Notre Dame scholars are speaking out against the contraception coverage mandated under President Obama's health care plan. It was reported last week that all health insurance policies will be required to provide contraception and sterilization without a co-pay to all policy holders in the future, and the conscience clause for religious institutions is now up for debate. “This will likely drive many important Catholic social service providers to close up shop, inevitably harming the poor communities that they serve,” Notre Dame Law School professor O. Carter Snead told the Catholic News Agency.
The debate over coverage for contraception is already lost. Now conscience protection for religious institutions hangs in the balance. CNA reports: "The Obama administration has released an amendment allowing religious institutions the choice of whether to cover contraceptive services. However, the exemption applies only to non-profit religious employers whose purpose is “the inculcation of religious values.” Exempted employers must primarily employ persons who share their religious tenets and must primarily serve those who share those beliefs.
'The so-called ‘exemptions’ are extremely narrow,' Snead said. 'This category does not cover virtually any Catholic institution that serves or employs non-Catholics. Accordingly, Catholic universities, Catholic social service agencies, and even perhaps the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will be required to provide contraceptive coverage (including abortifacients like the recently FDA-approved ‘Ella’),' he explained. Notre Dame Law School professor and associate dean Richard W. Garnett also criticized the exemption. It is not broad enough 'because it excludes those religious institutions, employers, and ministries that are engaged actively in the world, providing care, services, and education to a diverse group of people, besides our fellow Catholics,' he told CNA."
Read the full article here.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Free contraceptives mandated under new health care law
President Obama's Health and Human Services adminstration determined today that all health insurance policies will be required to offer all contraceptive methods, including the aborficant Morning After pill, and sterilization for both men and women, for free, with no copayment under the new health care legislation. The HHS is now considering whether or not there should be a conscience exemption for religious organizations that provide health insurance for their employees and do not want to cover contraception and sterilization.
More chillingly, LifeSiteNews reports that "The same report even suggested that elective abortion could also have been considered a mandatory “preventive service” had it not been for federal law: the authors note that abortion had to be ruled out “despite the health and well-being benefits to some women.” Read the full article here.
More chillingly, LifeSiteNews reports that "The same report even suggested that elective abortion could also have been considered a mandatory “preventive service” had it not been for federal law: the authors note that abortion had to be ruled out “despite the health and well-being benefits to some women.” Read the full article here.
Friday, July 29, 2011
NCR interview with Fr. Bill Miscamble, CSC
In a National Catholic Register article entitled "Saving Notre Dame's Soul," reporter Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Fr. Bill Miscamble, CSC, Notre Dame history professor and member of the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life committee. He speaks frankly and forthrightly on a number of issues related to Notre Dame's identity and future, including the Roxanna Martino affair, whether the University has yet recovered from the Obama commencement, the Notre Dame Fund to Protect Human Life, the future of the leadership of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, and the need for the University's administration to make a more serious effort at institutionally supporting the cause for life.
Some excerpts:
On Notre Dame's pro-life efforts:
"If Notre Dame is truly going to be “unambiguously pro-life,” it needs to pursue a much stronger effort to support and sustain the pro-life cause. It should proudly be an institution dedicated to training a new generation of pro-life leaders. It must give strong institutional support to the efforts of Project Guadalupe. It should assure that her students leave more likely to be pro-life than when they enter, which is not the case presently. The institution should do something more to support pregnant students in need, such as is being done through the Room at the Inn organization associated with Belmont Abbey College. Surely, the university leadership should overcome its timidity and speak up forcefully for life in the public domain."
On Notre Dame's identity and future:
"...Notre Dame is a place that is not clear about its mission and identity. There is a debate here as to whether it will be a Catholic university at its heart or just in a peripheral way. That Notre Dame is not sure what foundational document will guide its present and future is the source of many of our problems."
On the future of the Center's leadership:
"David Solomon had the courage to speak in opposition to Notre Dame’s honoring of President Obama. This stance certainly seems to have led to recriminations against him. Already, one effort was made to oust him from his directorship of the Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC), but this was foiled because of fear of bad publicity for Notre Dame. But the administration seems determined to move him on without any concern for the damage that would do to the important work of the CEC. In doing so, the administration is removing the person whose great pro-life work was recently recognized by the national University Faculty for Life organization with its annual Smith Award. The administration seems to want to neuter the person who has been the leader of our pro-life efforts at Notre Dame. It is little short of a disgrace. We need a firm statement from the administration that David Solomon will continue in his duties until all stages of Project Guadalupe are up and running. Notre Dame should be a place that appreciates and celebrates all that he has done and is doing."
Read the full interview with Fr. Miscamble here, and comment with your thoughts on this post in our comments section.
