According to Human Life International fellow Bob Laird, the only remaining options left to Catholics following the Obama administration’s mandate of coverage for contraception, sterilization, and some abortion inducing drugs are the “federal courts or the November elections.”
Laird writes:
Belmont Abbey, a small Catholic college in North Carolina, and Colorado Christian College engaged the initial HHS ruling on the mandate by filing suit in Washington, D.C. against the mandatory contraception and sterilization coverage demanded by ObamaCare. Interestingly, both chose the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the same organization that won the recent Hosanna-Tabor decision, to represent them. Now that Sebelius has made a final decision on the exemption, we might see more, and perhaps broader, lawsuits on the same issue.
While the battle for religious freedom goes to court, it is still important to speak out against this attack on our religious freedom and vote accordingly, despite a clever and blatantly political addendum to the HHS decision. The HHS included a one-year postponement of the implementation of the religious exemption to the contraception and sterilization mandate in an attempt to make the mandate less of an issue during this election season. By deferring the implementation of the mandate, the president hopes that people will forget, just as they have forgotten about the loss of religious liberty when the California law passed 13 years ago. …
Two options remain if we are to keep the cherished religious liberties guaranteed for all Americans since this country was founded: to pursue a reversal of the HHS mandate via the courts, and to vote for a change in political leadership. Ensuring that the issue of religious freedom remains central in the political discussion for the next nine months will improve the chances that we will have a Congress and a President one year from now who will live by, and support, those cherished freedoms that Americans uphold.
Read Laird’s entire article at Life News here.
CNS Staff
Matthew Archbold
8 Comments
Just wondering… Is this the time when good Catholic businessmen/women (Legatus) fight back by forming a Catholic insurance conglomerate that stands over and against the secular companies, such as some of the web servers have done? We MUST continue to stand against government restrictions on rights of conscience, but can we also form such Catholic companies that could stand outside the law as we continue to work on changing it? Just wondering…
Correct; these are not the only options. The Archdioces of Baltimore, for example, is not subject to these regulations because it is self insured. Other dioceses have to become so; why do people keep saying there are “no options”? Yes, we have to protest this vigorously, but let’s also be “wise as serpents and gentle as doves” rather than wringing our hands and acting like helpless victims.
Although I agree with this article that the courts and the election are two options, they are not the only options. The third option is civil disobedience should the first two fail.
History has shown that civil disobedience in defense of a moral cause is not only valid but also successful. The schools should simply refuse to cooperate. If the government then fines them they should refuse to pay. Then the best thing that could happen for Catholics, schools, all religions and all of America would be to see federal storm troopers invading a Catholic college at the behest of Obama, Holder and Sebelius. May these schools stand fast – If God is with themk who can be agqinst them?
When history repeats itself.
What is it going to be, Sodom and Gomorrah, or Nineveh.
When history repeats itself…
The beginnings of a new country founded on Christian principles entrenched in a “right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
Birth control pills, sterilization, and abortion are not Health Mandates! They are decisions of people to behave without consequences or without duty. Above all, abortion is killing an innocent life. If good health is really the purpose, then Obama Care should provide the best food possible to all, free, to keep people’s bodies and minds healthy. This latter action would make more sense, but would be impossible as to cost. And if Obama Care was really concerned about women’s and men’s health, they would oppose all forms of abortion, mass killing of mankind.
To make Catholic hospitals and institutions provide this against it’s teaching is one giant step toward Communism.
Kudos for Mary Ann Martin’s thoughtfull analysis. I agree with her totally with one exception. A carefull study of the modern Democrat Party and its policies are more in kin with Fascist Socialists than Communists. While it matters little in reality if your head is being crushed by the left or right boot of a tyrant, this so-called soft conspiracy will turn very hard indeed when someone finally has the guts to defy them. They will be forced to expose themselves for what they really are because failure is not an option for them. Our government has been taken over by some very clever and totally evil people. It amazes me that anyone who is a Christian, particulary Catholics, can be so puerile as to deny this reality. We are witnessing the re-birth of NAZI Germany. Even a poor student of history can not in good conscience deny it.
What did our Lord say about the children of light and the children of this world/age? We really need to be cunning as serpents but peaceful as doves. This last does NOT mean to go peacefully to the slaughter, but to “wake up and smell the coffee,” folks!