Obama Supporters Worried He May Grant Contraception Exemptions to Catholic Hospitals

ABC - Political Punch ^ | Nov 29, 2011 | Jake Tapper

[Mrs. Don-o]

In August, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that health insurance plans, as of January 1, 2013, will be required to cover contraception, including FDA-approved emergency contraception. “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need,” she said. The Catholic Church has been pushing the White House to allow Catholic hospitals to opt out of providing contraception that it considers the termination of a life, and many in the abortion rights community are worried that the president will grant that exemption. Additionally, many Democrats invested in President Obama’s re-election are worried that if he grants that exemption, he will alienate liberal women voters they will need come November.

“There’s a high level of concern,” a prominent Democrat with ties to the White House told ABC News...

[snip]

"The real concern is that there’s even a discussion about this!”

Earlier this month, President Obama met with Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has been lobbying hard for an exemption, having called the requirement “an unprecedented attack on religious liberty.”

[snip]

A bulletin the Bishops sent out criticizes the religious exemption in the rule as “so extremely narrow…it protects almost no one. It covers only a ‘religious employer’ that has the ‘inculcation of religious values’ as its purpose, primarily employs and serves persons who share its religious tenets, and is a church organization under two narrow provisions of the tax code.” Catholic colleges, universities, hospitals, and charitable organizations will not qualify, the Bishops say.

Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, told ABC News that her organization’s biggest concern is with the narrowing of the definition of “religious employer.”

[snip] -

[Sun]

“What do we do?”

There are a few suggestions here on what to do with these kinds of issues:

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/take-action-now/

Awhile back, I can remember signing a petition on this issue, and I think it was from the USCCB.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thanks hocndoc. I knew you'd have practical insight here. Some docs in my parish are organizing a chapter of the Catholic Medical Association (Link). I'm going to look into what we can do to support them.

[hocndoc]

That’s good news!
I know that the CMA does good work!

[hocndoc]

The Bishops are our best allies. When the Baptist and Church of Christ (Stonewall-Campbell, silent women, not that other group) hoped abortion and out of wedlock babies would go away (not my Daddy or husband, though), the Catholic Church, the Bishops, and (I love these guys) the Knights of Columbus were being our protectors.

[CSM]

Keep your hands off my body! Except when it is in the interest of advancing Marxism, then take complete posession of my physical being!

(Darn, it is hard to think like a libtard!)

[mlizzy]

Mrs. Don-o, my husband told me that Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that every Catholic need only spend one hour at Adoration a week for abortion to disappear. Fr. John A. Hardon also said it would be through the Eucharist that abortion would end. Those two were such good holy friends. :) So the power of ending abortion lies within the Catholic Church through her parishioners. So it seems only sloth (on the part of Catholics) is getting in the way of ending abortion.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thank you. You are a challenge to me. I used to say "I need to get my rear in gear" but now I think "I need to get my knees in gear."

!

!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Mrs. Don-o.