I opened my mail and found a review copy of The Broken Path: How Catholic Bishops Got Lost in the Weeds of American Politics by Judie Brown. I decided I was probably too busy to even read it. Three chapters into it, I felt I had no choice but to write a review. When I […]
On Friday, a federal judge in Colorado granted a preliminary injunction barring the HHS mandate from taking effect against a small, family-run business that holds strong beliefs that abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization violate their religious faith. The Newland family owns and operates Hercules Industries, a private, for-profit HVAC equipment manufacturer. Their 265 full-time employees […]
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today announced it has filed an emergency motion asking that Federal District Judge Robert H. Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan stop the HHS Mandate which goes into effect on August 1, 2012. The motion was filed late […]
In December 1828, South Carolina had 5,000 copies of John C. Calhoun’s “Exposition and Protest” printed and distributed throughout the state. A defiant document, Calhoun’s “Exposition” outlined a theory of constitutional interpretation first adumbrated in the infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which asseverated the right of states to declare “null and void” acts of the […]
The Fortnight for Freedom may be over but we must continue to stand against the Health and Human Services Mandate to force Catholics to pay for contraception and abortion. There are many reasons to oppose this. It makes a mockery of the First Amendment. It pushes on an unsuspecting public birth control pills which many […]
It’s often said, “Be careful what you wish for – you just might get it.” Democrats got it all right. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts – once counted among the constitutional originalists on the high court – has granted President Obama’s supreme wish. By inexplicably siding with the court’s left wing and upholding […]
Today the United States Supreme Court issued a decision upholding as a tax the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires individuals to purchase a health plan—the so-called “individual mandate.” For nearly a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have been and continue to be consistent advocates for comprehensive health care […]
Kathleen Gilbert contributed to this breaking story. The Supreme Court has ruled the insurance requirement embedded in President Obama’s federal health care law is constitutional in a 5-4 decision Thursday morning. The High Court’s swing vote came from Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. He joined the court’s liberal […]
On the eve of the Fortnight for Freedom, there are those within the Catholic Church who are denying that the two-week observance has anything to do with the Church’s teaching on contraception and everything to do with upholding the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religious expression. That’s a false dichotomy and misattribution of the […]
When the Obama administration made the decision not to exempt Catholic hospitals and universities from the mandate to provide insured employees with contraceptives, morning after pills, and sterilization without a co-pay, one of those consulted was Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. PP obviously has a special interest in having contraception covered, since dispensing contraception […]
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is fighting for the mandate in Obamacare designed force all health care plans to provide free (that is without a co-pay) contraception, morning after pills, and sterilization. She insists that this is a battle for women’s health. Those who see this as a question of religious freedom have let this claim pass […]
“Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts […]
It may have been too much to hope that the recent Health and Human Services mandate requiring the provision of contraceptives and other immoral “medical care” could have alerted people to the dangers and errors of a political system built on a classical liberal understanding of freedom as opposed to one built on a Catholic, […]
Recently, as I was nursing my three-month-old son, I came across another writer taking yet another swipe at the Church and its position on the HHS health care mandate business. Just the week before, I also had seen an image, courtesy Planned Parenthood, which pictured five religious leaders, all men, as they testified before Congress […]
The response to the HHS mandate concerning insurance and contraception has been shocking to many, as they realize that there is a yawning rift in the American population between those who understand the Constitution and those who don’t, and between those who consider sexual morality an important element of our cultural fabric and those who […]
The Obama Administration has taken another step in what amounts to a four-year plan to make abortion-covering health insurance, subsidized by the federal government, commonly available in the United States. The latest action came on March 12, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a lengthy regulation that spells out how some […]
Yesterday at a Congressional hearing, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made two outrageous claims: From CNSNews.com During the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said that contraception provided by insurance companies to people employed by religious organizations under the future form of the rule Sebelius described would not be was not free. “Who pays for it? […]
Recently, the Obama administration declared that all employers, including Catholic institutions, will be required to offer free insurance coverage for birth control to their employees. In the weeks since the declaration, the controversy that it stirred up caused the administration to revise its decision, putting in place “accommodations” by which it hopes to quell the […]
By now, most Catholics are aware of the impending HHS mandate the Obama Administration will be imposing upon faith-based organizations, requiring them to pay — through insurance companies — for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. If they choose to not pay, a fine will be imposed per employee, which could cost institutions like the Catholic Church millions […]
No attempt to defend the constitutionality of the mandate On Thursday, the Obama administration filed its first legal response to Belmont Abbey College’s lawsuit challenging the controversial contraception mandate. This was its first opportunity to explain to the court and the country why the mandate is not illegal and unconstitutional. So what did the administration […]
A fascinating theory has been advanced by Dick Morris, which, in turn, is being considered by Rush Limbaugh and other leading conservatives. Morris speculates that the Obama HHS mandate on contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients is a fight with the Catholic Church that Team Obama wants — and with the focus based narrowly on contraception, not […]
Obama and Sebelius sittin’ in a tree K-i-s-s-i-n-g First comes sex without marriages Then come empty baby carriages The teasing little rhyming ditty familiar to children for generations, of which the above is a parody, bespeaks that even children know something very fundamental about the natural and right order of things – that first comes […]
When asked to comment on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ rejection of the so-called HHS “accommodation,” White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, said, “I would simply note with regard to the bishops that they never supported healthcare reform to begin with.” Apparently, either Mr. Carney’s memory is failing or his trousers are ablaze. […]
The American bishops have, with alacrity, rejected President Obama’s proposed “accommodation” on the contraception mandate in no uncertain terms. Their response came before the sun had set on the very day of his announcement. Noting that the “proposal continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of […]
