Ruth Institute Blog

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (Reuters) – There was ambivalence, and a fair bit of bewilderment, here on the cozy campus of Colorado Christian University when school administrators sued the federal government just before Christmas to block an obscure insurance regulation. Read more…

by Charlie Butts

Arizona is one of several states working to provide conscience protections in light of President Barack Obama’s mandate forcing insurance companies to provide free contraception, regardless of the religious views of the person or institution they sell insurance to. Read more…

by Jennifer Fulwiler

A couple of weeks ago, our priest gave a homily about contraception. While speaking about the Health and Human Services mandate, our associate pastor, Fr. Jonathan Raia, made a few allusions to the fact that the Church believes that contraception is bad. There were over a thousand people packed into the building, and a slight but noticeable tension developed as he inched closer and closer to the subject. This most controversial of Catholic teachings had been splashed all over the news in recent days, ridiculed and denounced throughout popular culture, and the question hung in the air: “Is he going to go there?”

He did. Read more…

by Michael Cook

The White House says 98% of Catholic women have used contraceptives. Its own statistics do not support this.

Politically speaking, President Obama is in a very strong position as he tries to force universal coverage for contraception, including sterilisation and the morning-after pill, upon employers. So why does his Administration have to tell porkies to bolster his case? Read more…

Watch the video.

Women who stand in favor of religious liberty

By Helen M. Alvare & Kim Daniels

Like countless other women, we’ve been closely following the Obama administration’s attempt to compel religious institutions to provide contraceptive coverage in violation of their beliefs. And like countless other women, over the past several days we’ve heard House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others repeatedly ask those who oppose the contraceptive mandate, “Where are the women?”

Here we are. Read more…

By Robert W. Patterson

When Sen. Robert Kennedy campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, the father of 10 (an 11th child was born months after his assassination) provoked howls of laughter among reporters when he made it clear that he would neither welcome nor support a government birth control program. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Business as usual. That’s the message from the World Health Organisation following its experts meeting last month to review the safety of hormonal contraceptives where there is a risk of HIV transmission. Read more…

February 10, 2012

The backlash provoked by the recent announcement of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandating all employers to provide insurance coverage for prescription contraceptives and sterilization is an encouraging sign that our nation’s collective conscience is still around. People of all political and religious persuasions rightly understood this as an attack on our God-given and constitutionally-protected right to religious freedom, and the recent reaction of the Administration gives us hope that this right can still be protected when we join together to voice our common concern. Its willingness to reopen the discussion is a helpful start to reaching a resolution, although the details of any such revision will still have to be studied and evaluated as they are made known. Read more…

from The Heritage Foundation

If it weren’t for Obamacare, we wouldn’t have this problem. By “this problem,” we mean of course the Obamacare regulation that forces health insurance plans to provide coverage, without co-pay, for contraception, sterilization, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs. Read more…

Question:

I’m an 18 year old female college student, and I have just gotten back in touch with Catholicism…

…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting back into my faith, but there is something that REALLY continues to rub me wrong. I’ve prayed and prayed about it, but I am not getting any answer. I’ve researched it, but just hear the same things over and over and it just doesn’t sit right with me, and that is the issue of contraception. I’ve read humanae vitae, I’ve researched “natural family planning”, and it all still leaves me completely unsatisfied still. Read more…

Editor’s Note: Valerie Pokorny is actively involved in marriage preparation programs, natural family planning instruction and chastity education in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. 

By Valerie Pokorny, Special to CNN

(CNN) – In the face of the Health and Human Services mandate to provide contraception coverage, I stand with my fellow Catholics hoping our religious freedom will be respected. Read more…

By Susan Jones and Eric Scheiner

(CNSNews.com) – Would you go to jail–or even close down your hospitals and schools–rather than violate your religious faith, a Republican lawmaker asked religious leaders at a House hearing on Thursday. The answer, given under oath, was unanimous: They will disobey. Read more…

by Dr. Benjamin Wiker for Tothesource.org

The attempt by President Obama to try to force Catholic hospitals and Catholic universities to supply birth control and abortifacients to their employees has caused a great deal of alarm—both on the part of Catholics and Protestants. Read more…

Dear Friends,

The Sisters of Life join with the Catholic Bishops of the United States, and leaders of many other religious communities, in strongly objecting to the Department of Health and Human Services rule for “preventative services,” and the “compromise” announced by President Obama regarding religious liberty.  We invite you to join us in prayer and fasting that our Nation may be protected from this great threat against liberty. Read more…

More from the USCCB Blog….

1. The rule that created the uproar has not changed at all, but was finalized as is. Friday evening, after a day of touting meaningful changes in the mandate, HHS issued a regulation finalizing the rule first issued in August 2011, “without change.” So religious employers dedicated to serving people of other faiths are still not exempt as “religious employers.” Indeed, the rule describes them as “non-exempt.”

2. The rule leaves open the possibility that even exempt “religious employers” will be forced to cover sterilization. In its August 2011 comments, USCCB warned that the narrow “religious employer” exemption appeared to provide no relief from the sterilization mandate—only the contraception mandate—and specifically sought clarification. (We also noted that a sterilization mandate exists in only one state, Vermont.) HHS provided no clarification, so the risk remains under the unchanged final rule.

3. The new “accommodation” is not a current rule, but a promise that comes due beyond the point of public accountability. Also on Friday evening, HHS issued regulations describing the intention to develop more regulations that would apply the same mandate differently to “non-exempt, non-profit religious organizations”—the charities, schools, and hospitals that are still left out of the “religious employer” exemption. These policies will be developed over a one-year delay in enforcement, so if they turn out badly, their impact will not be felt until August 2013, well after the election.

Keep reading.

1. The mandate does not exempt Catholic charities, schools, universities, or hospitals. These institutions are vital to the mission of the Church, but HHS does not deem them “religious employers” worthy of conscience protection, because they do not “serve primarily persons who share the[ir] religious tenets.” HHS denies these organizations religious freedom precisely because their purpose is to serve the common good of society—a purpose that government should encourage, not punish.

2. The mandate forces these institutions and others, against their conscience, to pay for things they consider immoral. Under the mandate, the government forces religious insurers to write policies that violate their beliefs; forces religious employers and schools to sponsor and subsidize coverage that violates their beliefs; and forces religious employees and students to purchase coverage that violates their beliefs.

3. The mandate forces coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices as well as contraception. Though commonly called the “contraceptive mandate,” HHS’s mandate also forces employers to sponsor and subsidize coverage of sterilization. And, by including all drugs approved by the FDA for use as contraceptives, the HHS mandate includes drugs that can induce abortion, such as “Ella,” a close cousin of the abortion pill RU-486.

Keep reading.

No doubt there will be uncharted health consequences for these girls down the road. But as we’re already seeing from abortion-breast cancer link studies, the people in authority don’t care.

by Carolyn Moynihan

It was always obvious to any sane adult that giving contraceptives to teenagers would do next to nothing to stop them getting pregnant. In fact, contraceptive education and supply to schoolgirls has been accompanied for decades by rising numbers of pregnancies in the UK, making Britain, notoriously, the teenage pregnancy capital of Europe. Read more…

by Fred Jackson

It appears President Barack Obama’s attempt to calm the storm over his policy of forcing even religious organizations to pay for contraceptives has failed to work. Read more…