War on Women: Catholic Bishops
The war on women starts and ends in church, and it comes from the old white haired puritan patriarchs who want to run everyone’s lives. It’s never been about freedom for the bishops - it’s always been about control - over women’s lives.
Should grumpy, celibate old men in dresses really dictate women’s health options?
American Catholic bishops are calling on Catholics nationwide to mobilize a “great national campaign” to confront what they are calling a series of threats to religious freedom.
The call is contained in a 12-page statement and its chief concern is the Obama administration’s proposal to provide contraception coverage to all employees under their health insurance plans.
The Catholic hierarchy’s latest demand includes an explicit threat of widespread national civil disobedience from America’s 67 million Catholics.
Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, head of the Interfaith Alliance, said that the Catholic bishops’ fight against contraception coverage means that “the Catholic Church’s definition of ‘religious freedom’ is only concerned with its own beliefs and practices and makes no room for those whose views differ.”
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, adds that many church-affiliated agencies operate on taxpayer dollars and that they follow public policy guidelines.
“When taxpayers are forced to support sectarian agencies that refuse to meet the needs of women, gay people and other communities, that’s a real violation of religious liberty,” Lynn said. “If the bishops want to run sectarian social services, they ought to collect the money from their parishioners, not the taxpayers.”
American Catholic leaders have grown increasingly upset over laws affording equal protection to, for example, gay and LGBT persons, and they fear that their for profit businesses that employ workers (and are supported by federal tax dollars) may have to comply with federal nondiscrimination laws.
The White House has proposed modifying the health care mandate so that insurance companies could provide contraception coverage separately to employees with no cost to the faith-based employer.
The Catholic hierarchy and their conservative allies in the Republican Party insist that they will reject all attempts at accommodation.