<p>“So then, it’s your position that employers should be able to pick and choose which employment laws they obey, depending on their claimed religious beliefs?”</p>
<p>Nice try. No, it’s my position that employees who want employer-provided birth control should not accept a position with a Catholic institution that is committed to following Church teachings. It’s actually a pretty simple position. No one is forced to work for a Catholic hospital or university, and those who have issues with Church teachings should seek employment elsewhere.</p>
<p>I see. So employers can pick and choose which employment laws they obey, provided they are religious institutions?</p>
<p>Why would we restrict this to employers, though? Why can’t I claim I have a religious objection to the building code, when I’m building a house?</p>
<p>Immaterial. I can take a proton-pump inhibitor which is to suppress the formation of stomach acid, which is a normal and healthy bodily function, but so what? Let’s face it, claremarie - the bcpill is, from a medical standpoint, simply just another medication. You don’t get to claim special status for it.</p>
<p>“Of course they are not treated by the pill, the entire point is to alleviate the symptoms! Good grief.”</p>
<p>In other words, of course the primary purpose of the pill is to suppress ovulation/prevent pregnancy. Alleviating the symptoms of other hormone-related maladies is an unintended side effect, but not the pill’s primary purpose.</p>
<p>It’s not an unintended side effect when that’s what it was prescribed for. Are you familiar with medication being prescribed off-label? Apparently it’s something you are opposed to.</p>
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<p>I’m waiting for the answer to this as well.</p>
<p>mini,
What I would love to see is massive civil disobedience on the part of affected religious institutions. Just decline to provide the mandated contraception coverage, and decline to pay any fines that HHS dares to assess. Then what happens? You think that the government is going to sell off the assets of Catholic universities and hospitals? Unlikely.</p>
<p>Claremarie, you are ignorant of women’s health. The bcpill has many, many uses beyond that of preventing pregnancy. Too bad you don’t like them. Too, too, bad.</p>
<p>“So employers can pick and choose which employment laws they obey, provided they are religious institutions?”</p>
<p>Let’s put it this way – the administration has acknowledged that churches need not comply with the mandate if compliance would violate their teachings. The government ALREADY exempts religious employers and individuals from all sorts of laws, from school immunization requirements to military dress codes to participation in Social Security and compliance with gender/religious discrimination laws. This is not a new concept, however much it seems to shock the liberal conscience.</p>
<p>Regardless of all the marvelous ways in which some lazy ob-gyns can use birth control pills instead of treating a woman’s actual health problems, the PRIMARY PURPOSE of oral contraceptives remains the suppression of ovulation and the prevention of pregnancy. The vast majority of women who take oral contraceptives are seeking to prevent pregnancy.</p>
<p>If you want to run a business, you must follow the law. Or do you think that business owners who are Seventh Day Adventists should not have to pay for blood transfusions?</p>
<p>I don’t care if the primary purpose of birth control pills is to give someone super-powers, that’s not why I take them and they darn well better be covered without me having to let the Catholic Church into the exam room as well.</p>
<p>“If you want to run a business, you must follow the law.”</p>
<p>Yes and no. If you want to open a Catholic girls’ school with only female teachers, you can refuse to hire male teachers. You can also fire teachers for reasons that would be impermissible in a secular employer, such as failure to comply with Church teachings.</p>
<p>I’m in high school, so sorry for barging in but I just wanted to give a high school/soon to be college student’s opinion. I find it completely ridiculous for Catholic colleges to not prescribe birth control. As it has been brought up earlier, birth control isn’t even always for birth control. I’ve been on birth control for about a year now for the sole purpose of relieving symptoms so painful that I was missing a day of school each month. I think it’s ridiculous that I would have to go off campus to obtain basic healthcare. With regards to its role in pregnancy<em>prevention, if most Catholics aren’t adhering to this rule, who even cares? And honestly, I think most kids that go to BC/Georgetown for the academics, not the Catholic traditions. I don’t think administration (whether it be at a college or Catholic employer) has any right to infringe on a woman’s right to her body. If you don’t like birth control, don’t use it. It’s as simple as that. There’s no need to worry about anyone else. Isn’t that a tenet of Christianity/Catholicism anyway? To be judged only in the eyes of God. Seems to me that the people making decisions here need to let a woman’s decision to use birth control be between her and God only (coming from an atheist lol).</em></p>
<p>Also, someone said something about not working for a Catholic employer if you don’t like it- since when do people always have a choice of where to work? In an economy like this, I’ve seen so many people take whatever job they can find. Hell, my family moved two hours away in the middle of high school for one available job, and I have to work 15 hours a week somewhere I hate because that’s what’s available. I just found that comment to be very sheltered/ignorant. The reality of the working world is that you don’t always have a choice.*</p>
<p>The reality of the adult world is that you have to accept responsibility for the consequences of your choices. If you choose to work for a Catholic institution that follows Church teachings, then the consequence is that your employer will not pay for your contraception. If it is essential that someone else pay for your birth control, then you need to make different choices.</p>