Catholic bishops reject Obama offer on contraceptive coverage

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Catholic bishops reject Obama offer on contraceptive coverage

By David Morgan
WASHINGTON | Thu Feb 7, 2013 7:03pm EST

(Reuters) - U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the Obama Administration's latest bid for compromise over a hotly disputed health policy that requires employees at religiously affiliated institutions to have access to insurance coverage for contraceptives.

Cardinal Timothy Donlan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said his group would redouble efforts to reach an agreement on the contraceptives issue after more than a year of protest and scores of federal lawsuits from Catholics groups and other social conservatives.

But the cardinal, one of the most prominent voices in the American Catholic Church, said new federal rules proposed last week offer only "second-class status" to church-affiliated universities, hospitals and charities by failing to grant them the same full exemption afforded to houses of worship.

"These ministries are integral to our Church and worthy of the same exemption as our Catholic churches," Donlan said in a statement released by the bishops conference.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/08/us-usa-healthcare-bishops-idUSBRE91613820130208

[wryter2000]

1. Why does this not surprise me? n/t

n/t

[Drale]

2. Well he tried

Nows the time to give them the finger and tell them to fuck off

[okwmember]

7. +1

I have a very good friend with Turner's syndrome who has the misfortune of being a nurse at a Catholic hospital. Needless to say she's always had to pay for her birth control pills out of pocket.

[rug]

3. A critique:

“Throughout the past year,” Cardinal Dolan writes in the concluding paragraph, “we have been assured by the administration that we will not have to refer, pay for, or negotiate for the mandated coverage. We remain eager for the Administration to fulfill that pledge.” As the bishops continue to study HHS’s new proposals, I hope they come to realize that the Obama administration has done just that.

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=23108

[HockeyMom]

4. They want all private, for profit, businesses

to be able to refuse on "conscience". I wonder what the religion/conscience of the corporation person is?

[defacto7]

5. What they want is clear....

They don't give a rat's ass for freedom to choose anything or not....

They want ALL people to live to THEIR standards of religious dogma. Period.

If their political positions were given to them on a golden platter, they would still turn it down because they want what they want. It's an absolutist religious thing.

[Dawson Leery]

6. We will not be subverted by Rome.

[cbayer]

8. Shocked, lol!

I guess they are intent on spending a lot of money on lawyers. I hope the Obama administration stands its ground at this point.