So,
our friends in the Federal Government decreed that every employer MUST provide
insurance that covers FREE birth control to all women as part of their health
insurance coverage by August of this year, giving religious affiliated
organizations such as hospitals and charities a year's grace period before they
must also comply. The Catholic Church - and many many others of various
affiliations - stated that such a mandate is expressly unconstitutional, and
easily collected 25,000+ signatures on a petition to overturn the
mandate. My name was on that petition. Because of my concern thus
expressed, I got this carefully-worded letter in my email inbox. I add my comments in blue:
Protecting
the Health of Women While Accommodating Religious Liberty
By
Cecilia Muñoz, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy
Council
Thank
you for using We the People to make your voice heard about the Obama
Administration's decision to ensure that women (but not men - how is that fair?) have access to free preventive
care with no co-pays, including contraceptive services, no matter where they
work.
As
background, the Affordable Care Act, which should never have passed, requires insurance companies to cover
preventive services, including preventive care for women, without charging a
co-pay, starting on August 1, 2012. These preventive services include well
women visits, domestic violence screening, and contraception, and all were
recommended to the Secretary of Health and Human Services by the independent
Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. What else did they recommend? Who else recommended these provisions?
The
policies we have proposed exempt churches, other houses of worship, and similar
organizations from covering contraception on the basis of their religious
objections. But some religious organizations have raised religious liberty
concerns about providing contraception in particular in recent weeks.
Today,
President Obama has announced that his Administration will implement this
policy in a manner that, according to him, fully accommodates religious liberty while protecting
the health of women. As the President said:
Nearly 99 percent of all women have
relied on contraception at some point in their lives –- 99 percent. Where is this study? How long ago was it conducted? Who conducted it? Has it ever been replicated? What was the sample size and demographics? No one asked me, so I know for a fact it wasn't "all women." Out of the many, many women who I know personally, several have never used contraception. That's more than 1%. And yet,
more than half of all women between the ages of 18 and 34 have struggled to
afford it. Again, tell me about this study. Also, since when is "struggled to afford it" a valid criterion - especially independent of all other criteria - for getting something provided to a person by tax dollars at no cost to the individual? So for all these reasons, we decided to follow the judgment of the
nation’s leading medical experts and make sure that free preventive care
includes access to free contraceptive care. Free. Nothing is free. Whether you’re a teacher, or a
small businesswoman, or a nurse, or a janitor, (Ah, the easy-to-pull, well-worn, and ever-emotional Hard Working American card) no woman’s health should depend
on who she is or where she works or how much money she makes (a platitude that does not directly). Every woman
should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health. Period. (Which is why we are going to take over that right to choose and administrate those decisions for them.) This
basic principle is already the law in 28 states across the country. This tells me that the individual States, the 28 in favor of this "basic principle" and the others with different policies, already have this issue firmly under control.
Now, as we move to implement this rule,
however, we've been mindful that there's another principle at stake here –- and
that's the principle of religious liberty, an inalienable right that is
enshrined in our Constitution. As a citizen and as a Christian, I cherish this
right. In fact, my first job in Chicago was working with Catholic parishes in
poor neighborhoods, and my salary was funded by a grant from an arm of the
Catholic Church. And I saw that local churches often did more good for a
community than a government program ever could, so I know how important the
work that faith-based organizations do and how much impact they can have in
their communities. A whole paragraph that does nothing to answer questions or show solutions, but only to make you feel better, knowing that the President understand the concerns of the American people. If you'll forgive the movie reference, "I am a brave President!"
Video
of his entire statement is available here.
Here
are a few basic facts:
- Under the policy, women have access to preventive care with no co-pay that includes contraceptive services.
- All churches and houses of worship are exempt from the requirement to provide coverage for contraception or refer for contraception.
- If a woman's employer is a religious non-profit organization, such as a charity hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, her insurance company -- not the hospital or charity -- will be required to reach out and provide her contraceptive care free of charge if she chooses to use it.
There
are tremendous health benefits for women that come from using contraception.
Contraception is a safe and effective way of preventing unintended pregnancies
which can be associated with increased health risks, and doctors also prescribe
contraception for medical and health reasons, including helping to reduce the
risk of some cancers, serious infections and cysts. Yet many women skip
contraceptive care because of cost.
President
Obama is also committed to preserving religious liberty and he listened to the
concerns raised by certain religious organizations and took them seriously.
You
can learn more about the policy here.
This
is an issue where people of good will on both sides of the debate have been
grappling to find a solution that works for everyone, and the policy announced
today has done that. The right to religious liberty will be fully protected,
and a law that requires preventive care without co-pays will not discriminate
against any woman, anywhere. Here are a few statements from groups involved in
the issue:
Catholics
United: http://www.catholics-united.org/ This group is not affiliated with
the institutional Catholic Church and consistently promotes policies that
oppose the official stand of the Catholic Church
President
Obama has shown us that he is willing to rise above the partisan fray to deliver
an actual policy solution that both meets the health care needs of all
employees and respects the religious liberty of Catholic institutions.
Catholic
Health Association: http://www.chausa.org
At a glance, this group seems to be a legitimate and powerful entity, who seems
to have bought the original “Affordable Care Act” (a.k.a. Obamacare) wholesale.
We
are pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protection
needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appreciated enough that
an early resolution of this issue was accomplished.
Planned
Parenthood: Their homepage
makes it quite evident which side (ie planned or parenthood) their bread is
buttered on.
The
Obama administration has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring all women will
have access to birth control coverage, with no costly co-pays, no additional
hurdles, and no matter where they work.
NARAL:
Their website at www.naral.org says they are “Pro-Choice America.” After searching
their website to no avail, I found that this acronym stands for “National
Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League” on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NARAL_Pro-Choice_America
Today's
announcement makes it clear that President Obama is firmly committed to
protecting women's health.
A short pause here to draw your attention
to a significant list of entities who are NOT on this list of fast-acting
kudos-givers, who we might expect would support such a law if it were actually good
for us:
·
Physicians
·
Any
professional medical group
·
Insurance
Companies
·
The
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
·
Official
religious organizations
·
Official
atheist organizations
·
Parent
Groups
·
Women’s
Rights Organizations
·
Researchers
·
Economists
·
State
Governments
Thank
you again for participating in the We the People platform to make your voice
heard on this important issue.
Check
out this response on We the People.
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