As a Boston College sophomore in my 15th year of Catholic education, I am very familiar with the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control despite the fact that 98 percent of Catholic women have used contraception. Boston College, for example, continues to prohibit the distribution of condoms or birth control on campus despite the fact that 90 percent of the student body signed a resolution in 2009 to access to sexual health resources on campus. This underscores the huge gap between the views of the Church and Catholic universities and practicing Catholics.
I strongly support the Obama administration's decision to require all non-profit organizations, including Catholic hospitals and universities, to pay their insurers to cover the cost of women's preventive services, without being charged a co-pay or deductible. Those who argue that this is an attack on religious freedom fail to recognize that churches are exempt from this requirement due to the Conscience Clause, which also ensures that Catholic doctors are not forced to write prescriptions for contraception nor are Catholic women forced to buy or use contraception.
In this decision, President Obama is showing his commitment to both to respecting religious beliefs and increasing access to important preventive services. The decision to exempt churches is consistent with the President's commitment to religious liberty and record of leading with his values and his faith. Over the last three years, the Obama administration has built strong partnerships with religious organizations that help serve the common good.
The policy is extremely important to women, many of whom could not otherwise afford $600 a year to cover the cost of contraception. Access to affordable contraception is an important health measure that has broad support among physicians and gynecologists. It is well known that using contraception reduces the risk of gynecological cancers and is often used to treat women's health conditions, such as abnormal bleeding, ovarian cysts and anemia.
The new provision will not only save women money but it will also provide a higher level of quality care. It ensures that women, regardless of their employer, will have access to preventive health measures at a low cost. Most importantly, this policy allows women to make their own health decisions rather than having the decisions made for them by the Church.
'This underscores the huge gap between the views of the Church and Catholic universities and practicing Catholics.'
If one disagrees with the Church's basic moral teachings how can they possibly be a 'practicing Catholic'? Practicing what - 'Selective Catholicism'?
Then we have a mangle of the current state of related law by confusing the 'Conscience Clause' (there is no such one clause) with the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion and the guarantee of civil liberty.
You state 'I am very familiar with the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control', yet you never explain the Church's position or put forth a solid philosophical or moral reason why you are opposed to it.
And please explain why it is such a hardship to obtain condoms or anything else off-campus. Do you have to board a train or plane in order to get to a drug store?
If we're going to mandate something be done for no cost, let's pick chemotherapy or dialysis. Of course contraception may be politically popular, but it is not an urgent requirement for saving lives.
Of course, if they did that they would drive all the women out of the church, and a significant number of the men also.
--The insurance companies will jump at it, since statistically a woman with contraceptives is a lot less expensive for an insurance company than one without. Think for a moment about it... DUHH!
Obama comes through again, and shows his Solomonic smarts. Four more years! He deserves reelection if only for reintroducing the word "compromise" to the presidential vocabulary, after it was so sorely missed from 2000-2008, when it was replaced by "swagger."
Also, how refreshing that the word "compromise" is back in the US presidential vocabulary, after the eight years from 2000-2008, when it was utterly lacking, replaced by the word "swagger."