Catholic bishops step up fight against Obamacare

Over 100 Catholic 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?”