For a US senator, Jeanne Shaheen (NH) is strangely out of touch with the land of the free. Last Tuesday she and two other Democrats weighed in on the intense polemics surrounding the new HHS regulations mandating universal coverage of contraceptive services:“So let's remember who this controversy is really about—the women of America.”
Perhaps you believe (as does Ms. Shaheen in her article) that babies, cancer and AIDS are correctly grouped together in the category of diseases to be prevented. Maybe you think contraception is “directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality” (links between contraceptives and cancer here). You might be convinced that more birth control equals less unwanted pregnancies and abortions (contrary evidence here), and that birth control means “healthier mothers and children”. I would say it just means fewer mothers and children.
But that’s NOT the point. The controversy is not about the women of America. It’s not about contraception, abortion, sterilization, or any of the other “preventive care” measures that the Obama administration wants to mandate.
It’s about whether or not America is still the land of the free it’s made out to be. Because the Obama version of religious freedom was nicely summed up by the title of Bishop David Zubik’s most recent pastoral letter: “To Hell with you.”
Let me explain. The new regs mandate that all employers include free access to “preventive services” (including contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and devices, and surgical sterilization) in their insurance packages. “Free” makes it sound very noncommittal. What it really means here is that the US government will force insurers to provide, employers to pay for, and employees to purchase coverage that includes “free” contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Something that no Catholic who lives their faith can do.
Up until now a conscience clause guaranteeing religious freedom always accompanied such legislation. Obama has changed the rules of the game with the slimmest exemption clause in the history of US legislation: only religious entities that exclusively cater to their own flock. If you run a soup kitchen and feed anyone who isn’t from your church, you’re out. Not even Jesus would be eligible—he healed and preached to Jews as well as Christians.
The problem is double. First, Obama is telling Catholic Americans that they must either violate their beliefs, or face prosecution. In religious language: go to jail, or go to hell, literally. In political language: the government decides what its citizens can or can't believe. In Constitutional language: Obama has ordered a direct violation of the 1st Amendment right to free exercise of religion.
Second, the president is willing to pay a huge price. Even without considering other faiths, a good third of the US is Catholic (77 million). One out of every six Americans receives medical attention from Catholic healthcare. In 2010 Catholic hospitals treated 5,5 million people and spent over 99 billion dollars to do so. In the last week the US bishops announced that they cannot and will not comply with the new regulations. If Obama forces the issue, he must close down Catholic health care, and leave one out of every six Americans with nowhere to go. The same goes for every field. From the emergency room to shelters for the homeless, from adoption agencies and meals-on-wheels to Catholics' work for progress and peace abroad—everything that the Church does for society will have to go. And America will be the worse for it.
Unfortunately for us all, Senator Shaheen included, the controversy isn’t only about women. It’s about religious freedom all across the board. Obama has decided that Catholics must violate their beliefs, or else. So much for the land of the free.
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