The New Caesar, the HHS Accommodation and the Attack on Religious Freedom

By Deacon Keith Fournier
2/6/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

At the time of the drafting of the Bill of Rights there was no such thing as an Internal Revenue Service and no 501 c3 organization status

The new accommodation states that the "free" dispensing of contraceptives, abortificacients and sterilization somehow "furthers the governmental interests in promoting public health and in promoting gender equality".

President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On February 1, 2013, the Obama Administration announced a new modification to its alleged accommodation for religious institutions which object to being compelled to offer contraception, sterilization and abortifacients to their employees - or face the punitive boot of the State.

The original mandate required all employers, including Catholic and other religious employers, to cover sterilization, abortion inducing drugs, and contraception in their health care plans. The alleged exemption provided for religious employers did not cover hospitals, universities, soup kitchens, outreaches to the poor and many other vital expressions of our Catholic faith and mission.

The purported accommodation which followed the opposition to this horrid Mandate amounted to a shell game which accomplished nothing. When the Mandate was recorded in the Federal Register, nothing had changed. After the uproar did not subside, and facing 44 lawsuits which were filed, the Administration offered the latest accommodation. The actual eight page rule is found within an 80 page document which can be read here.

Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in the official Government Press Release, "Today, the administration is taking the next step in providing women across the nation with coverage of recommended preventive care at no cost, while respecting religious concerns. We will continue to work with faith-based organizations, women's organizations, insurers and others to achieve these goals."

As usual, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey spoke with refreshing candor, "The so-called new policy is the discredited old policy, dressed up to look like something else," Smith said. "The mandate remains a serious violation of religious freedom. Only the most na�ve or gullible would accept this as a change in policy."

"The proposed rule issued today remains a direct, obnoxious, unprecedented government attack on the conscience rights of religious entities and anyone else who for moral reasons cannot and will not pay for abortion inducing drugs-such as ella-or contraception and sterilization procedures in their private insurance plans." The entire statement is here.

Of course, anyone who is genuinely concerned over the blatant violation of the First Amendment guarantee of the fundamental right to religious freedom this matter involves hoped that this new overture was sincere. Some hoped it might actually offer some ground for a resolution.

Understandably, the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, deferred any comment. He expressed hope for resolution and prudently waited while legal counsel reviews the 80 page document.

Our Bishops have a top shelf General Counsel in Anthony R. Picarello Jr. He is a constitutional lawyer with a demonstrated expertise in Religious Liberty cases. Prior to this assignment, Picarello served as General Counsel to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

The Becket Fund has already weighed in on the purported modification to the proposed accommodation, with skepticism. One of the many services this excellent public interest law firm provides is a clearinghouse site where you can go and find out about each lawsuit and its current status called Mandate Information.

Another outstanding group doing public interest work is the Alliance Defending Freedom. They offered a quick analysis, the thrust of which is found in the title of their article, Only a Sliver of Religious Organizations Covered by Proposed Exemption to HHS Abortion Pill Mandate. They are correct.

What are we coming to when religious groups need bend the knee to a New Caesar? Part of the reason for the American founding was religious freedom. What kind of verbal nonsense calls abortificacients, and sterilization preventive health care?

The new accommodation states that the "free" dispensing contraceptives, abortificacients and sterilization somehow "furthers the governmental interests in promoting public health and in promoting gender equality". What?

Why are we even accepting the idea that an employer who objects on religious and moral grounds to distributing such items - even if they are offered for "free" by a straw ...

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1 - 10 of 14 Comments

KarlVDH
3 months ago
Vancce, come on. The "liberal establishment" didn't put us where we are today. WE DID, by supporting Repoublican candidates no matter who or what they really were just because they haf that little "R" by their name. We abdicated our OWN reponsibility and allowed our government to be turned into a team sport, and now you're whining because the other team is winning.... when what we SHOULD be doing is working to make the party into what WE expect it to be, or abandoning it altogether in favor of our OWN.
vance
3 months ago
Robert, again I agree with you. We are reaping what has been sown for the last 50 years. I hope and pray that all the Bishops and priests will wake up and smell the coffee and start challenging the Liberal Establishment who put us where we are at today.
KarlVDH
3 months ago
Know why the rest of the country doesn't take us seriously? It's because instead of making cogent arguments and doing the hard work of changing or remodeling the GOP, we ettle for grand gestures, symbolism and silly hyperbole like "the new Caesar."
Don't like how America]s going? Well, if this nonsense is the best we can do, and this is as organized as we're going to get, and this is the sum of our argument... shame on us. We deserve what we've got.
Emily
3 months ago
Thank you Tom McGuire. That's exactly what I was thinking.
Irma
3 months ago
A licence to kill and why should we pay for it. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.Matthew 10:28
Sum Nemo
3 months ago
Our tax dollars are used in morally questionable endeavors on a daily basis and the same is true for our consumer dollars. One item that comes to mind immediately was George W. Bush's war in Iraq that the Vatican would not sanction as a just war, yet I barely remember a whimper of protest at this website. We support organizations that are offensive to the Christian conscience daily with our consumer dollars. If we are going to scrutinize the morality of our health care consumer dollars, we need to scrutinize all organizations that we support with our dollars or none. Otherwise, it is just hypocrisy. There are many other evils in our society besides abortion.

