Obama on the Wrong Side of the Constitution with Obamacare

On Friday, January 20, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced that in accord with Obamacare, religious non-profits will have to cover sterilization and contraceptive services, including some abortion-inducing drugs.

Despite previous promises that the administration and Obamacare would respect issues of conscience and the free practice of religion, the administration has done a complete reversal. On Friday, when Sebelius, a Catholic, announced that all religious, nonprofit entities such as schools, colleges, and universities must provide health insurance to their employees that includes contraceptives, sterilization, abortive agents, and abortions, a backlash hit the media from both expected and some very unexpected places.

Not only does Obamacare have the controversial individual mandate, requiring everyone to purchase health insurance, but it directs insurers to provide a particular menu of coverage which does not take into account religious considerations. The requirement includes coverage for contraceptives, sterilization, abortive agents, and abortions, all of which are objectionable to many religious people, particularly Catholics.

Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, responded to the Obama administration’s edict by saying, “Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. “This shouldn’t happen in the land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights.”

The editorial board of the Washington Post added its support to the archbishop by saying that “requiring a religiously affiliated employer to spend its own money in a way that violates its religious principles does not make an adequate accommodation for those deeply held views.”

Michael Sean Winters at the liberal National Catholic Reporter also criticized the Obama edict. He even said, Obama “lost my vote” as a result of this decision. Some prominent priests and nuns who initially supported Obamacare have also expressed their opposition to this ruling.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue has also criticized the policy saying that conscience clauses have not been protected and promises have been broken. “The Obama administration made a fatal flaw when it assumed that most people are not going to get worked up about healthcare plans that carry contraceptive coverage. If the plans were voluntarily adopted, the administration would be right. But the difference in this instance is that this service is being mandated by the federal government, allowing no exceptions for those who in good conscience cannot go along; the inclusion of abortifacients in the policy only deepens the problem.”

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