Are There Any Winners?

The Affordable Health Care Act is once more the center of controversy. The rule that requires all employers, including hospitals and universities owned by the Catholic Church, to provide a health insurance policy that includes coverage for contraception and birth control is being attacked on the grounds of religious freedom. This issue involves a broad interpretation of religious freedom versus a more measured interpretation of that right. I do not think anyone can seriously argue that freedom of religion is absolute. For instance, this country outlawed polygamy even though it was a part of the Mormon faith. Furthermore, although a church that thinks a woman’s place is in the home can discriminate against women in their church, they cannot violate the law by discriminating against women in a more secular setting such as a hospital or university that church owns and operates. What the Catholic Church wants is an exemption from having to provide insurance that covers contraception and birth control. The Church argues that the exemption should be granted on the grounds that the Catholic Church opposes all contraception and birth control as a matter of conscience. I do not agree with the Catholic Church on this issue, but I must concede that I understand its objection to a requirement that forces it to violate its own doctrine. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this problem, and both sides have a lot to lose.

Any controversy over contraception and birth control is particularly problematic for the Catholic Church because the vast majority of American Catholics use contraceptives and/or other forms of birth control. In a recent poll fifty-three percent of the Catholics asked said they even agree with the government on this issue of insurance coverage. Fifty three percent, however, still leaves a lot of people who disagree with the position the Obama administration has taken. This is understandable. Catholics are very aware of the history of prejudice against them and their church in this country. Like most people who have faced prejudice and discrimination, Catholics are sensitive to anything that might make them think that they or their church are being treated unfairly. This is probably why President Obama has softened his position on this issue. He is now trying to address the objections of the Catholic Church by requiring insurance companies to cover contraception and birth control at no cost to Catholic hospitals and universities.

As difficult as this dispute is for the Catholic Church and the Obama administration the Republican Party will probably suffer the most damage from it. This is because the Republicans have shown a callous disregard for the health and rights of women. The Republican controlled House of Representatives withdrew the government funding of Planned Parenthood on the grounds that Planned Parenthood provides abortions. The Republicans did this even though Planned Parenthood provides cancer screening and contraceptives and does not use any government funds to provide abortions. On the state level what the Republicans have been doing is just as bad. Not being content with violating Roe v. Wade by making abortions unavailable in their states, radical Republican governors and legislators have also been attacking many forms of birth control and the Planned Parenthood organization. That right wing Republicans would go this far is no surprise. What is a surprise is that women have not mounted an organized defense of their health care and their reproductive rights. For several years now I have been asking what it was going to take before women started fighting back. What it has taken is an incredibly stupid and political act by the Susan Komen Foundation. The Komen foundation used a bogus investigation of Planned Parenthood being conducted by a radical Republican congressman as a pretext for withdrawing its funding of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening program. This time women quickly and effectively responded to the threat, and the Komen Foundation was forced to reinstate the funding.

The way in which women responded to the threat of the Komen Foundation should have put the Republicans on notice; it should have told the Republicans that women have had enough and they are ready to a fight. The Republican Presidential candidates, however, are still trying to win the primaries and they are still pandering to the religious right wing of their party. All of those candidates jumped into the argument between the Catholic Church and the Obama Administration. By accusing President Obama of violating the First Amendment right of freedom of religion those candidates have simply reminded women that the Republican Party is trying to deprive women of their reproductive rights and the health care so many women cannot obtain without affordable insurance coverage or the help of organizations such as Planned Parenthood.

The best thing the Republicans could have done would have been to let the controversy over the Affordable Health Care Act speak for itself, but this is something they did not feel they could do. The Republican Party is in a bit of a quandary. As it now stands, Republicans do not have a viable economic argument. The economy is improving in spite of all their obstructionist tactics, and the tax breaks for the rich that the Republicans are advocating are unpopular because of the great disparity in the distribution of the wealth of this nation and because those tax breaks would come at the expense of Medicaid, Medicare, and probably Social Security. This leaves the Republicans scrambling for some other issue to use against President Obama in the upcoming election. I am sure the Republicans are hoping they can pick up some Catholic voters by painting Mr. Obama as being anti-religious. I do not think this will work. In all likelihood, President Obama’s reasonable efforts to resolve the issue between church and state will satisfy the Catholics who are already Democrats. What the Republicans are doing by trampling on women’s rights and health care, on the other hand, is going to alienate most of the women in the cities and suburbs regardless of the religious affiliations of those women. Ironically, this controversy will also make many people aware of some of the benefits of the Affordable Health Care Act, and that awareness will probably make those people view the act more favorably.

I have just finished reading a news story that said American Bishops have rejected President Obama’s compromise. It would be foolish of me to offer spiritual advice to Catholics on this issue. What I offer instead is my hope. I hope Catholics will not see this dispute as an attack on their church, that they will understand that the intent is simply to make contraceptives and birth control available to all women who desire them, and that Catholics will not abandon their church or the Democratic Party over this issue. I think most people realize that everybody will be worse off if the Catholic Church or the Democratic Party are damaged because of this, and I have enough faith in my fellow Americans to believe they will not let either of those things happen.