Health Care Reform Is An Attack On Religious Freedom?

Part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 says that, by 2014, most employers must offer health insurance to their employees. It also says that this insurance must cover birth control pills and other contraception. This requirement doesn't apply to churches themselves, but would apply to places like religious-affiliated hospitals.

The conservative overlords never miss a chance to stir up their lame-brained foamy-mouth constituents, so here we go again. Some Catholic church officials are going full freak-out over this, John The Orange Boner is making threatening speeches in Congress, and Gingrich and Santorum are using it for a more-Catholic-than-thou litmus test on the GOP campaign trail.

The critics contend that this provision is an unconstitutional attack on religious freedom which will prevent people from practicing their beliefs. I'm callin' bullshit on that. The critics just don't like contraceptives, period. (An idiotic position, but there you have it.)

First, actual churches don't count -- the priest will not be flinging pills and party hats from the pulpit. And Catholic hospitals don't have to distribute contraceptives to everybody who walks through the door, they just have to make them available to their employees under their company health plan. In that regard, they are just another employer.

Second, Catholic hospitals employ many people who aren't Catholic, who may not agree with the official Vatican position on contraception. Of course, all your devout, obedient Catholic employees would never ever use any contraceptive device (Right!), so it's a moot point for them. But do you really want to deny non-Catholic employees a basic coverage provided by virtually every other employer?

Third, this isn't about religious practices -- find me the part in the Bible about birth control pills -- it's about the Catholic church trying to flex its canonical muscle and preserve some shred of its institutional authority. But most Catholics have long ignored the Vatican's reproductive advice. In this area, the obedient Catholic is a myth. Something like 95%+ of all Catholic women have used some sort of birth control. These days, it's simply the way things are done, and we are all better off for it.

To each his own, but when it comes to contraception, it's time for the Catholic church to join the modern world.