Religious Freedom Threatened

It’s been a dramatic week on the Pro-Life/Pro-Death front.  First President Obama decided to violate the religious freedom of Catholics everywhere by creating a mandate that would force Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives for employees.  Let’s not pretend that Obama didn’t know that he would be forcing Catholics across the country to violate their consciences.  This is just another of the attacks on religious liberty that the administration has been building up to these past years and it is making it increasingly clear why now more than ever he must be voted out of office. 

For those who don’t know, the Catholic Church teaches that contraception is wrong.  Forcing a Catholic to pay for contraception is like expecting a Jewish business to serve pork, or a Muslim business to serve alcohol.  President Obama knows this.  And what he’s doing, along with “Catholic” HHS head Kathleen Sebelius, is evil.  The situation is going to turn into a showdown of sorts, between overreaching, Constitution violating big government and those who won’t allow their rights to be violated. 

The thing is, contraception isn’t “preventative care.”  I know this may come as a surprise in a culture that acts as if having a baby is the equivalent of a life sentence in a high security prison, but pregnancy isn’t a disease.  This way of looking at the world perpetuates the myth (that our society bows down and worships), that sex is consequence free.  Yet as every woman who was on the pill who’s headed in for an abortion knows: sex never really is free of consequences.  As much as our society would like to separate the act from it’s natural result, the two are inseparable.  Even if we’re willing to commit murder after murder to hide the reality that the two go hand in hand, that fact won’t be changed. 

Compounding the disgustingness of Obama’s mandate it the fact that birth control pills are often created to prevent implantation.  Even pills that also attempt to prevent ovulation often have a backup that prevents implantation in the event that ovulation occurs.  The progesterone only, “mini pill,” doesn’t prevent ovulation in about half of women who take it… it only prevents implantation in these women (which would be women taking the mini pill who still have their period)… basically causing an abortion any month that a woman conceives.   

And don’t even get me started on the idea of prescribing a Class 1 Carcinogen (as defined by the World Health Organization) as “preventative care.”  That’s right., birth control pills are classified as a Class 1 Carcinogen.  In other words they’re “known to be carcinogenic” (they cause cancer).  And we’re prescribing them as “preventative care?”  Which is why Susan G. Komen funding Planned Parenthood was so ridiculous (especially since the link between breast cancer and the pill is so firmly established).

In the past week I’ve watched as Bishop after Bishop has stood up and condemned the mandate.  I’ve listened as some have spoken out and said that we will not comply.  And my heart lifts with hope, to hear so many Bishops in our country speaking out against evil.  Yet it’s going to take more than letters and words, and even actions, from our leadership, to stop this mandate from becoming law.  We’re all going to have to step up and decry this violation of liberty, if we’re going to stop it.  Ignoring this evil isn’t going to make it go away.  We have to let Obama know that this is still the land of the free and that we aren’t going to accept his latest overstep. 

The simplest way to end this mandate will be to send Obama packing in November.   I’m ready to hear the words Lame Duck tossed around for a few months. Hopefully many of the Catholics who voted for him last time around will recognize the mistake that his election was and use their vote this time around to amend the problem, rather than extending it for another four years.  Either way, we need to be prepared to stand with our Bishops and resist this evil mandate. 

While Obama is beginning his latest attacks on religious freedom with the Catholic Church, I can guarantee it won’t end with Catholics.  Now is the time to stand together, and let the government know that this is the final overstep and that it won’t be tolerated.  And then let’s enter the voting booth in ten months and let him know we’re ready to take our country back.