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ObamaCare’s latest assault on freedom

Forcing religions to offer services that violate their deeply-held beliefs: Move will tear gaping holes in America's social safety net.

Grace-Marie Turner Wednesday, February 1, 2012

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Catholic Church has unleashed a firestorm of opposition to the Obama Administration’s announcement last month that it will require religious-affiliated organizations to provide coverage by next year for contraception — including controversial drugs that can abort an early pregnancy.

This is an outrage that started with a decision by the Obama Administration last summer listing the “preventive” services that must be covered by health plans under the president’s health overhaul law without any charge to patients.

The list included contraception and sterilization — yet another assault on the Constitution and the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called the federal regulation an “unprecedented threat to individual and institutional religious freedom.”

The ObamaCare regulation gives faith-based institutions, like Catholic universities and hospitals, the choice of violating the fundamental tenets of their faith by covering the federally mandated coverage in their employee health plans, or dropping health insurance for their employees — in which case they would be fined for violating the law’s employer mandate.

The administration gave religious organizations a very narrow exemption, allowing a waiver only if the institution’s employees are primarily of one faith and primarily serve members of that faith. The administration thought it would appease Catholics by giving them an extra year to comply with the mandate.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Belmont Abbey, a private Catholic college located in North Carolina, is being joined by several other universities in suing the government over the mandate. The USCCB also has pledge to sue the government over the violation of its First Amendment rights.

Belmont Abbey says that Catholic universities that employ non-Catholic professors or Catholic hospitals that provide care to non-Catholics don’t qualify. Even Jesus wouldn’t qualify as religious under the regulation’s definition, the Bishops wrote in earlier comments about the rule!

Archbishop Dolan has established a Bishop’s committee on religious liberty, headed by Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The committee is going to have a great deal of work to do in defending the faith against ObamaCare’s many assaults.

There is a war on religion from the Left, and it is very dangerous to the institutions that make our civil society function. The Catholic Church historically has been a vital part of the safety net — providing aid for the poor, care for the sick, shelter and food for the homeless, and care for mothers in need, as a few examples.

The healthcare law threatens to tear gaping holes in that safety net by forcing Catholic health plans to cover contraception, by denying funds to Catholic adoption agencies, and ultimately by forcing taxpayers — including Catholics — to fund abortion.

This is dangerous to the very fabric of our society. Every institution in the country is now wondering whether they will be the next target of the ObamaCare assault on freedom. It’s a crucial reason why the whole health law, with its centralized government control over health care decisions, must not stand

Grace-Marie Turner

Grace-Marie Turner is a health policy expert who advised the McCain campaign. She is president and founder of the Galen Institute, a nonprofit research organization devoted exclusively to health policy. Readers may write her at Galen, 128 S. Royal Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/44344

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Permalink Reply by Norma J. Sears on February 3, 2012 at 11:34am

This is audacious. They are not in interfer with religious freedoms. This is the main reason many people came to the colonies is the first place. My mother's family, the Maupins came here for that very reason in 1700.

What part of treason does the Congress not understand?

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Permalink Reply by JeansBrother on February 3, 2012 at 3:53pm

This raises two very difficult Constitutional questions: 1) Is this policy a violation of the “establishment clause” of the 1^st Amendment? 2) Is this policy a violation of the “free exercise” clause of the 1^st Amendment?

The correct answers will revolve around one or more of these questions.

1. Is a hospital an organization whose purpose is primarily religious?

2. Does the policy apply to AN establishment of religion or does it apply to ALL establishments of religion as well as non-religious establishments.

3. Does the requirement to provide a service reasonably violate the free exercise of religion (or morality of the individual) who is required to provide the service.

4. Was the creation of a hospital a religious act?

There are more questions that could be asked, but you get the point.

Since a ruling on this matter will apply to all religions and religious organizations and their relationships with government policies, the matter must be decided very carefully. Of particular concern with some is the religious freedom that may be afforded Islam and the people who hold to its “religious” beliefs.

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Permalink Reply by justfolk on February 5, 2012 at 4:16pm

No matter what the State eventually will decide each person must act on their conscious as to what is right, as I hope the Church, her organizations will do.

Catholic schools do very well without Federal or State funds and we are not obliged, indeed have refused to institute state and federal requirements to teach their curriculum for many of the PC indoctrinations that public ( government ) schools are mandated to teach.

I hope that the Catholic Church will not bow to this evil remembering that "a little leaven, leavens the whole".

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Permalink Reply by JeansBrother on February 5, 2012 at 7:14pm

Excellent points. True liberty is independence from the mandates of secularism.

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Permalink Reply by justfolk on February 5, 2012 at 3:56pm

As a Catholic and educator is a Catholic school I firmly hold that Catholic Charities, Catholic Hospitals and the like should first refuse Federal or state funds...we can take care of our own with God's help.

Secondly Catholic organizations affected by this, need to stand their ground and NOT capitulate to these mandates that violate the practice of our faith and try to force us into what we hold a sin...in the case of abortion etc...Murder.

I would say to the United States Bishops that to sell ones soul for a few Federal/State $$$ or to avoid Censorship, Sanctions or Persecution is cowardly and unworthy of the calling of Christ.

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Permalink Reply by pacontreras on February 6, 2012 at 9:20pm

I have to say I am curious if this applies to Muslim Institutions. Are they void of this as they are the taxes on Obama care because it is against Sharia Law (Their Religion) It seems to me that Socialist are going after Christians in this way because it will be an easy way for them to control the Christian population. Muslims already out birth almost every other religion 8 to 1. They will sustain their society as ours dies! I don't see how this helps the socialists in that the Muslim People will not be controled that easily, way less easily then their Christian counterparts. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this.

And as to what Justfolk wrote below, I thing it is dispicable that our Catholic Bishops would lower themselves to this. God bows to no one.