Catholics sue Obama for Birth Control

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Catholics sue Obama for Birth Control

http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_20676865/catholics-sue-over-obama-birth-control-mandate?source=rss

Catholics sue over Obama birth control mandate

 

By Rachel Zoll
Associated Press
 

NEW YORK -- Roman Catholic leaders opened a new front against the Obama administration mandate that employers provide workers birth control coverage, filing federal lawsuits Monday, May 21, on behalf of dioceses, schools and health care agencies that argued the requirement violates religious freedom.

Among the plaintiffs is the University of Notre Dame, which in February had praised President Barack Obama for pledging to accommodate religious groups and find a way to soften the rule.

Notre Dame president, the Rev. John Jenkins, said the school had since decided to sue because "progress has not been encouraging" in talks with administration officials.

The lawsuits have been filed in eight states and the District of Columbia by the Archdioceses of Washington and New York, the Michigan Catholic Conference, Catholic Charities in Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Indiana, health care agencies in New York and two dioceses in Texas.

"We have tried negotiation with the administration and legislation with the Congress, and we'll keep at it, but there's still no fix," said New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"Time is running out, and our valuable ministries and fundamental rights hang in the balance, so we have to resort to the courts now."

Erin Shields, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Meanwhile, the liberal advocacy group Catholics United accused the bishops of serving a "right-wing political agenda."

Health and Human Services adopted the mandate to improve health care for women. Last year, an advisory panel from the Institute of Medicine, which advises the federal government, recommended including birth control on the list of covered services, partly because it promotes maternal and child health by allowing women to space their pregnancies.

However, many leaders across faith traditions and political ideology argued that the mandate's exception for religious groups was too narrow. The original rule generally allowed churches and other houses of worship to opt out, but kept the requirement in place for religiously affiliated nonprofits, including hospitals, colleges and charities.

The political furor caught the administration by surprise. In response, Obama offered to soften the rule so that insurers would pay for birth control instead of religious groups. However, the bishops and others have said the accommodation doesn't go far enough to protect religious freedom.

An Obama administration official said the rule was still under discussion with religious leaders.

The lawsuits are the latest in the intensifying standoff between Roman Catholic bishops and the Obama administration during this election year.

The bishops plan a national campaign for religious freedom in the two weeks leading up to the July Fourth holiday. Last week, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl lambasted Georgetown University, a Jesuit school, for inviting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to make a graduation speech.

Sebelius, who defended religious freedom in her talk, was named as a defendant in the lawsuits Monday, along with her agency and others.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm, had previously filed four federal lawsuits challenging the mandate on behalf of religious schools and others. Still, observers had been closely watching for Notre Dame's next step.

The university, dubbed the Catholic Harvard, previously indicated willingness to work with Obama, despite his support for abortion rights. Notre Dame came under unprecedented criticism from U.S. bishops and others in 2009 for inviting Obama as commencement speaker and presenting him with an honorary law degree.

In February, when Obama responded to the complaints of religious leaders about the mandate, Jenkins said in a statement that, "we applaud the willingness of the administration to work with religious organizations to find a solution acceptable to all parties."

On Monday, Jenkins said, "although I do not question the good intentions and sincerity of all involved in these discussions, progress has not been encouraging."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno


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Hopefully the crap is thrown

Hopefully the crap is thrown out as the religious attempt to subvert the laws and right to govern of the nation for which it is.

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Better Idea...

 I hope the President send in Seal Team Six to capture or kill the leader of this criminal enterprise known for it's sobourning of justice and it's defense of child rapist. Bring back Ratzinger in chains or in a bag...either way is good.

LC >;-}>

 

 

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Louis_Cypher wrote: I hope

Louis_Cypher wrote:

 I hope the President send in Seal Team Six to capture or kill the leader of this criminal enterprise known for it's sobourning of justice and it's defense of child rapist. Bring back Ratzinger in chains or in a bag...either way is good.

LC >;-}>

 

 

 

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The catholic church

 

 

doesn't seem to realise religious freedom doesn't extend to the right to impress your religious dogma onto others. Just goes to show monotheism is, centrally, bigotry. Rather than pursuing child abusing priests the church maintains its stupidity in relation to clerical marriage, a shift that would surely improve the lives of the clergy, and it labels the free choices of others as 'sin' not as personal freedoms enshrined in law, as its freedoms are enshrined. When it comes to these matters, it is about individual choice. There is no blanket external morality that applies here. 

 

 

 

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Atheistextremist

Atheistextremist wrote:

 

 

doesn't seem to realise religious freedom doesn't extend to the right to impress your religious dogma onto others. Just goes to show monotheism is, centrally, bigotry. Rather than pursuing child abusing priests the church maintains its stupidity in relation to clerical marriage, a shift that would surely improve the lives of the clergy, and it labels the free choices of others as 'sin' not as personal freedoms enshrined in law, as its freedoms are enshrined. When it comes to these matters, it is about individual choice. There is no blanket external morality that applies here. 

 

 

Who is imposing their moral views on whom? I'm with the church here for non-religious reasons. It is bullshit that the government thinks it is OK to tell people what health insurance they must buy. Why do I, a single male who is incapable of having children without medical intervention, be required to purchase an insurance policy that covers birth control, while if I went batshit crazy and decided I wanted to have kids, my insurance isn't covering it?

The issue isn't whether or not employees can make the choice to purchase their own birth control. The issue is whether or not employers must pay for it. The church is right, they shouldn't be forced to pay for birth control, or any of a dozen other insurance coverages that are typically optional (maternity, viagra, glasses, annual physicals etc.) because insurance is the most expensive way to pay for these predictable and regular expenses.