Also, consider that our consumer dollars fund family planning and abortions if we consume products from businesses that provides health benefits to their employees. Are we going to boycott Apple because they provide health insurance benefits to their employees that includes family planning and abortions (How many of you can exist without your iPhone?)? What about the major television networks? What about the grocery stores? And the list goes on....
Ruth
3 months ago
All I know is that I can no longer buy a product that pays for contraception and abortifacients. For the first time in my life I am without health insurance and will remain so until this is changed. I would rather have insurance!

This issue is no difference than in the 200's when all citizens of the Roman Empire were required to burn incense to the Idols and to Ceasar. They either personally had to do or pay a servant to do it for them after which they received a certificate proving that they had done it. Many, Many Christians were stripped of their belongings and/or were martyred rather than publically worship something they did not believe in. There were quite a few Lapsi too who if they repented had up to ten years of penance to be received back into the Christian faith.

If the martyrs did right disobeying a law that contradicted the first commandment, how can I do right by obeying a law that contradicts the fifth?
Bill Sr.
3 months ago
Emma
You have cut to the core, again.
It would be wonderful if all Catholics, especially the men, came to their senses and realized who and what they are once and for all.
We are free men in a free society, at least for now, but we have lost our bearings listening to those mortals of corrupted ideology manipulating our understanding of ourselves.
It is imperative that we get hold of our being in order to think, do, and say what is necessary to salvage the two things we all possess that are of any real importance.
We have our life and our faith.
I can say for myself that as a sane married Catholic American male equipped with proper knowledge of the faith that I must personally bear responsibility for what I think, do, and say each day of my life and there is a simple prayer we should say each day which I hope we all know that goes along with that understanding. It must be clear to all of us, as it is to me; we live and have accepted life under two sets of laws. The laws of our government as wisely ordained by the Declaration of Independence which guided the founders to set our nation on the firm foundation of our national Constitution providing us with religious freedom. That declaration with its constitution gave us the right and ability to live the life of faith which we as Christians acknowledge as the essence of our very existence.
Hence, it is up to me and my free will graciously given by God to determine what I make of my life and how it may influence the world in which we live and in reality the only two people on earth who I yeld absolute power to influence or control what I think, do, or say are the Pope and my loving wife. This is the line in the sand where Catholic men of faith must make their stand.
Emma
3 months ago
Why is government dictating how we practice our religious beliefs? It inserts itself not boldly but in an occult manner at the beginning. People think it's good. Then, they question. We speak out in the public square and coverage of these acts is suppressed. It is now that those in public office are beginning to take off their masks and shed the personae employed to deceive the populace. Obama now grants to himself authority with impunity under the guise of mandates, edicts and executive orders. The people watch as one by one their neighbors are loaded into boxcars and they do not speak out. They call Christians "sheep ", mocking, belittling. It is they who are the sheep blindly worshipping this man. Willing to give to him their freedom. Long before I was Catholic, I stood with the Catholic Church. Why? As I said then, "In the neighborhood we knew : if you want to gain turf, you put a green light out on the leader. You take out the meanest, toughest of the opposition. The rest then fall in line. "
The Catholic Church is the strongest opponent this administration has. Take out the Catholic Church, the rest will fall in line. We can't back down on this. This is the line in the sand that we must not allow our government to cross!
Patricia L. Cataldi, MD
3 months ago
As a physician I wish that true preventive care for women was free. Pregnancy is not a disease. Cancer is. There is a direct link between abortion and breast cancer but the studies are not publicized for obvious reasons. When one considers the side effects of contraceptives and the complications, it is again cause for concern. Should not mammograms, etc be provided free as a preventive if one is truly concerned about women's health. What about screening for ovarian cancer? Why are we not doing more for all people, not just women, who need treatment for actual disease entities, eg. heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, mental illness, etc. and have problems financing their treatment?

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