Religious Freedom and Obamacare

Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced in a letter a week ago Friday she had decided reproductive drugs and services including sterilization, birth control drugs, and the abortifacient "morning after pill" are preventive services and, as provided under Obamacare, must be covered under most health insurance policies with no deductible or co-pay. Churches are exempt. Most church affiliated institutions including hospitals and schools have one year to comply.

Traditional media outlets seem to have pretty much missed it. I googled the news for Sebelius and found very little. The Washington Post ran an editorial calling the decision wrong. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York had a scathing op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. No other big city newspaper and none of the TV news outlets mentioned the letter.

Archbishop Dolan felt betrayed. He thought he had President Obama's word that Catholic conscience would be respected. It was not. Catholic Health Association, the major organization representing Catholic hospitals can't feel any better. They supported obamacare thinking existing law would prevent public funding of abortions in the absence of specific language in the new legislation. It has not.

In the Diocese of Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell had his own letter read at every Mass this weekend denouncing the policy as an unconstitutional affront to religious freedom, vowing not to follow it, and calling on Catholics to appeal to their legislators to have it overturned. I suspect something similar is happening in every diocese across the country.

The bishops are right to be concerned. So should anyone who values religious freedom. Catholics and others are being told they must pay for things they consider morally wrong. Even if you disagree with church doctrine on birth control, as many Catholics do, surely religious organizations have a right to follow their own consciences. The bishops are also right to go directly to Catholics. Else the studied silence from the media might effectively shield politicians from repercussions. Several people I spoke with after Mass this morning hadn't heard about the policy.

This was actually the second big event in two days essentially ignored by the pro-abortion media. Massive pro-life rallies on Saturday marking the anniversary of Roe v Wade also went largely unreported. There were tens of thousands of marchers in Washington DC; no mention in the New York Times, not a word.

There could be a silver lining in this. More and more young people are describing themselves as pro-life. They have become a very visible presence at rallies. That sort of activism probably won't translate to a massive rejection of contraceptives but a bone headed move like the Sebelius letter sometimes gets people's attention. Young people especially are sensitive to rights violations, even when it isn't their own rights being violated.

I expect the story to have legs. The rule will certainly be challenged in the courts. I will be surprised if it isn't over turned, one more tear in the increasingly shabby fabric of obamacare. After all, it does look like a pretty clear violation of the first amendment. The process will keep the story alive on the blogosphere regardless of what the traditional media do. We could see new energy in the whole debate; from the pro-life community,. from Catholics and other religious who may not normally be active on social issues, and from tea party conservatives who just don't like obamacare. Stay tuned.