Should Catholic and Other Religious Institutions Have to Cover Birth Control? >
The Bishops Are in No Place to Cry Foul
Contraception is a key component of basic healthcare for women of all faiths
February 9, 2012
About Louise Melling:
Louise Melling is the deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union.
The Obama administration's decision to require employers—including religiously affiliated institutions that employ people of all beliefs—to provide insurance coverage for contraception was correct; neither the administration nor Congress should alter this stance—not if they care about fairness, women's health, or discrimination. According to the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute, 98 percent of American women use contraception at some point in their lives, including Roman Catholic women. Clearly, contraception is a key component of basic healthcare for women of all faiths.
[Rick Newman: Obama's Common-Sense Deficit.]
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the lobbying arm of the Catholic church, does not speak for the Catholics in the pews. Polls show that the majority of Americans, including Catholics, support the Obama administration's stance. For the bishops to claim a right to use their religious beliefs to discriminate against millions of women is against American values.
Let's be very clear. This is a public healthcare issue. This is not a religious liberty issue. No one is requiring any faith to stop preaching that contraception is sinful, if that's what its followers believe. No one is forcing anyone to buy contraception. And the church itself is exempt, as is any religious entity like a temple or mosque that exists primarily for the purpose of advancing the faith and serves and hires primarily people of the faith.
[New Culture War Will Help Rick Santorum, Barack Obama.]
However, religiously affiliated institutions like hospitals and universities that serve and employ people of all beliefs must play by the same rules as any other employer that operates in the public. Catholic hospitals alone employ almost 800,000 people. No one would seriously suggest that these people, along with teachers, custodians, and administrative staff at religiously affiliated universities and other organizations, have signed up to join the church simply because they've taken a job.
This is not a new idea. Twenty-eight states already require employers, including faith-based institutions, to provide contraception coverage, to no perceivable harm to religious liberty. Courts in New York and California have already ruled that such requirements do not violate religious liberty. The bishops are in no place to cry foul.
[Majority of Catholics Believe Employers Should Cover Birth Control.]
Religious freedom means allowing everyone to make their own decisions, including the deeply personal decision of whether and when to start a family. It does not give religious groups the right to make these decisions harder by imposing their beliefs on others by denying access to vital services.
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- Other Arguments
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#113995
No — The First Amendment exists to shield believers and their institutions from exactly this kind of brute force
HANNAH SMITH, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
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#212183
No — The uproar over Obama's choice has to do with more than contraception
JEANNE MONAHAN, Director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council
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#3154126
Yes — Family planning is the most effective tool we have in reducing unintended pregnancy and abortion
JESSICA ARONS, Director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at Center for American Progress
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#410481
No — The infiltration of the secular state into the faiths of millions of taxpayers is scary
ANDREA S. LAFFERTY, President of Traditional Values Coalition
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#510588
No — Obama is dependent upon continued feminist support for his re-election
JANICE SHAW CROUSE, Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America's Beverly LaHaye Institute
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#59881
No — The government's assault on religious faith and practice is broad and deep
PATRICK VAUGHN, General Counsel at American Family Association
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#7119115
Yes — Religiously owned or affiliated organizations ought to play by the same rules as other employers
KATHERINE FRANKE, ELIZABETH SEPPER, Scholars at Columbia Law School
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#89399
Yes — No one is telling the Catholic Church that it cannot hold its views on contraception
ROGER N. LANCASTER, Director of Cultural Studies at George Mason University
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#993100
Yes — Nothing about this new rule will affect a person's ability to practice his or her religion
NANCY KEENAN, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America
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#118398
Yes — Birth control is not just a convenience but is medically necessary
JOAN HOFF, Research Professor of History at Montana State University
