvenience. That inconvenience, by the way, needn’t be permanent. The immediate problem of providing birth control to those who can’t afford it can be massaged—the government can hand out contraceptives to the poor as is already the case in some states, for instance. But the issue of religious liberty is one of those foundational principles that isn’t really up for revision.
As to the separation of church and state argument that church critics keep raising, keep in mind that the separation understanding was also intended to protect religious believers from state interference. When the state insists that one’s religious beliefs be supplanted by another’s, in this case by secularism, then might one argue that the state is establishing a religion in contravention of the Constitution’s intent?
The new health care reform act’s mandate that Catholic institutions pay for insurance to cover birth control and even abortifacient drugs (aka “morning-after pills”) runs deeply contrary to fundamental Catholic teaching. The argument that many Catholic women ignore this particular church commandment is a non sequitur. The church has consistently stood by this teaching. Catholics commit adultery and lie, too, but they don’t want or expect the church to condone those actions.
Although Catholic churches and their direct employees are exempt from the new rule, all those other Catholic-sponsored entities, from schools to hospitals to charities that employ non-Catholics, have to comply or pay prohibitive fines. Estimates are that Notre Dame University, which hosted President Obama as commencement speaker in 2009 against howls of protest, would have to pay $10 million in annual fines. That’s some expensive birth control, baby.
And we’re talking billions of dollars’ worth of lost services to the poor if Catholic charities shut down, as well as educational chaos, especially in inner cities where Catholic schools often provide the only stability in poor children’s lives.
Whatever the odds are that the church may change its position on contraception someday, it won’t be soon. For now the bishops are promising a fight to the end. It’s that important to them, a fact of which Obama was well aware. Catholic leaders are justified in their outrage, especially those who helped Obama with health care reform and now feel betrayed.
Exhibit A: Sister Carol Keehan, CEO of the Catholic Health Association, who supported the health care act with assurances from Obama that Catholics’ rights of conscience would be protected, despite criticism from many other Catholic leaders. She has now met the crowded underside of Obama’s bus.
Exhibit B: Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who had a private meeting with Obama in November, after which he said he was hopeful about the final rule. Headlines to that effect unleashed Planned Parenthood’s public relations whirlwind, prompting blog headlines such as “Will Obama cave to Catholic bishops?”
Apparently not.
Obama’s calculation must have been that there are more women who want insurance coverage for birth control than there are obedient Catholics. Although Obama won with 54 percent of the Catholic vote last time, he may have miscalculated. Women are not a monolithic vote, and even though some Catholic women may disagree with the church, they still love and respect it and how it serves the poor. They may like Obama, birth control and Democrats, but they don’t want to see their church beaten up.
These are tough, emotional issues, to be sure. But consider that we allow even Nazis to march because we believe so fervently in freedom of expression. We should believe at least as strongly in freedom of conscience, not only for Catholics’ sake, but also for our own.
Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. Her email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
Feb 19, 2012 at 10:56 a.m.
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chipback: i asked for a SPECIFIC reference. Please give me a page#, paragraph number, or some specific list of rules.
Feb 16, 2012 at 7:59 a.m.
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And for my comment on the topic: It's a HUGE issue with me. Obama and his ilk are trying to keep us from being able to practice our religion as we see fit. Obama was very cunning in using this topic as his first assault on our Constitutional rights. I mean, look at ya: All you can do is argue about birth control/contraception/abortion instead of the REAL issue: Taking away EVERY AMERICAN'S 1st ammendment rights. So as you're fighting with friends over who gets what pill, watch all those Constitutional Rights go away.............
Feb 16, 2012 at 7:54 a.m.
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For realitybytes: It's called the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's a big book, sit down and read it before passing judgement on my religion.
Feb 10, 2012 at 5:54 p.m.
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Can somebody help me out and cite specific references to ANY religious document that states that members of the religion are forbidden to provide health care which includes birth control? Anybody? Any document at all will do.
Feb 10, 2012 at 5:08 p.m.
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kcole, that's from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. And the Founding Fathers cannily catered to believers so that they, the believers, wouldn't get nuts and violent. Politicians today still cater to believers just so that believers don't go goofy.
Our laws and rights are based in the godless Constitution.
Feb 10, 2012 at 4:42 p.m.
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Ezoner, I thought your argument was valid (though not what I agree with) until that last part. death, really?
Birth control is important. Increased access to birth control means less abortions, plain and simple, and isn't that what the catholic church would prefer anyway? Birth control should be a national priority.
Feb 10, 2012 at 12:53 p.m.
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There is no exemption in the Obama flipity flopity at all. They are still covered, at no cost? Since when does something cost nothing? Then who is really paying? Is it buried in the cost calculation that all other customers pay? You surely dont think the insurers ate that additional cost? The government? Taxes? Watch the little ball and tell me where it lands -- nobody knows.....
The only solution is a complete exemption, if someone wants that coverage, they must purchase the drugs. I must buy condoms, they must buy the BC. I am not a christian. I do not go to church. But this is just wrong -- I do not want the government in my healthcare in the 1st place and they are already telling companies what the MUST do. Get them out -- before its too late and people die.
Feb 10, 2012 at 12:41 p.m.
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The opposition to this bill really surprises me. I don't know how I view this bill so differently from its proponents, but I think that the churches trying to restrict the birth control freedom of their employees is ridiculous. The bill is ensuring that all employees have the right to affordable birth control, if certain catholic women choose not to take advantage of that, good for them.
But I do NOT think that means that their employers should be allowed to restrict that right. "Obedient Catholic women" will not take advantage of the offer, they are not being made to use birth control, so there is no problem with the bill. Everyone is free to use or not use the birth control, it is the employers that are trying to restrict rights.
Feb 10, 2012 at 12:24 p.m.
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When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Read more: Declaration of Independence Text, Purpose of the Declaration of Independence, History and Fun Facts http://www.american-history-fun-facts.co...
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Feb 9, 2012 at 2:32 p.m.
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And, kcole, if anything is antithetical to the First Amendment, it's the "Creator."
Read your bible.
Feb 9, 2012 at 1:33 p.m.
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kcole, churches are exempt from the rule. Affiliated organizations (hospitals, etc.) cannot hire people based on an individuals religious beliefs, so they should not prevent a health benefit based on a religious belief.
You're right that this is a constitutional issue...equal protection. All employees should be treated equally, regardless of where they work.
By the way, the Constitution does not bestow rights "granted by our creator". The Constitution doesn't mention god. Not once.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:17 p.m.
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I do not have a crystal ball to tell me what may or may not be an important issue to voters, only my own conscience.
The issue is not about birth control. The Federal government has seen to it that there are plenty of options for people of all ages to get access for free. The issue is the Constitution and the rights granted by our Creator. This country was founded on keeping Government out of Religion and the Freedom of every citizen to speak their own mind and make decisions for themselves as long as no other is harmed. Requiring anyone, especially a religous instiution founded on helping others, pay for services contrary to their stated beliefs is wrong. To come to any other conclusion is logically dishonest and hides other motives.
Feb 9, 2012 at 12:35 a.m.
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The vast majority of the public...yes, even catholics...don't care about this issue. Many catholic and other religious affiliated organizations already offer coverage that provides free birth control, because not all of their employees are catholic, and are not hired on a religious basis. About 50% of the population already lives in a state that requires the same benefit. Only a very small portion of the population would even see a change, yet Republicans think this will be a wedge issue they can win with. It may have been 15 or 20 years ago, but not anymore.
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