Many religious conservatives
understandably are upset with the latest Obamacare mandate, which will
require religious employers (including Catholic employers) to provide birth
control to workers receiving healthcare benefits. This mandate includes
certain birth control devices that are considered abortifacients, like IUDs
and the "morning after" pill.
Of course Catholic teachings
forbid the use of any sort of contraceptive devices, so this rule is anathema
to the religious beliefs of Catholic employers. Religious freedom always has
been considered sacrosanct in this country. However, our federal bureaucracy
increasingly forces Americans to subsidize behaviors they find personally
abhorrent, either through agency mandates or direct transfer payments funded
by tax dollars.
Proponents of this mandate do
not understand the gravity of forcing employers to subsidize activities that
deeply conflict with their religious convictions. Proponents also do not
understand that a refusal to subsidize those activities does not mean the
employer is "denying access" to healthcare. If employers don't
provide free food to employees, do we accuse them of starving their workers?
In truth this mandate has
nothing to do with healthcare, and everything to do with the abortion
industry and a hatred for traditional religious values. Obamacare apologists
cannot abide any religious philosophy that promotes large, two parent,
nuclear, heterosexual families and frowns on divorce and abortion. Because
the political class hates these values, it feels compelled to impose--by
force of law--its preferred vision of society: single parents are noble;
birth control should be encouraged at an early age; and abortion must be
upheld as an absolute moral right.
So the political class simply
tells the American people and American industry what values must prevail, and
what costs much be borne to implement those values. This time, however, the
political class has been shocked by the uproar to the new mandate that it did
not anticipate or understand.
But Catholic hospitals face
the existential choice of obeying their conscience and engaging in civil
disobedience, or closing their doors because government claims the power to
force them to violate the teachings of their faith. This terrible imposition
has resonated with many Americans, and now the Obama administration finds
itself having to defend the terrible cultural baggage of the anti-religious
left.
Of course many Catholic
leaders originally supported Obamacare because they naively believe against
all evidence that benign angels in government will improve medical care for
the poor. And many religious leaders support federal welfare programs
generally without understanding that recipients of those dollars can use them
for abortions, contraceptives, or any number of activities that conflict
deeply with religious teachings. This is why private charity is so vitally
important and morally superior to a government-run medical system.
The First Amendment guarantee
of religious liberty is intended to ensure that Americans never have to put
the demands of the federal government ahead of the their own conscience or
religious beliefs. This new policy turns that guarantee on its head. The
benefits or drawbacks of birth control are not the issue. The issue is
whether government may force private employers and private citizens to
violate their moral codes simply by operating their businesses or paying
their taxes.
