PORTLAND - In Portland and across the U.S., Catholic Church leaders are denouncing part of health care reform that may force them to offer health insurance plans which include contraception.
One of the loudest voices of anger comes from the head of the powerful U.S. Conference of Bishops.
“Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience,” said Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Conference of Bishops.
Twenty-eight states, including Oregon, require birth control be offered as part of most health care plans.
But current exemptions to the rule allow the Portland Archdiocese to not offer contraception to 1,700 employees at its churches schools and charities around the region.
Archdiocese Chancellor, Mary Jo Tulley said the new health care plan would end that. Tulley said organizations could only claim an exemption if the institution is Catholic, most employees are Catholic and most of the clients are Catholic.
Tulley points out Catholic Charities does not ask people in need what religion if any they follow. She said at some church high schools as many as half the students are not Catholic.
“The place we are being put in is, either we violate our conscience or we stop offering health care," she said.
Portland Archbishop John Vlazny said “we can not and will not comply with this unjust law”.
Tulley said the church will not budge, that it believes most contraception is a form of abortion. “And so we are absolutely, adamantly under every circumstance against abortion," Tulley said.
The issue is so intense it’s become part of the national debate on health care. With comments from the ACLU:
“People are not being forced to adopt a new set of religious beliefs by this rule. They can practice their religion as they see fit. They can choose not to use birth control,” said Laura Murphy.
Presidential spokesman Jay Carney joined the argument too.
“We are going to work with the institutions that have concerns here. But I think it’s important we note that we believe that American women have access to -- to that kind of insurance coverage regardless of where they work,” said Carney.
But leaders of the Catholic Church believe it’s an issue of religious freedom and are just beginning the fight. “If something is intrinsically evil, we are going to do everything that we can to keep it from happening," Tulley said.
