Bishops Want Businesses Exempt From Birth Control Coverage

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not been shy about expressing its opposition to the Obama administration refusing to change a rule requiring that Catholic institutions provide health insurance coverage for contraception for employees at no additional cost. Now the bishops are straight-out demanding that private businesses have the right to deny women insurance coverage for contraception.

Earlier this week, the White House announced that it would seek to make the rule “more palatable” to religious-affiliated institutions including Catholic colleges and universities. 28 states indeed have laws calling for free access to contraception; eight of these states do not have the religious exemption in the federal rule, which is to go into effect August 1.

Despite the White House’s efforts, Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, drew a line in the sand on Thursday and said that the Obama administration has offered “all talk, no action” about any sort of compromise. The bishops are now demanding that the contraception rule be removed from the health care law, arguing that it is not enough just to change it for Catholic employers and their insurers. As Picarello summed the matter up:

“If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I’d be covered by the mandate.”

According to Picarello, woe to the Catholic business owners who find themselves having to comply with federal law and provide insurance coverage for contraception for their employees.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) responded to the bishops’ announcement with a statement that makes it clear that the fight about the contraception rule is not, as GOP politicians and Catholic leaders have been claiming, about “religious freedom.” It is an “ideological political issue” to exempt all businesses — all private businesses, from Taco Bell to Target — from providing birth control for their employees. Says Gillibrand:

“I am dumbfounded that in the year 2012 we still have to fight over birth control. It is sad that we have to stand here yet again to fight back against another overreach and intrusion into women’s lives.

“This is what it is – a political overreach to roll back access to birth control – not a religious issue. The fact they want to exempt all businesses from providing contraceptive care is just outrageous.

“The power to decide whether or not each individual woman uses contraception should be with that woman – not her boss. We will not stand for these attempts to undermine the ability of women to make their own decisions.

“If my Republican colleagues want to continue to take this issue head on, we stand ready to oppose any attacks launched against women’s rights and women’s health.”

Despite what the bishops say, not all Catholics share their opposition to contraception. Surveys have found that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptives, the same number as in the general population. Moreover, most Americans, including most Catholics, support the Obama administration’s proposal and believe that there should be increased access to contraception.

The bishops, and right-wing Catholic politicians including House Speaker John Boehner and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum act as if their views are eternal. But the Church’s position on contraception has changed over time, as revealed by a historical review of the Church’s stances on this issue (such as John T. Noonan’s Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists). The bishops’ and conservative Catholics’ latest attempts to deny women access to contraception shows that they need to wake up and realize this is the 21st century, and that, as Sen. Gillibrand says, “each individual woman” — not her boss, not a bishop — makes her own decision about using birth control.

Related Care2 Coverage

Big Decline in Teenage Pregnancy Rate Thanks to Contraception

The War On The Pill And One Way We Fight Back

Boehner Fights Contraception Rule; Catholic Women Speak Up

Photo by Catholic Westminster

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Eternal G.

7:02PM PST on Mar 1, 2012

The only thing nice I can say about Pope&Co. is that they at least do not deny the existence of climate change.

send a green star

Norma V.

11:42PM PST on Feb 17, 2012

Would you trust a man in a dress and miter to be in charge of contraception? Please...allow priests to marri and quit covering up (alleged) sex abuse.

ROLF P.

10:59AM PST on Feb 16, 2012

They look like freaks, the act like freaks, the are FREAKS! Look they even talk to themselves.

Quanta K.

2:20AM PST on Feb 16, 2012

Thanks.

Jamie B.

2:50AM PST on Feb 15, 2012

Yeah, business owners should not have to provide insurance coverage that they object to. So if/when my yoga studio expands and I hire employees, I won't be covering in their health plan: Viagra (it's purely recreational & contributes to lust), antidepressants (hey, suck it up, nobody's ever died from depression, and these drugs work about the same as placebo!), chemotherapy (kills people and the success rate is about 2% at best), vaccinations (no double-blind control studies have been done), or statins (the risks outweigh the benefits). I will, however, make birth control mandatory for my employees because it sure as heck is cheaper than maternity leave.

Carole L.

11:47AM PST on Feb 14, 2012

Adam s:
"It's absolutely a private businesses right to deny any kind of coverage they want. The government has no say in what they pay for. You silly Liberals won't understand that until the government starts telling you how to run your private lives. Get a clue."

You mean like Mitty, Gingrich, and the crew wanting to declare “Life begins at conception”? What you “silly” fright right don’t get is that you want the gov to dictate to women about their bodies. But you scream over the gov protecting women’s access to birth control as “Government over-reach”. Maybe you would like the gov to place cameras in every women’s womb to make sure those fertilized eggs are protected. What about those that don’t attach to the uterine wall, shall women be brought before Congress to “explain” what happened to that precious life that got flushed with her uterine wall during her cycle. And force her to prove that she didn’t ‘cause’ it to abort so she’s not charged with murder.
Do you want to deny boner pills in your health coverage as well?

11:33AM PST on Feb 14, 2012

Glenna J.
“When John Kennedy was elected President, he had to SWEAR that he would not make any laws according to papal dictates. America was that afraid of Catholic interference in the laws of secular America...Yet in 2012 we are falling all over ourselves to comply with Catholic dictates???”

Exactly. I’m thinking the Bishops are against birth control because they want a ‘fresh’ batch of children to molest.

11:32AM PST on Feb 14, 2012

Rob D
“If someone does not like my benefit package they don't need to apply for my jobs! Where does Obama come off pushing his socialist agenda on purely private employers?”

Guess you're one of those Shria Law supporters.

First off, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII which protects women’s reproduction rights and access to birth control. this fight has nothing to do with Obama he’s simply upholding the 64 Title VII Civil Rights Act. Hell even Bush upheld it, didn’t hear narry a peep when that happened. Oops sorry i brought up Bush's name, i know you righties hate it when "Liberals" bring up what happened during his reign.

sherry l.

4:49AM PST on Feb 14, 2012

Funny but in Italy the Cathloic Church allows birth control. They own or half own a company that manufactures birth control pills. I think if they don't like what's happening they should have their tax exemption taken away from them. Be allowed to go on their merry way.

Past Member .

7:29PM PST on Feb 13, 2012

My Mom said if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all. So I have a lot of very un-nice things to say about the Catholic church.