The Catholic Church and Contraception

The Catholic Church and Contraception

The leadership of the Catholic Church has expressed outrage over what they see as the Obama administration’s war on freedom of religion. They are referring to Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires health care providers to offer free contraception as part of the preventative health care provision for women. Because the church believes that contraception is a sin, they argue that the government has no right to require it to provide contraception. The Obama administration backed down on the mandate by requiring that the insurance companies provide the contraception rather than Catholic employers. This did not placate the Catholic leadership.And, of course, it provided the Republican right wing with another propaganda bonanza. The outrage and indignity it expressed on every media outlet was almost ear-deafening. It was Obama the enemy of Christianity, suppressor of religious freedom, and the president who wants to remove Christ from everything society needs for salvation.

It is a deceptive and self serving reverse hypocrisy on the part of the Catholic leadership, supported by the Republican right, that misrepresents the true reality of the church’s agenda. It is not an issue of the government dictating what the church can and cannot do. That is protected by the Constitution and Obama quickly recognized that. The real issue and true agenda of the church is to prohibit women from using contraception all together. Even though over 90 percent of Catholic women have used contraception and most continue to practice it, the real intention of the church is to simply outlaw it for all of them. No choice, no exceptions, just obedience to the church hierarchy in fear of going to hell. And what punishment could be worse than going to hell? As far as the Republican right is concerned, it is a ticket to insure Obama’s political doom.