Some excerpts:
On Notre Dame's pro-life efforts:
"If Notre Dame is truly going to be “unambiguously pro-life,” it needs to pursue a much stronger effort to support and sustain the pro-life cause. It should proudly be an institution dedicated to training a new generation of pro-life leaders. It must give strong institutional support to the efforts of Project Guadalupe. It should assure that her students leave more likely to be pro-life than when they enter, which is not the case presently. The institution should do something more to support pregnant students in need, such as is being done through the Room at the Inn organization associated with Belmont Abbey College. Surely, the university leadership should overcome its timidity and speak up forcefully for life in the public domain."
On Notre Dame's identity and future:
"...Notre Dame is a place that is not clear about its mission and identity. There is a debate here as to whether it will be a Catholic university at its heart or just in a peripheral way. That Notre Dame is not sure what foundational document will guide its present and future is the source of many of our problems."
On the future of the Center's leadership:
"David Solomon had the courage to speak in opposition to Notre Dame’s honoring of President Obama. This stance certainly seems to have led to recriminations against him. Already, one effort was made to oust him from his directorship of the Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC), but this was foiled because of fear of bad publicity for Notre Dame. But the administration seems determined to move him on without any concern for the damage that would do to the important work of the CEC. In doing so, the administration is removing the person whose great pro-life work was recently recognized by the national University Faculty for Life organization with its annual Smith Award. The administration seems to want to neuter the person who has been the leader of our pro-life efforts at Notre Dame. It is little short of a disgrace. We need a firm statement from the administration that David Solomon will continue in his duties until all stages of Project Guadalupe are up and running. Notre Dame should be a place that appreciates and celebrates all that he has done and is doing."
Read the full interview with Fr. Miscamble here, and comment with your thoughts on this post in our comments section.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Visiting the Beach: An Act of Civil Disobedience
The New York Times ran an article today about Israeli women smuggling Palestinians out of the southern part of the West Bank to enjoy a simple day out at the beach- something many Palestinians have never experienced before. Ilana Hammerman, the Israeli woman who instigated this act of civil disobedience, wanted to protest the Law of Entry which restricts Palestinian movement in the Holy Land. Explaining her actions, Ilana Hammerman said simply, "One day in the future, people will ask, like they did of the Germans: ‘Did you know?’ And I will be able to say, ‘I knew. And I acted.’"
Read the full story here.
Read the full story here.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Contraceptives likely to be included in national health coverage
According to the Washington Times, "A nonpartisan Institute of Medicine panel recommended Tuesday that contraception and a handful of other services related to women’s health be considered preventative and must be covered by insurance companies without charging co-payments." Apparently, women's health recommendations were considered too sensitive an issue to be placed in the actual healthcare bill, so now it is at the discretion of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to determine which recommendations will be adopted as part of the law. Because of the bill's ambiguous wording about the power of the secretary, Sebelius is able to force all taxpaying Americans to pay for the contraceptives of others. The conservative Family Research Council said including the morning-after pill in the insurance guidelines “essentially would mandate coverage for abortion.” “If HHS includes these mandates, the conscience rights of millions of Americans will be violated,” Jeanne Monahan, the director of the council's Center for Human Dignity, said in a statement. “HHS should focus on items and services that prevent actual diseases, and not include controversial services just to placate the abortion industry.” Read the full story here.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
New York's redefinition of marriage
Friend of the Center, Prof. Robert George of Princeton, weighs in on the recent redefinition of marriage by the New York state legislature. You can read his interview in the National Review Online here.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Secularism and education
Irish Times columnist John Waters reflects on what teaching religion really does for children, and why the struggle in Ireland over whether to continue religious instruction in its national schools is a struggle over what education is really for. An excerpt:
"Properly understood, religion enables the opening up of the child’s natural understanding of his/her own structure and relationship with the totality of reality. True education involves the proffering of a tradition in its entirety, together with the freedom to interrogate it. Its fundamental objective is not the “inculcation” of anything, still less the indoctrination of values or beliefs. That Irish Catholicism has tended to misunderstand the meaning of the word “freedom” is insufficient reason to replace a stunted form of propaganda with an outrightly sinister one."
Read the full article here.
"Properly understood, religion enables the opening up of the child’s natural understanding of his/her own structure and relationship with the totality of reality. True education involves the proffering of a tradition in its entirety, together with the freedom to interrogate it. Its fundamental objective is not the “inculcation” of anything, still less the indoctrination of values or beliefs. That Irish Catholicism has tended to misunderstand the meaning of the word “freedom” is insufficient reason to replace a stunted form of propaganda with an outrightly sinister one."
Read the full article here.
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