USCCB affirms: it's about religious liberty; Archbishop Aymond comments

Catholic bishops assert religious liberty in fight against birth control health insurance mandate

Published: Thursday, March 15, 2012, 6:12 PM    

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

 Catholic bishops know that most Americans, including most Catholics, reject the church’s view that artificial birth control is wrong. So the bishops hope in coming weeks to convince the public that their fight against a new insurance mandate is a battle over  religious liberty, rather than access to contraception, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Thursday.

View full sizeRusty Costanza, Times-Picayune archiveArchbishop Gregory Aymond and other bishops recently met to discuss the church’s opposition to a new federal health insurance mandate that requires employers to offer birth control coverage.

“We’re not saying that everyone has to think and act like us. We’re saying that WE have to think and act as we do, and we should be allowed to do so,” Aymond said Thursday.
Aymond had just returned from Washington, where he met for two days with about two dozen key bishops to discuss the church’s opposition to a new federal health insurance mandate.
It requires employers, including Catholic schools and hospitals, to provide their employees insurance coverage for artificial birth control, tubal ligation, vasectomies and the morning after pill.
The church’s traditional teaching is that artificial and surgical means of contraception are wrong because they artificially separate sex from procreation. Catholic and evangelical leaders alike object to the so-called morning after pill because, in their view, it provokes an early abortion.
In a statement after the meeting, the administrative committee of the United States Conference of Catholic bishops said the church will oppose the mandate on parallel paths: trying to negotiate a compromise with the White House; drumming up internal support for their position in the Catholic press; searching for a political solution in Congress; and, perhaps, going to court.
Aymond said staff from the bishops conference and the White House continue their talks, including some this week.
But the bishops and evangelical Christians who support them suffered a legislative setback last month when the Senate killed a bill that would have provided them conscience protection on health care.
Aymond said the bishops conference soon will release a position paper on the issue, centered not on contraception, but on the church’s right to follow its teachings in the administration of its own organizations.
He said bishops are frustrated that public discussion of the health care mandate is often framed in terms of access to contraception. They have always seen it as a matter of religious liberty, Aymond said.
Contraception is the issue of the moment, Aymond said, “but we’d be saying the same if it were about other issues. For example, if the government were teaching us what to teach in our schools, of if the government told us how, and to whom, we could (perform) marriages.”
The bishops face a challenge in making the religious liberty argument.
A  poll of 1,007 adults by the Public Religion Research Institute released Wednesday reported that 56 percent of respondents answered “no” to the question: “Do you think the right to religious liberty is being threatened, or not?”
Similarly, a CBS News/New York Times poll of more than 1,000 adults earlier this month found that Americans thought, by a margin of 51 percent to 37 percent, that the conflict is more about women’s health than religious freedom.
Pollsters also found, however, that sentiment shifted as the precise wording of questions changed.
When CBS/New York Times pollsters in February asked whether religiously affiliated employers should have to cover birth control for their female employees, 61 percent said yes.
But in another poll a month later, when the same pollsters added additional language -- “or should they be allowed to opt out of covering that based on religious or moral objections” -- the result flipped, with 57 percent favoring the opt-out.

The bishops’ statement took no pains to conceal a tense relationship with the White House. It was dismissive the Obama administration’s proposed compromise, which would keep the coverage universally available, but allow ministries not to pay for it. Instead, insurers would be required to provide it free. The bishops characterized that “an unspecified and dubious future ‘accommodation.’”
The document also sought to broaden the ranks of those aggrieved by the federal mandate. It said secular businesses with ties to the church, like Catholic publishing houses, as well as small businesses whose owners adopt Catholic sexual norms, feel similarly pinched by the mandate.
Aymond said he had taken calls from such people himself. However, there seems to be little outcry against the mandate among organizations that advocate for small businesses. Aymond said that was probably because there is no consensus among them on the matter.
Aymond also minimized the possibility that any religious institutions might be at risk of closure if a compromise is not reached.
“I can honestly say I’ve never been part of any discussion where that was said. There is always the hope and belief that something can be worked out.”