The entire point of insurance is to protect you from large unexpected expenses, using insurance as a vehicle to pay for the expected or inexpensive is stupid and a waste of money that simply pads the pockets of insurers. If you are an individual and you buy one of these policies you are making a poor personal financial decision, forcing employers to pay for that poor decision is disgusting and it won't be a surprise when the result is lower wages. This fucked up law is managing to be even more inefficient than a straight up government takeover of the whole medical system.    

 

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X


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Vastet wrote:Hopefully the

Vastet wrote:
Hopefully the crap is thrown out as the religious attempt to subvert the laws and right to govern of the nation for which it is.

This is the biggest f*ckin joke!

One of the local radio hosts mentioned how 2 MAJOR Catholic hospitals actually provide birth control to their employees and even did it during the Bush years!! LMAO! The crazy ChirstNUTS are owned!!

Catholic hospitals do it all over the nation yet they keep on trying to make a big deal about it just because Obama is black!  Obviously it's something personal against Obama since they sure as hell weren't complaining about it when Bush was president!

 

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JesusNEVERexisted

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:

Vastet wrote:
Hopefully the crap is thrown out as the religious attempt to subvert the laws and right to govern of the nation for which it is.

This is the biggest f*ckin joke!

One of the local radio hosts mentioned how 2 MAJOR Catholic hospitals actually provide birth control to their employees and even did it during the Bush years!! LMAO! The crazy ChirstNUTS are owned!!

Catholic hospitals do it all over the nation yet they keep on trying to make a big deal about it just because Obama is black!  Obviously it's something personal against Obama since they sure as hell weren't complaining about it when Bush was president!

 

 

There is a huge difference between a hospital (or any employer) that provides a benefit voluntarily and being forced to do so by the government. There are a lot of things I do voluntarily that would piss me off if I was forced by law to do. Your point that some catholic hospitals already provided the benefit just begs the question, why do we need a law?

If having your birth control paid for by your employer is that important for you, work somewhere that provides that benefit. If I were an employee I would rather have an extra $50 a month in my paycheck and decide how to spend it myself. What is so wrong about just paying employees cash and letting the employee choose what to buy with it?  

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X


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Beyond Saving

Beyond Saving wrote:

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:

Vastet wrote:
Hopefully the crap is thrown out as the religious attempt to subvert the laws and right to govern of the nation for which it is.

This is the biggest f*ckin joke!

One of the local radio hosts mentioned how 2 MAJOR Catholic hospitals actually provide birth control to their employees and even did it during the Bush years!! LMAO! The crazy ChirstNUTS are owned!!

Catholic hospitals do it all over the nation yet they keep on trying to make a big deal about it just because Obama is black!  Obviously it's something personal against Obama since they sure as hell weren't complaining about it when Bush was president!

 

 

 

 

There is a huge difference between a hospital (or any employer) that provides a benefit voluntarily and being forced to do so by the government. There are a lot of things I do voluntarily that would piss me off if I was forced by law to do. Your point that some catholic hospitals already provided the benefit just begs the question, why do we need a law?

If having your birth control paid for by your employer is that important for you, work somewhere that provides that benefit. If I were an employee I would rather have an extra $50 a month in my paycheck and decide how to spend it myself. What is so wrong about just paying employees cash and letting the employee choose what to buy with it?  

 

 

             Abso----fuckin----lutely-----nothing. NOW try to get the employe to fork over money in-lieu-of benifits; the economic reality is 'a package deal' is more cost efficient then a 'one on one deal'.  I'm conservative as hell but I don't see that happening; ever.

 

 

 

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Beyond Saving

Beyond Saving wrote:

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:

Vastet wrote:
Hopefully the crap is thrown out as the religious attempt to subvert the laws and right to govern of the nation for which it is.

This is the biggest f*ckin joke!

One of the local radio hosts mentioned how 2 MAJOR Catholic hospitals actually provide birth control to their employees and even did it during the Bush years!! LMAO! The crazy ChirstNUTS are owned!!

Catholic hospitals do it all over the nation yet they keep on trying to make a big deal about it just because Obama is black!  Obviously it's something personal against Obama since they sure as hell weren't complaining about it when Bush was president!

 

 

There is a huge difference between a hospital (or any employer) that provides a benefit voluntarily and being forced to do so by the government. There are a lot of things I do voluntarily that would piss me off if I was forced by law to do. Your point that some catholic hospitals already provided the benefit just begs the question, why do we need a law?

If having your birth control paid for by your employer is that important for you, work somewhere that provides that benefit. If I were an employee I would rather have an extra $50 a month in my paycheck and decide how to spend it myself. What is so wrong about just paying employees cash and letting the employee choose what to buy with it?  

You aren't forced to buy it! The contraception is available to you at these CATHOLIC hospitals if you want it!  Their hypocrisy is ridiculous!

Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com


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The Catholic church likes to

The Catholic church likes to throw its political weight around when it comes to issues like contraception and gay marriage instead of focusing on social justice issues even when they're clearly out of touch with the values and cultures in the nations they do this in.

Given that the Vatican is an advocate of universal health care I think it shows a true lack of regard for the American people and the process of achieving it, and I hope the odious political gamesmanship of doing that 6 months before a general election in a country really helps to lower the image of the Catholic church even further.

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JesusNEVERexisted wrote:You

JesusNEVERexisted wrote:

You aren't forced to buy it! The contraception is available to you at these CATHOLIC hospitals if you want it!  Their hypocrisy is ridiculous!

What they are suing over is the requirement that they purchase insurance that covers birth control for their employees. So yes, they are being forced to purchase it for their employees and they don't want to. If they weren't being forced to purchase it, they wouldn't have legal standing for a lawsuit.

If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X