A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the health care mandate regarding womens health care and the Catholic church. (https://sheilafaulstich.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/womens-health-care-gets-a-win-and-so-does-the-white-house/#comment-575)
I called this a WIN for the Obama administration as well as for the White House. And I still support this mandate.
And then last night, I was online and read this article (http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-catholics-contraception-mandate/2012/02/07/id/428695)
So now the administration may cave to the Bishops? I fail to see how providing womens health services disrespects the faithful.
If anything, what I read this morning is disrespectful.
Local Cardinal-designate, Edwin OBrien flat out said that the local Archdiocese wont comply, even if they have to drop health insurance for employees. (http://www.wbaltv.com/news/30404284/detail.html) Thats 3500 employees that will be without health insurance.
As one of my facebook friends put it: ‘Catholic Church, Way to share the love by threatening to take away health insurance from your employees. Very Christ-like’.
It appears that at least this diocese is throwing a tantrum. Rather than provide women with these services, they would rather cut off 3500 people from health care altogether. Ya know, cuz that will certainly help out somehow.
There is already an exemption for Roman Catholic churches who employ Roman Catholics. Buuuutttt……
Did you know that polls show that 58% of Catholics support the mandate? And if you only count Catholic women, that percentage raises up to 62%. (http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/02/january-tracking-poll-2012/) And depending on the poll you read, the percentage of Catholics who use birth control ranges from anywhere from 77%-95%.
So why the outrage?
It appears that the Catholic church is still trying to control women and what they do with their bodies and their health care. And while this is nothing new, you would think by now that an organization ran by men would learn to back off. It is obvious just by looking at the percentages and speaking with other Catholic women that they are failing miserably in this attempt.
Is the church afraid that their Catholic employees will use birth control? Or are they afraid that they already do use it and will just use this mandate to get it thru their employee health plans?
If you look at the comments on my prior blog post on this topic, someone (presumably a man by his avatar) posted that 54% of Catholics voted for Obama in 2008, and now they are angry with him for this action. I find this laughable. Yes, laughable.
If you are a Catholic and voted for Obama in 08, then you werent exactly voting your conscience to begin with….so why be mad now? He was pro-choice when he was a Senator. Why the sudden disapproval?
It seems to me that you got what you asked for. Dont get mad at Obama when you knew all along that his politics didnt agree with yours.
Hissy fits seem to be the norm in this argument. There are calls to close Catholic hospitals and other assorted Catholic charities over this. How does this help ANYONE?
The best quote Ive seen is this: Eating pork is legal. Does that threaten the religious “rights” of Orthodox Jews?
Sheila's Take 