On Friday, I hailed the new compromise compromise on ACA insurance for the pill for women (Catholic and non-Catholic) who work for religiously-run organizations, like schools and hospitals. A fair summary:
Objecting nonprofits will be allowed to offer employees a plan that does not cover contraceptives. Their health insurer will then automatically enroll employees in a separate individual policy, which only covers contraceptives, at no cost. This policy would stand apart from the employer’s larger benefit package. The faith-based employer would not “have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.”
E.J. Dionne views this as a win for Catholics, if they can accept it:
The decision ought to be taken by the nation’s Catholic bishops as a victory, because it is. Many in their ranks, including some of the country’s most prominent prelates, are inclined to do just that — even if the most conservative bishops seem to want to keep the battle raging. But more importantly, the final HHS rules are the product of a genuine and heartfelt struggle over the meaning of religious liberty in a pluralistic society. The contraception dispute was difficult because legitimate claims and interests were in conflict.
Yuval Levin disagrees:
[B]asically, the religious institutions are required by the government to give their workers an insurer and that insurer is required by the government to give those workers abortive and contraceptive coverage, but somehow these religious employers are supposed to imagine that they’re not giving their workers access to abortive and contraceptive coverage.
And that’s because they are not. They’re giving their employees work. Because of that work, the government will ensure that they also get a contraception option. If the Bishops think this issue is more important, than, say, releasing all the documents from the Los Angeles Archdiocese on the rape and abuse of children, they are even more out of touch with their parishioners and Christianity than we previously feared.
And remember: the current hierarchy was all picked by John Paul II and Benedict XVI to be supine sheep protecting their own hierarchy. That has been the core criterion of advancement in the church for a couple of generations. So many ortho-bots. So many rapes.
The Dish 