Catholics for Choice says Obama is siding with the Bishops on birth control issue. [View All]

[madfloridian]

This is not about religion. It is about power over women's choices.

Catholics for Choice has had a campaign going to get the president to reject the pressure from the bishops' group and their lobbyists. But they feel he is going to give in to their demands.

David Nolan, a spokesperson for Catholics for Choice, told me today, "Obama's definitely listening to the bishops. The bishops seem to have significant sway over the administration, which can be seen by the fact Archbishop Dolan met with (Obama) last week and came out alleging that he felt much more at ease with what was going on after the meeting. Which seems to suggest that Obama made lots of conciliatory noises to the archbishop." The archbishop, Nolan emphasized, does not represent American Catholics, but rather is "the leader of 271 active bishops, and that's who he represents."

Catholics for Choice has launched a campaign urging its supporters to call the White House and express that "Catholics overwhelmingly reject the bishops’ views on contraception" and that it "is discriminatory to deny these women and men access to this important provision simply because the institution where they work or the school they attend is religiously affiliated." The ACLU has launched a similar campaign, arguing that religious freedom "does not mean that we get to impose those beliefs on others."

Both Sides Expect Obama to Side with Bishops on Contraception Coverage

This is from an article by Sarah Posner, the author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters.

As usual Democrats for Life is pushing the anti-choice message. I would love to find a list of their members, but there is no list at their website.

Here is more from the article.

Democrats for Life, which lost most of the members of its caucus in the Blue Dog wipeout of the 2010 midterms, is out with a statement about the Obama Administration's impending decision on whether to expand the exemption from birth control coverage for employer-sponsored insurance plans. If the Administration does the Bishops' bidding, employers could choose to exclude from insurance coverage the free contraception, mandated by HHS guidelines issued under the Affordable Care Act, based on "religious conscience," even if the employer isn't a church.

DFL executive director Kristen Day issued a statement predicting that the administration would indeed decide to expand the exemption, so that even nominally religious employers could refuse to cover contraceptives. Note the confidence, from her statement: The Administration has no intention of forcing Catholic institutions to provide insurance coverage for services that are directly in opposition to their moral beliefs. It does not make any sense from a public policy perspective and it certainly is not smart politically to alienate Catholic voters.

This is a huge power play that goes beyond religion and into the very lives of women and their choices.

Do you remember the Stupak amendment in 2009? There was a vicious part of this power play showing back then. A website actually posted a Catholic Hall of Shame....and they listed the names of every Catholic who voted against Bart Stupak's amendment to permit no abortion to be paid for under the health care bill.

From page 2 of The 'Catholic Hall of Shame’

Those words of the late Champion of Life, John Paul II, need no further elaboration. The Catholics who failed to support the “Stupak/Pitts Amendment” should be exposed. Such is the case with Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who was recently and rightly corrected by his Bishop and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who has faced a similar response from her own Bishop. The Catholics in the US House of Representatives who voted against the ”Stupak/ Pitts Amendment” which tried to protect the lives of our first neighbors in the womb from being killed with tax dollars under the profane cover of the delivery of “health care” are a veritable unfaithful Catholic Hall of Shame. Here are their names:

Reps. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.); Xavier Becerra (D-Calif,); Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.); Robert Brady (D-Pa.); Michael Capuano (D-Mass); William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.); Gerry Connolly (D-Va.); Joe Courtney (Conn.); Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.); William Delahunt (D-Mass.); Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.); Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.); Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.); Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.); John D. Hall (N.Y.); Phil Hare (D-Ill.); Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.); Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.); Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio); Ann D. Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.); Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio); John Larson (D-Conn.); Manuel Luján (D-N.M.); Edward Markey (D-Mass.); Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.); Betty McCollum (D-Minn.); James McGovern (D-Mass.); George Miller (D-Calif.); Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.); James Moran (D-Va.); Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.); Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.); Frank Pallone (D-N.J.); Bill Pascrell (D-N.J); Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.); Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.); Linda T. Sánchez (D-Calif.); Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.); Jose Serrano (D- N.Y.); Joe Sestak (D-Pa.); Jackie Speier (D- Calif.); Mike Thompson (D-Calif.); Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.); Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.); Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Diane Watson (D-Calif.).

Some of my readers will find the action of listing them and calling them “unfaithful” to be “harsh” or even “uncharitable”. However, I list them to invite our readers to specifically pray for their conversion, their return to the truth.

Not only do I find it "harsh" and "uncharitable", I find it disgusting.

Sarah Posner closes her article by speaking of the very dangerous precedent it will set if Obama caves to the Bishops.

But if Obama does allow them to declare victory, it will set a dangerous precedent for the "religious liberty" claims of certain religious figures to stand in the way of people who do not share their religion, and in this case, even their co-religionists who challenge the leadership's orthodoxy. Like Catholic women over the age of 18 who are just as likely to have used contraception as the general population. All 98% of them.

I am hoping that our president listens to more sensible voices.