Catholic Bishops, Contraception and the Right: An Unholy Alliance

"The bishops have totally failed to convince their own faithful that birth control is a moral evil and now appear to be trying to get the federal government to do the job for them. "

--Gail Collins

Gail Collins, that peerless columnist for the New York Times has a tough job. She has to spend her days reading the rantings of the Republican right.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Before we get to the really spectacular part, let me point out a little googling reveals nearly 30 states have laws which require institutions run by the Catholic church, hospitals mostly, to provide insurance coverage for contraception when they provide other sorts of health care insurance for their workers, who are, after all, by no stretch all Catholics.

So President Obama has fashioned a compromise to meet the objections of those who say if the Catholics don't want to support contraception, they shouldn't be made to support it. So Obama says, "Well, you don't have to pay for it, but the insurance companies, who make money from the contract you have with them, they have to pay for it." Nifty compromise.

Actually, I worked at a Catholic hospital for 30 years. A Jesuit hospital, it's true, but Catholic. The Jesuits have always been a very open minded order. There were times I was reminded there was a picture of the Pope in the lobby, but for the most part, they did not smack you in the face with the Catholic part. What they wanted to do was provide healthcare, and they weren't going to make you genuflect to get it. If you thought better of them after they had saved your life, well, maybe down the road, you might come to mass.

But the Catholic church I am seeing now I can hardly recognize.

And here's how the Right has reacted:

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) says the President "will use force, coercion and ruinous fines that put faith-based charities, hospitals and schools at risk of closure, harming millions of kids, as well as the poor, sick and disabled that they serve, in order to force obedience to Obama's will."

Oh, that bad Obama, forcing the Catholic Church to bend to his will.
Or, Rick Santorum, decries the White House folks for "trying to impose their values on somebody else." Certainly, something Rick Santorum would never do.
hen there is Paul Rondeau, of the American Life League--don't you love the name?--speaking of President Obama: "This man is totally addicted to abortion and totally addicted to the idea that not only is he the smartest man in the room, he is the smartest in the nation and taxpayers will fund his worldview whether they like it or not."

Oh, yes, the poor right to lifers victimized again by that dictatorial Kenyan socialist who wants to use the world wide conspiracy with its black helicopters to force abortions on the nation's womanhood.

Those Democrats think they are so smart.

But wait, I don't understand. How did we get from contraception to abortion? I would have thought effective contraception would prevent abortion. Isn't abortion what you get when you don't have contraception?

I am obviously not the smartest person in the room.