Like most Americans, I’m a supporter of the Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees us, especially the freedom to force people to violate their religion. Oh, that’s not constitutional? The Obama administration has apparently missed that memo.
This year, the Supreme Court will be making an important decision about religious liberty. This debate is about provision of – not access to – contraception. Birth control is already cheaply available with or without insurance. The contested Health and Human Services mandate forces groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor to choose between violating their Catholic faith by purchasing insurance plans that fund services to which they are fundamentally opposed or paying devastating fines upwards of millions of dollars.
Justice Sotomayor granted this group a temporary stay against the birth control mandate, but others haven’t been so lucky. Effective Jan. 1, these organizations face crippling fines unless they follow the government instead of their religion. The mandate forces Christian organizations and employers – some Catholic, some from other denominations – to fund services to which they morally object, such as contraception, sterilizations and potentially abortion-causing drugs through their own health insurance plans.
Although the Little Sisters of the Poor have been granted temporary relief from this tyrannical mandate thanks to Justice Sotomayor, the Department of Justice is now claiming that the Little Sisters of the Poor aren’t religious enough to be exempt. That’s right: The Obama administration has decided that Catholic nuns who dedicate their lives to caring for the needy elderly just aren’t religious enough to be exempt from providing “free” contraception and abortion drugs via their insurance plan. Ironically, the contraception and life-ending drugs the government would like the Little Sisters of the Poor to fund directly contradict their mission to respect human life.
The government has allowed churches exemptions from the contraception mandate, but it won’t classify religious organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor as “religious employers,” nor will it classify business owners – like David Green of Hobby Lobby – who live out their faith as such.
It’s utterly insane to claim that contraception funded by faithful Catholics who unequivocally oppose it is some sort of right. It’s not. Freedom of religion is a constitutionally protected right, and no matter how desperately some may claim otherwise, “free” birth control isn’t. Regardless of a person’s career – owning a business or not working for profit – it’s unfair to force him or her to violate his or her religion.
If this mandate is implemented, it will have a profoundly negative impact on the poor and the people who serve them. The Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic charities serve people of all faiths. Heavy fines from the IRS to non-compliant employers and organizations that follow their religion mean that many people will lose access to the assistance that religious groups would otherwise provide to them.
It’s deeply troubling that it’s even necessary for religious employers and organizations to be fighting this battle against the Obama administration. There are many religious beliefs that may seem bizarre to outsiders – the Amish ceasing education after eighth grade and animal sacrifice of those practicing Santeria, for example – but their peculiarity doesn’t make these practices any less constitutionally protected. The government cannot force certain religious beliefs on its citizens, nor can it decide which religious beliefs are acceptable.
Claire Chretien is a junior majoring in American studies. Her column runs biweekly.
