Health care, religious freedom/liberty, and religious employers

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In a religious freedom/liberty conflict between religious
employers, their employees, & students, who wins?

Also the federal Health & Human Services (HHS) mandate
& the Catholic Church's "Fortnight of Freedom" campaign.

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Who wins and who loses in a battle of conflicting religious freedoms and liberties?

For decades, there has been a conflict over the use of contraception medication, devices, and procedures in the U.S. The conflict has been mainly between:

• Religious employers such as religiously affiliated hospitals, educational institutions, and social service agencies, or religiously motivated owners of secular businesses like Hobby Lobby, and
  
  
• Employees of these groups and students at these educational institutions,

over employees' health insurance plans. The sticking point is often whether the plans provide birth control devices and suppliles at no cost to those employees and students who want them. The Roman Catholic Church and some other faith groups teach that the use of contraceptives is intrinsically evil.

It is ironic that one of the main opponents of free birth control is the Roman Catholic Church which also is a main opponent of abortion access. If free contraceptives were provided to all American workers, then the rate of unwanted and unexpected pregnancies would drop to a fraction of its current value. Since on the order of a half of such pregnancies result in abortions, the abortion rate in the U.S. would drop to a fraction of its current value. The rate of abortions -- which the Church equates to murder of human persons -- would be greatly reduced to values found in many western European countries.

Topics covered in this section:

• >>> Introduction to the health care conflict between the federal government's HHS mandate, some religious employers & their employees/students <<<
  

• Who wins and who loses the battle?   Origin of the HHS mandate
  
  
• The HHS regulations.   Some reactions to the regulations
  
  
• The Catholic Church's "Fortnight for Freedom" campaign
  
  
• The "Fortnight for Freedom" campaign (Cont'd), and Conscience clauses
  
  
• Additional reactions to the HHS mandate:
  
  
  • Reactions by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Americans United, Harvard Political Review and Freedom from Religion Foundation
    
    
  • A multi-faith open letter opposing the mandate, titled: "Free Exercise of Religion"
    
    
  • Reactions by Secular Coalition for America, Catholics for Choice, and Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
    
    
  • Reactions by RH Reality Check, the Guttmacher Institute & the Republican Party
    
    
  • Lack of willingness to dialogue on human sexuality. misinformation, disinformation, & other conflicts
    
    
  • More misinformation & disinformation from news sources. Congressional politicians enter fray
    
    
  • Misinformation about emergency contraception. Lawsuits brought mostly by Catholic organizations

How you may have arrived here:

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or Home > Christianity > Christian groups > Sorting groups > Denominations > Catholics > Sex & Catholic church >here

Home > Christianity > Christian history, belief... > Beliefs > Sex > Catholic church > here

or Home > Religious Information > Basic data > Sex > Catholic church > here

Copyright © 2012 & 2013 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance 
Originally written: 2012-JUN-24
Latest update: 2013-MAR-10
Author: B.A. Robinson

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