Missouri Man Is First Private Business Owner to Sue HHS Over Contraception Mandate

[caseymoz]

39. I argue with my Dad about this.

He's stringently Catholic. I try to tell him that prohibiting employees, or anyone, from dealing with the insurance company directly (even under government regulation) to voluntarily buy contraception, or not, is in no way an act of religious liberty. Not even Scalia can warp that out, and he's already ruled about this on a related case.

I also try to tell him that not even Catholics are going to support their bishops on this, and vote against Obama because of it, but my Dad only talks to Catholics aged 70 and older, and to him it looks like there's overwhelming support.

I don't think he or the bishops have realized the change in this culture. Teen pregnancies have come way down for the first time in living memory, and it looks like its because teens are using contraception. If teens have gotten the message on contraception and reproductive rights, despite all the "abstinence-only" teachings, it means that young and middle age adults must have as well. This is all because of the Internet, that the information is out there despite conservative religious efforts to suppress it. This whole change has happened withing the last decade.

This is the reason why Limbaugh's attacks on Sandra Fluke caused him so much trouble. More women, including so-called conservatives, are using contraception. In the 90s, he might have gotten away with it.

Meanwhile, the Catholic church has been terribly damaged by the child abuse scandals. The mind-bending complaint that gay marriage is an attack on its religious freedom undermines it even more. Now, it says the same thing with this contraception issue, and the bishops sound positively whiny. And this is true of the other sects and people who feel their religious liberty is being impinged.

This is nothing compared to countries and times where you couldn't have Catholic Church's in the open, where priests could not appear as such in public, where Catholics faced physical persecution and jail and for worshiping. All of this still applies to some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The claim of it here is just laughable.

But, I think four or five members of the Supreme Court are Catholic, including Scalia, so there's reason to worry anyway.