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We racked up 96 comments on the Obama administration policy requiring insurance polices to cover contraception, even for businesses owned by religious organizations, and I still don’t understand Catholic theology regarding free will granted to a non-Catholic x-ray technician employed by a nominally-Catholic hospital. Some of our columnists, notably Cokie Roberts and Frank Mazzaglia, have weighed in, criticizing Obama’s move. But let me raise a couple of other points for consideration:
First, it’s helpful (for me at least) to remember that we are talking a regulation that applies to insurance companies, not to churches or hospitals. Perhaps an analogy will help. The government regulates the disposal of toxic and radioactive waste. Those apply to all hospitals that produce toxic waste, and it’s irrelevant whether that hospital is owned by a religious organization. If you’re going to own a hospital, the rule applies to you, regardless of what your theology has to say about it.
And if you’re going to own an insurance company, you’ve got to abide by insurance regulations. I assume the bishops’ objection rests on the fact that their institutions are self-insured (if they are buying from a commercial carrier, I think their arguments about the church’s responsibility for insurance company policies are weaker). If they don’t want to follow insurance regulations, get out of the insurance industry.
Second, according to Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (I’m trying to confirm this), 28 states already have this regulation on their books. That includes Massachusetts, where the regulation is included in the law Mitt Romney signed. Anyone remember an uproar when freedom of religion was dealt such a crippling blow here in Massachusetts?
Finally, much as I enjoy debating issues of rights and principles, and much as I enjoy pointing out that the Religious Right not only wants to take away women’s right to legal abortions, they want to take away everyone’s right to birth control, I don’t think this was a smart or necessary battle to Obama to pick in an election year. The Hawaiian compromise or some other means of requiring some kind of rider coverage be made available, administered through a wider pool sufficiently separate from the religious institutions so the administrators can feel that their hands are clean would be fine with me.
