Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments

It looks like the Catholic league is throwing fast balls at the Obama Administration over the "forced payments" issues that are apparently mandated in the ObamaCare laws.

Catholic leadership is mobilizing 70 million American Catholics.


February 6, 2012 11:00 PM -CBS News

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Catholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control.

Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization coverage for their employees.

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Catholic League head Bill Donohue....

“This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets,” Donohue said.

Donohue Says 70 Million Of His Voters Ready To Alter Presidential Election

Some people may see this as a Republican vote-getting campaign


Will 70 Million Catholics Vote Against Obama ??

Here is the counterpoint from The Whitehouse.

February 6, 2012 - cns news

(CNSNews.com) - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that American women “deserve” to have their employers buy them health insurance plans that cover sterlizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, with no fees or co-pay, even if the employer is a Catholic or Catholic organization that adheres to the church teaching that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortifacients are morally wrong and that Catholics cannot be involved in them.

WH: Women ‘Deserve’ to Have Catholic Church Buy Them Sterilizations, Contraceptives and Abortifacients


What Do Catholics Really Think ??

Will 70 million Catholics vote against Obama? Not likely. The thing to keep in mind here is that most Catholic women do or have used birth control to the tune of 95%. With an additional 89% feeling that the choice is theirs and not that of the church. What you have here is Obama acting in accordance to what reality is, and the Catholic Church refusing to accept what reality is. Obama is not going to run on this issue and American Catholics largely ignore what the church has to say in relation to birth control.

Shouldnt they just pray that it goes away?
Or do they not believe in that crap?

reply to post by xuenchen


health care is health care - you cannot cherry pick which elements to support and when secular health care providers support ALL elements , to attempt to cherry pick is blatant discrimination

The leaders are the ones throwing a fit. Regular Catholics use birth control widely.

Practice What You Preach

I first learned that Catholics don’t always practice what the church preaches about contraception when I was pretty young, no more than 12. My stay-at-home mom did the laundry, and it was my job to help her fold the clothes and put them in everyone’s drawers when I got home from school. One day putting my father’s socks away, I found a box of condoms at the back of his sock drawer.

The church should not be the ones deciding. Each individual should decide if they want birth control or not. And from the numbers I've seen, many are deciding they do.

It's one of their core beliefs. If the federal government mandated that vegans eat meat, it would be a similar issue.


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reply to post by Finalized


They're not mandating that they TAKE birth control.

And no matter how much people try to make it look like Catholics are being forced to take birth control, it's just NOT true. No one is being forced to. It's just available for the 60% or so who already do use it.

reply to post by Finalized


UTTER TWADDLE - this is not forcing catholics to use birth control , its forcing catholic organisations health plans [ insurance ] to PAY FOR birth control

not all people who work for catholic organisations are actually catholic

and to use your diet analogy , vegans would not be forced to eat meat , vegan organisations would be forced to pay for omnivores meat

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
reply to post by xuenchen

 

health care is health care - you cannot cherry pick which elements to support and when secular health care providers support ALL elements , to attempt to cherry pick is blatant discrimination

I agree.

However, the Administration has been handing out waivers and exceptions like crazy.

Some actually religious based.

I guess then, the Administration is practicing discrimination.

The SCOTUS is going to rule soon on parts (or all) of the HC bill.

If the SCOTUS decides to pick and choose, then what will that be called ?

Is the Catholic Church considered a Super-Pac? Maybe a Union?



There are alot of Catholic votes for Obama to lose.

Edit to add:

Just like Unions, many follow blindly,and will vote for whoever the Union backs.......

reply to post by sonnny1


No, it is considered an extremely powerful and wealthy institution..I am a Catholic..I don't believe in every doctorine, including contraception being wrong. However, I do believe that private institutions, companies, etc., should have a right to provide what they want. The governement shouldn't be "forcing" employers to do anything either. If you want to make certain things mandatory and available for public school students, and services that we pay for with tax dollars..ok. Private companies, institutions, etc., shouldn't have to do anything.

reply to post by xuenchen

Originally posted by xuenchen
However, the Administration has been handing out waivers and exceptions like crazy.

Some actually religious based.

Is this true? Can you provide a link? Because I was under the impression that the waivers (some 1200) were for health benefit caps, not religion. And those will be removed in the next couple years. What are the religious exceptions?

reply to post by tomd1111


I agree.

But you have to consider what predicament this puts on those that follow the Catholic church.

Heres one example.

My Father is a staunch Obama supporter,AFL-CIO member,and voted Democrat all his life.
He is also a highly religious Catholic,and would walk on glass if the Holy Father told him to.
That being said,he has already told me he will not vote for Obama,if the Church in anyway says not to.

