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PDF versionContraception, the bishops and the HHS
by Maureen Fiedler on Aug. 05, 2011
Recently, as part of the implementation of the new health care reform legislation, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidelines that require insurance companies to offer women a whole range of services without co-payments. (You can hear the voices of women cheering these developments across the country!)
These services include several diverse items like well woman visits, breast feeding support, domestic violence counseling and FDA-approved contraceptive methods and counseling.
The Catholic bishops immediately zeroed in on "contraceptive methods and counseling." They are apparently concerned about including contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies for church employees. Although the policy includes exemptions for religious institutions that have problems with contraception, the bishops apparently don't believe they are adequate.
But I'll bet that most of the women who work in church institutions are thrilled with the new policies. After all, most have been claiming their own form of "religious freedom" (or "right to conscience") on this issue for decades.
In fact, I never cease to be amazed that contraception is even raised by the hierarchy anymore. The "sense of the faithful" has, in real terms, settled this issue for people in the pews for a long time now.
Any examination of polling over the last several decades provides evidence. Whopping percentages of sexually active Catholic women (more than 90 percent) have used some form of contraception banned by the Vatican. In fact, polling over the years shows that Catholic women look like women of most other faith traditions in their use of artificial contraception. Fewer than 2 percent of sexually active Catholic women use Vatican-approved methods as their primary form of family planning.
And of course, many people who are interested in lowering the incidence of abortion often point out that the use of contraception is one effective way to do that.
The bishops would better use their time and resources addressing issues like jobs, poverty, the wealth gap or the Pentagon budget with the same vigor that they approach sexual issues. At least then, they would be in the same ballpark as the laity.
"The bishops would better use
"The bishops would better use their time and resources addressing issues like jobs, poverty, the wealth gap or the Pentagon budget with the same vigor that they approach sexual issues. At least then, they would be in the same ballpark as the laity."
Ballpark? The bishops are not even in the same league, staunchly remaining strictly Bush league.
The issue of contraception is
The issue of contraception is settled: the vast majority of the laity uses it and are not going to change regardless of what the Bishops say. You must remember however, what the Bishops say is really intended for Rome, to earn Brownie points with the Vatican.
This is like the bishops when
This is like the bishops when they fight civil marriage or adoption services for GLBT citizens. It's quite frankly (1) totally a matter of civil law and thus (2) none of their damn business.
As always, if Catholics don't want to follow the law of the land or instruct their employees not to do so, they are absolutely free to finance their religious principles TOTALLY on their own. That would mean, for example, self-insuring their co-religionists. And financing their own hospitals and healthcare facilities without any use of taxpayer monies whatsoever.
I'd also like to see orthodox Catholic institutions proactively display their discriminatory policies for all to see. Something like: WARNING -- You will not receive complete healthcare information in this institution/from the healthcare professionals in this office. You will not receive complete reproductive healthcare unless the drug(s) or procedure(s) are approved by the church. You will not have all end-of-life options available to you in this institution unless these options are approved by the church. Be advised that we are NOT a full-service healthcare facility.
Susan Lersch
susan.lersch@yahoo.com
That's exactly what they're
That's exactly what they're doing. They're stating publicly what they stand for, and what they don't. That's because they have the courage of their convictions. It's also why millions of people in America, Catholic and non-Catholic, seek care at Catholic hospitals. If all you want for your baby is an abortion, you can go anywhere you want. But if you want people who have stood for loving, quality healthcare for centuries, seek out the women and men who work in Catholic hospitals.
You seem to be so obsessed
You seem to be so obsessed with abortion as the only relevant healthcare issue that you miss the point. Complete healthcare services neither begin nor end with the question of an individual's choice of a therapeutic or elective abortion if needed.
My point is: Post a sign regarding healthcare services that are not provided at a particular facility AT THE ENTRANCE TO EVERY HEALTHCARE FACILITY, in big letters, so people will know what's up as they register as patients. Beyond abortion, some of this might also include but are not limited to:
1. We will give no specific information or pharmaceuticals regarding birth control beyond telling you that you should not have sex.
2. We will give no specific information or pharmaceuticals regarding HIV-AIDS prevention beyond telling you that you should not have sex.
3. We will offer no emotional or actual support to GLBT patients and their partners. We will not recognize the rights of gay spouses in healthcare decisions.
4. We will perform no therapeutic abortions, D&Cs or other reproductive healthcare services that might harm the zygote or fetus, even if the mother is in danger of death. We will make all decisions surrounding this.
5. We will regulate your end-of-life issues as we see fit. You will have no say regarding nutrition/hydration or respiratory tubation removal.
I'm asking for honest patient information disclosure if full healthcare services will be denied in Catholic facilities. And the time for a patient to receive this information is proactively at check-in and from the physician who practices (and sends patients) there. It has nothing to do with "loving quality healthcare," which can be procured in many secular facilities. It has to do with telling people the truth about what current Catholic healthcare practice does and does not do.
