{"id":26151,"date":"2012-02-07T07:14:33","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T14:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/07\/the-contraception-rule-is-the-biggest-non-issue-of-all-time.html"},"modified":"2012-02-08T11:03:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T18:03:36","slug":"the-contraception-rule-is-the-biggest-non-issue-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/07\/the-contraception-rule-is-the-biggest-non-issue-of-all-time.html","title":{"rendered":"The contraception rule is the biggest non-issue of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which is, of course, why it's getting such dramatic play on the Right, as part of some mythical "War on Religion."<\/p>\n

So, just to set things straight:<\/p>\n

First and foremost, under the regulation, churches and religious institutions that employ primarily people of a single religion are exempt from this requirement. Your local Catholic Church won't have to pay for their secretary's hypothetical contraception prescription. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, religiously-affiliated or owned companies and institutions that employ people of a variety of faiths (i.e., that are subject to laws that forbid religious discrimination in hiring) are not exempt. While some folks are claiming this is religious bias itself, it's actually the opposite<\/i> … because it means that the employer's religious beliefs aren't imposed upon their employees.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

To me, this is incredibly important. If I'm a Lutheran, or an Episcopalian, or a Jew, or a Muslim, or not anything in particular, why should my employer get to decide, based on their<\/i> religion, what my<\/i> insurance should cover?<\/p>\n

(We'll leave aside the question of how many US Catholics — surveys indicate the vast majority — actually use contraception. The objections here are not coming so much from rank and file as from church leaders and the pundits who love them.)<\/p>\n

If I am working at a Catholic University, I can't be required to be a Catholic as part of my hiring, and I can't be required to attend Mass. My employer cannot dictate, regardless of their institutional faith, my conscience. Why should they get to dictate, based on their institutional faith, what my insurance covers? Why is that<\/i> not considered a war on my<\/i> religion? #ddtb<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKathleen Sebelius: Contraception rule respects religion<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe secretary of Health and Human Services writes that the exemption balances beliefs and women's access to preventive health services.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which is, of course, why it's getting such dramatic play on the Right, as part of some mythical "War on Religion." So, just to set things straight: First and foremost, under the regulation, churches and religious institutions that employ primarily people of a single religion are exempt from this requirement. Your local Catholic Church won't … Continue reading “The contraception rule is the biggest non-issue of all time”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109,134],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-26151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","category-health-care","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25614,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/20\/near-universal-contraception-coverage-its-a-good-thing.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":0},"title":"Near-Universal Contraception Coverage – It's a Good Thing","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Jan-12 10:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Obama Administration has, surprisingly, not backed down to a looser requirement, and will mandate most employers cover contraception in their health plans, with no co-pay\/deductible. There will still be an religious dissent exemption for actual churches and religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of a given faith,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26260,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/10\/compromise-cave-let-on-contraception-coverage.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":1},"title":"Compromise Cave-let on Contraception Coverage","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Feb-12 4:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The White House announced it would extend the contraception coverage exemption to religiously-affiliated institutions (like some hospitals and universities), as the US Catholic Bishops have been demanding.On the other hand, supposedly in such cases the insurance companies will be required to offer such free coverage directly to the employees, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25987,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/02\/not-that-i-expect-this-to-make-any-difference.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":2},"title":"Not that I expect this to make any difference","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Feb-12 6:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The official White House page explaining what exactly the contraception coverage mandate (and religious exemptions thereto) mean. The idea that this is somehow a \"War on Religion\" would be laughable, were it not so outrageous. #ddtb Embedded Link Health Reform, Preventive Services, and Religious Institutions | The White House Beginning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26410,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/15\/no-retreat-no-surrender-on-contraception.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":3},"title":"No retreat, no surrender (on contraception)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Feb-12 5:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"So, let's see if I have this straight:1. Consider a company owned by the Catholic Church. It might be a college, or a hospital, or whatever. It employs folks from a variety of backgrounds and faiths.2. The current mandate for minimal insurance plans from insurers, per the federal government, includes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28740,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/02\/mike-kelly-is-a-dolt-religious-freedom-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":4},"title":"Mike Kelly is a Dolt (Religious Freedom Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Aug-12 1:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, this is hard, Mike (R-Penn.), because most of your blather below is fact-free posturing. \u00a0But let's look at your fabulous press release of yesterday. Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013Representative Mike Kelly led a GOP Freshman Class press conference today marking day one of the controversial HHS mandate, which will require all non-exempt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/iwo-jima.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26440,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/this-looks-like-mens-work.html","url_meta":{"origin":26151,"position":5},"title":"This looks like men's work!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Feb-12 10:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"So Darrell Issa is holding a big, important, flashy, politically charged meeting about the Adminstration's contraception mandate and the question of how it may affect religious freedom.And the witnesses testifying? All men. Because, according to Issa, it's not actually about contraception and women's health, but about religious freedom. And, big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}