That's one vote for the Church,zero for Obama.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
They're not mandating that they TAKE birth control. And no matter how much people try to make it look like Catholics are being forced to take birth control, it's just NOT true. No one is being forced to.

This must be the 7th thread with you on it that I've said this on ...

Catholics are not allowed to participate IN ANY MANNER in birth control or abortion. That includes providing it for others. It doesn't matter how many catholics follow that rule .. it doesn't matter if people agree or disagree with their beliefs ... the fact is that the First Amendment gives them the right not to have laws passed that force them to go against their religion.

It has nothing to do with Catholics taking the birth control or getting abortions. It has to do with the fact that they can't have anything to do with it - that includes paying for someone else to get it.

I've posted the 1st Amendment wording on other threads.
I've posted the Church beliefs and Church law.
Do you want me to go digging those things back up and repost for you to see again?

Originally posted by Finalized
It's one of their core beliefs. If the federal government mandated that vegans eat meat, it would be a similar issue.

Core beliefs? Just keep in mind that we're talking about a religious organization that made the conscious decision to play three card monte with pedophiles amongst their own parishioner's children. Core beliefs, I think not! I quit listening to the immoral teaching of the Catholic hierarchy a long time ago.

Furthermore, there are already a lot of states that have similar laws in place and the Catholic church has been adhering to those laws, in those states, for quite some time. This is a clear example of the Catholic hierarchy attempting to influence the Presidential election and is squarely in line with their typical, hypocritical B.S..

reply to post by sonnny1


I think your example will be common and this will be a major blow for the dems. Which makes me ask (because all I have seen about this story was the title this morning on Drudge), when did this come out, why would they want to battle this now, or was bringing this to light a now a carefully crafted GOP stunt?

Obama and his administration are dead wrong.

THIS IS THE US LAW - it protects everyones right to practice their faith -

First Amendment to the US Constitution

The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

EXACT TEXT

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This is the Catholic faith - it says they can't participate IN ANY MANNER - which includes helping others to have abortions or abortificants or birth control.

Church law - Catechism of the Catholic Church - Part three, section two, chapter two

Catholic teaching on abortion/birth control

In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI stated, "[W]e must once again declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and, above all, directly willed and procured abortion, even if for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as licit means of regulating birth. Equally to be excluded, as the teaching authority of the Church has frequently declared, is direct sterilization, whether perpetual or temporary, whether of the man or of the woman. Similarly excluded is every action which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" (HV 14).

This was reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "[E]very action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible is intrinsically evil" (CCC 2370). "Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means . . . for example, direct sterilization or contraception" (CCC 2399).

The Church also has affirmed that the illicitness of contraception is an infallible doctrine: "The Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception, that is, of every marital act intentionally rendered unfruitful. This teaching is to be held as definitive and irreformable. Contraception is gravely opposed to marital chastity, it is contrary to the good of the transmission of life (the procreative.aspect of matrimony), and to the reciprocal self-giving of the spouses (the unitive.aspect of matrimony); it harms true love and denies the sovereign role of God in the transmission of human life" (Vademecum for Confessors 2:4, Feb. 12, 1997).

Catholic law on abortion
Excommunication for those aborting ...
Against the faith and 'serious sin' for those who assist those getting the abortion.
(ditto artifical birth control)

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
this is not forcing catholics to use birth control , its forcing catholic organisations health plans [ insurance ] to PAY FOR birth control

Which is still against the Catholic religion. Catholics are not allowed to assist others in having abortions or using birth control (which many times are abortificants). It's THEIR FAITH. It has nothing to do with if the person getting the birth control is Catholic or not.

Catholic hospitals are CATHOLIC church outreach programs.
They are CATHOLIC. CATHOLIC .. get it?
Anyone who works there knows it's a CATHOLIC Church outreach.
Therefore, to expect that Catholic Church outreach to go against it's religion ... that is absurd.

If they want free birth control that badly .. they can go work for a city hospital ..
or a doctors office .. or somewhere else. Common sense.

Originally posted by tomd1111
reply to post by sonnny1

 

I think your example will be common and this will be a major blow for the dems. Which makes me ask (because all I have seen about this story was the title this morning on Drudge), when did this come out, why would they want to battle this now, or was bringing this to light a now a carefully crafted GOP stunt?

Could be a bit of both.

Elections,its a hot topic, the Catholic Church has been getting beat on many levels,and this is something that could bring Catholics together,and the GOP playing into the Church's main support network. Lets not forget about faith also.....

Regardless,Obama will lose many votes. When my father told me that,I was speechless.

If Obama was smart,he would fix it so it works inline with Catholic teachings. I know,it sounds bad, but if its a vote thing,that's what hes going to have to do.