Whose Rights Matter? Catholics & Contraception

Several recent Facebook posts cited ‘tyranny’ of the US Government, referring to the mandate that contraception be covered by all insurance in the health reform bill, with no exemptions.  Catholics would like an exemption, not for themselves per se, but for the ‘employer’ that is the Catholic Church. Any tithe money paying for the vast ministries of the Catholic Church will also have to fund insurance, and hence birth control, of any employee against Catholic doctrine. 

I understand this argument of ‘boycott’.  Last year I gave up eating meat because I didn’t want my money funding abhorrent practices of the meat industry that disrespect life. I imagine it’s the same for a Catholic who believes life begins – the soul is born – at the moment of conception.  For a Catholic, ingesting a pill that disposes of an egg – fertilized or not – is the same as the surgery removing a fetus.  As a woman using birth control, I don’t agree, and find these arguments two wholly different things.  But I strive to respect others’ beliefs when they do no harm.

Which puts me in a quandary, because as a health care supporter and as a woman, I absolutely demand insurance cover prescription contraception.  The supportive arguments are broad. Economic; contraception costs much less than raising a ‘surprise’.  The law of lesser evils; give women birth control easily and cheaply and there will be less abortions. Medical; some woman are prescribed birth control to regulate bleeding from non-malignant tumors. There’s also personal; given that we take faith in this country to be a largely personal thing, carried out under one’s own conscience, then shouldn’t it be a Catholic’s responsibility to abstain from birth control as their own decision and leave federal policy out of it?  That brings us back to the ‘funding’ issue.  Is a Catholic  complicit in using contraception when their tithing pays for it?

Pathway to potential compromise is very narrow for HHS and the Church.  There is precedent in conscientious objection to military taxes; some pacifists keep laborious records required to file the conscientious objector status to the IRS. In that situation, the government tries to accomplish ‘tyranny by bureaucracy’, otherwise known as ‘kill them with paperwork’. 

But there’s another actor in this scenario whose rights might be violated, going against the idea of ‘doing no harm’.  What of employees of the Catholic Church who are not Catholic?  (This is not to mention Catholics who don’t uphold this particular tenet; that’s more of an internal discussion for members of the faith).  If the Catholic Church receives a religious exemption, thereby forcing all employees to forego contraceptive coverage or pay themselves, that could constitute undue hardship on low-wage workers. With coverage, my prescription costs me $30/month.  Without coverage, it could be $250 a month.  For someone on the cleaning staff making minimum wage, the $8.25 wage would be $1350 per month before taxes.  The prescription constitutes one-fifth of her monthly income.  If the Catholic Church wins this policy battle, would their policy not do financial harm to low-wage workers who may or may not ascribe to the Catholic principles on birth control?  

In the end, we have the freedom to practice any religion, as long as it does not infringe on the rights or wellbeing of any other individual. As an individual Catholic, the government is in no position to force you to take birth control.  But as an employer responsible in part for others' wellbeing, the definition of that freedom changes. In the words of a friend, it may well be one constitutional right stepping on another.