Balancing women's health and religious beliefs ? U | Women Health ...

As a Catholic woman, I applaud the Obama administration for its commitment to providing health care for all Americans while respecting the views of those who have religious objections to birth control. Last year, President Obama announced that birth control would be made available without co-payment in all new health insurance plans. Any of the 335,000 houses of worship that oppose birth control could opt out of providing such coverage. Because of the diverse workforce, religious universities and hospitals would be required to provide contraception.

After weeks of heavy lobbying from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Obama revisited the issue and created a provision which allows religious hospitals and universities to opt out of providing birth control. Standing firm on access, he said that insurance companies would be required to cover contraception for these employees.

By all measures, the Catholic bishops won their battle. Still, they are not happy because women who work for religious universities and hospitals ? many of whom are not Catholic ? have access to birth control through their insurance plan. Creating economic barriers between working women and contraception is not only bad public policy, it lacks the compassion I have come to expect from the church.

The Institute of Medicine recommends birth control as a preventive health care benefit because it prevents unintended pregnancies, improves women?s health and reduces abortion rates. Birth control pills also have medically necessary purposes beside pregnancy prevention. They are prescribed for endometriosis, anemia and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Not only does the medical community support the use of contraception, so do most Americans. In fact, 99 percent of all sexually active women in the United States ? including 98 percent of Catholic women ? have used a method of contraception at some point in their lives. Among Catholic women who are currently at risk for unintended pregnancy, 87 percent are currently using contraception.

The majority of Americans and Catholics support birth control as a benefit in health insurance plans. A Public Policy Poll released just last week shows that 57 percent of voters believe women employed by Catholic hospitals and universities should have the same rights to contraception coverage as other women. A poll by Public Religion Research Institute shows that 58 percent of Catholics believe employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception. Women should have access to birth control regardless of where they are employed.

Twenty-eight states, including California, already have contraceptive equity laws that require insurance to cover birth control. Eight of those states have refusal provisions, and only one of those states has a refusal provision that extends to religious hospitals.

Because there is such broad support for birth control, the bishops are distracting attention from the issue of access to contraception, and creating specious First Amendment and religious liberties arguments. The courts have already ruled that virtually identical exclusions in state contraceptive equity laws do not violate the First Amendment nor do they substantially burden a religious belief or practice. A New York Court of Appeals explained that when a religious organization chooses to hire nonbelievers, it must, at least to some degree, be prepared to accept neutral regulations imposed to protect employees? beliefs. In reality, birth control opponents ignore the religious freedom of individual workers and their right to make their own health care decisions. The current provision does not require any religiously affiliated institution to provide birth control. This is about health insurance coverage, which is one step removed. No employer should be allowed to impose his personal beliefs on employees regarding birth control coverage or basic health care.

Article source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/22/balancing-womens-health-and-religious-beliefs/

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