The Contraception Wars 

 

by Victoria A. Brownworth

The fight is heating up between President Obama and America’s Catholic bishops. At issue: Whether employers in Catholic institutions other than churches should be required to pay for contraception as part of health insurance for female employees.

In January, President Obama announced that health insurance plans must cover contraceptives for women free of charge. The 2010 Health Care Reform Act requires coverage of all contraception approved by the FDA, including emergency contraceptives like Plan B. The rule also requires coverage of sterilization procedures for women without co-payments or deductibles. Different elements of the HCRA take effect at different times. This takes effect as of January 2012.

But despite the two-year old law, after letters were read at Mass in Catholic Churches across the U.S. two weeks ago (one in four Americans is Catholic and contraception is against Papal doctrine), and the Bishops drafted a letter to the President, things changed.

As has been the case with nearly every vital issue President Obama has said he’s firm on, he backtracked, caving to the pressures from the Catholic Church hierarchy.

While the President refused a request from the Catholic Church for an exemption for insurance provided to employees of Catholic hospitals, colleges and charities, the President has granted church-affiliated organizations another year–until Aug. 1, 2013–to comply. He also said that Catholic organizations could have health providers pay for the contraceptives without the organizations themselves having to pay.

If it sounds convoluted, it is.

The argument being made by the Catholic hierarchy, conservatives and other fundamentalist religious groups who oppose the use of contraception, is that this is government-enforced violation of religious precepts. And since President Obama has refused to stand firm on the law as it was drafted two years ago, they think they can make him back down completely.

Obama was wrong to compromise on this issue, since it’s a law, not just some hand-shaking agreement. It doesn’t matter what the Catholic bishops demand. America is not a theocracy. Mullahs, imams, Catholic bishops, Orthodox rabbis and the like do not dictate to or from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The disingenuousness of the Church–my Church, I add for the record–is manifold. Where is the bishops’ moral outrage over the billions being used for war and torture by this administration? Where was the bishops’ moral outrage when the President cut heating grants to the poor by $2 billion? Where was the bishops’ moral outrage when Obama wanted to expand the death penalty to include child abusers and not just murderers? Where was the bishops’ moral outrage when Obama gave himself power to assassinate American citizens, as he did with Anwar al-Awlaki?

The double standard expressed by the Catholic Church hierarchy would be laughable irony if it weren’t so terrible. Close to 90 percent of American Catholics acknowledge using birth control and the fact that Catholic households with eight, ten and more kids no longer exist as they did when I was in Catholic school underscores that reality. It’s not that the Rhythm Method got more accurate.

In a poll taken on Valentine’s Day, 61 percent of Americans agreed with the health care provision, as did 61 percent of Catholics.

The reason contraception was made an issue of health care reform was to make it affordable for women. Contraception falls under the category of “preventive” health care. An abortion in a hospital or surgi-center costs at least $1,500, usually more, and no one is happy about abortion, not women who have decided it is their only option nor abortion providers themselves. Having a baby in a hospital costs close to $10,000.

Pregnancy is expensive. Contraception–much less so. The idea was to both lower the abortion rate, which should make everyone happy, and also lower health care costs.

That’s not how the Church and the Republicans see it. And since, as is so often the case, the President both failed to explain why it was necessary and also failed to stand his ground, the line between Church and State here is very blurry.

Before this aspect of health care reform was ever even instituted, 28 states already required it. So why the outrage? Was there non-stop protests from bishops directed at  health insurers and businesses in those states prior to the new law?

No, there wasn’t.

Contraception is the best, safest and easiest way to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In addition, nearly 40 percent of birth control pills are being taken by women who are in menopause or women who are trying to control health issues like PMS, PMPD, endometriosis and other gynecological problems.

Also, not everyone working at Catholic-run institutions is Catholic. Three of Philadelphia’s major Catholic universities – Villanova, St. Joseph’s and LaSalle – employ a very diverse staff.

Is this controversy about so-called government intrusion or is this about controlling women’s lives–which is about as intrusive as government can get? If morality and conscience are the issue, then be consistent–protest all violations of Church tenets, not just those that penalize women for controlling their own bodies. That’s what priests and nuns did during the Vietnam War and the rise in American militarization. Conscience seems a very selective element of the Catholic Church in the 21st century. Just ask any victim of the sex abuse scandal.

Health insurance should cover all matters related to health. Men don’t get pregnant, don’t go into menopause, don’t get gynecological complaints that might demand birth control pills. If men are raped or the victims of sexual abuse, they do not get pregnant.

The reality is, the U.S. is the only Western nation that doesn’t have universal health care. And as a consequence, one in six Americans has no health insurance. The costs accruing the State as a result of these people only accessing health care in catastrophic circumstances are much costlier than if we covered everyone for everything.

In a democracy, we separate Church and State–that means freedom of religion and freedom from religion. The Church itself is exempt in this ruling. But other institutions are not.

The Church gets a tax-exempt status. That’s blurry enough of a line between Church and State for me. Many Catholic institutions get federal funding. You can’t have it both ways–taking tax-exemptions and federal monies, but then howling about contraception being paid for by health insurance plans for employees. If you don’t want to use contraception, no one is forcing you to do so. But neither should you have the power to stop someone else from using it.

The Church has many important issues upon which to take a stand, like the ongoing pedophile priest scandal here and elsewhere. It’s time for the Church to fixate on something it can and should change, rather than on trying to blur the line between Church and State until we look more like the theocracies of Iran or Afghanistan than like the democracy we were meant to be.

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