Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments « CBS New York

Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments « CBS New York


The 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." but that is exactly what President Obama did when he signed into law the Health Care Act. As Rep. Pelosi so eloquently stated during the passage of the bill,"we need to pass it to understand whats in it". Perhaps people should have demanded more from our elected officials when debating this bill; makes one wonder what else is in the bill that restricts our freedoms. But I digress.

The Health Care Act is going to require all religious institutions to provide health insurance that includes provisions to pay for birth control pills, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization. Catholics and Imam's are up in arms over this intrusion into their free exercise of their religions. "The Catholic hierarchy seems to be playing a cynical game of chicken and they don’t seem to care that the health and well being of millions of American woman are what’s at stake here,” National Abortion Rights Action League President Andrea Miller said. Sorry Andrea the Catholic hierarchy is not playing chicken; rather they are protecting their rights. If employees of these groups want to obtain insurance with these provisions then they can either find other employment or buy supplements on the secondary market.

Troubling part of this conversation is that far to many will get bogged down into abortion issue and ignore the blatant violation of the 1st Amendment. It is time that we demand more of our government by restricting their powers to the powers explicitly stated in the Constitution and regulate all other powers to the States to decide. Today it's health care tomorrow it will be something else. Since the broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause we have steadily seen State rights and Rights of citizens eroded and Obamacare is just another step in that direction.