Susan Lersch
susan.lersch@yahoo.com
Since the beginning, the
Since the beginning, the Church has declared that artificial contraception is an intrinsic evil. It is not a "policy" that gets voted on, nor is it "banned" like a No Smoking section in a restaurant. It is part of Sacred Tradition and the teaching of the magisterium.
God doesn't read the polls, of that I'm sure. The "sense of the faithful" includes those Catholics who have gone before us - the saints in heaven, specifically - and I they are not in accord with the 90%+ American Catholics who laugh at Church doctrine.
I fear for those who take pleasure in disobeying Christ's Church. "Let the children come to me", says our Lord in the Gospels. He wasn't referring only to the ones WE decide are worthy enough to come into being.
Nonsense. Have you ever
Nonsense. Have you ever visited China or Bangladesh? Have you ever seen overpopulation and squalor? God doesn't read the polls? Well, how dare you presume to speak for the Almighty? How dare these petty men in silk and lace presume to speak for the Almighty. They don't. Bishops know nothing about marriage and relationships. Nothing. They should shup up about this and if they are serious about limiting the number of abortions, encourage people to be responsible and limit pregnancies which are not wanted.
Since the begining, blah, blah, blah. The vast majority fo the laity will not listen and will not change their behavior, because they know what they are talking about and the Bishops do not. End of discussion.
The "sensus fidelium" is not
The "sensus fidelium" is not coterminous with public opinion. If it were, then the Church would have no choice but to support war, the death penalty, and a whole hot of ideas you don't agree with. Stop making believe you know what a sensus fidelium is, or claiming to see one only when it suits you.
Although often criticized,
Although often criticized, Elizabeth Kenny (1880-1952), an informally trained Australian nurse, is credited with enabling many victims of polio to regain use of their limbs by "treating the symptoms." Rather that restrict affected limbs with casts and braces, she applied hot compresses and weights and left the limbs free to function.
If the Bishops and the Church see artificial contraception as a moral disease, then treating the symptoms (poverty, domestic abuse, consumerism and secularism, lack of jobs, hunger, homelessness, immoral wars, the death penalty) rather than shouting at the windmills of artificial contraception.
It's even better educational methodology, pedagogy (teaching children) or andragogy (teaching adults) - to go off to the side of a topic that a teacher considers important and essential - and let students make the connections.
The essence of the matter is, our bishops may know "what" to teach but they do not have a clue about "how" to teach. And as I read somewhere, "how you teach is what you teach."
All you Greek scholastic thinkers, ponder that one.
Another issue will be
Another issue will be confidentiality rights for the women to be able to obtain contraceptives without their employer knowing about it. I know of a certain bishop in Madison, WI who has vowed to fire any employee using contraceptives. I believe it is covered under HIPPA, but women should also have legal protection to not lose their job should a HIPPA violation occur.
Thank you for showing the
Thank you for showing the reality of the practice of Catholic women. The HHS regulations do protect "religious employers" from having to include contraceptives in health insurance. But "religious employers" are limited to that group whose primary duty is the "inculcation of religious values", that primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets, and who primarily serves people who share those religious tenets. For the hierarchy, that means the priests, bishops, cardinals, nuns, secretaries and other support staff who work directly for the parish or diocese in "inculcating" the faith, can have insurance that excludes contraceptives. I think the stumbling block for the Church (big "C") is that employees of Catholic affiliated hospitals, schools, or other service organizations will have health insurance that includes contraceptives.
At least, I think that is what the brouhaha is about. Am I misunderstanding?
It appears that the majority
It appears that the majority of Catholics are in full agreement with the Church on social justice issues such as hunger, housing, etc. It is when the Vatican discusses sexual matters that a problem arises. Perhaps it would be advisable for the Vatican to bring in some up to date psychiatrists and psychologists to bring the Vatican out of the 18th century and into the 21st century relative to our new knowledge and understanding of sex and sexual issues, and how our new understanding impacts all interpersonal relations with both the other and our own gender. The Vatican has updated its understanding of civil freedoms, for example, so this wouldn't be something never before tried.
The Vatican doesn't ban
The Vatican doesn't ban contraception. The Catholic Church teaches that contraception is wrong...this does not equal some kind of a ban. I'm sick of reading about this imaginary ban.
The bishops said the Obama
The bishops said the Obama Executive order to ban federal funds for abortion was worthless. Not worthless at all to the many babies that went to term because there was no federal funds for abortion distributed last year. But whose counting the USCCB success stories?
WARNING. Susan, you are so
WARNING.
Susan, you are so correct about the need to have such warnings. They should be required on EVERY PAGE that the patient must sign, in All admittance forms.
People should have a right to know when voodoo is replacing modern medical procedures.
My all time fear about Catholic hospitals is that there still are people in charge who believe that in situations where only the mother or the unborn child can be saved, the child is chosen as the survivor.
How sick is that?
and you wonder why the
and you wonder why the Vatican has little respect. The Vatican has little respect for or understanding of the laity. We are coming either to a watershed in which there will be substantial top down changes in the Church or there will be a continuation of the mass exodus from the Church in Western Civilization. The Vatican exists in a totally different world from the laity, and the laity are leaving.
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