US Bishops continue fight against health care ruling
Over 100 bishops in the United States have issued individual statements opposing an
order from the Obama administration directing many Catholic institutions to pay for
contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs for their employees.
Many
of the bishops ordered their statement to be read at every Sunday Mass last weekend.
The
new regulations would cover all non-profit organizations, including religious organizations
which have moral and medical objections to contraception and abortion.
Even
organizations which supported Obamacare are disappointed.
“From President Thomas
Jefferson to President Barack Obama, we have been promised a respect for appropriate
religious freedom,” said Sister Carol Keehan, President of the Catholic Health Association
of the United States. “The first amendment to our Constitution affirms it. We are
a pluralistic country, and it takes respectful dialogue to sort this out fairly. This
decision was a missed opportunity.”
Kishore Jayabalan, The head of the Rome
office of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, told Vatican
Radio the decision by the government was surprising.
“The Obama administration
had made it seem like they were going to grant a general exception to religious institutions…that
would allow them to exempt themselves from not only allowing their patients but having
to pay for their patients – and their employees especially – to have contraceptive
and abortifacient services as reproductive health,” he said.
“It seems much
more of a political question,” he continued. “Why would the administration want to
take on a fight, when traditionally and historically, you grant this kind of exemption?”