McConnell, Paul Condemn HHS Mandate

The Obama administration's efforts to force Catholic employers to pay for sterilization, contraceptions and the Morning After abortion pill has even liberal Catholics outraged.  Non-Catholics, too, recognize that this is an assault against freedom to worship, not just an assault on Catholocism. Republicans need to hit this issue hard. Indeed, this is so bad for the administration that we can expect a faster reversal than one can say "Susan G. Komen."

Here are responses from Kentucky's U.S. Senators.  In order of seniority, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had this to say in The Hill:


"Make no mistake, the Obama' administration's decision to force religious hospitals, charities and schools to comply with a mandate that violates their religions views is abhorrent to the foundational principles of our nation," said McConnell, making an unusual afternoon appearance on the Senate floor on Tuesday. "No one in the United States should ever be compelled by the government to choose between violating their religions beliefs and being penalized for refusing, yet that is precisely what this mandate would do.


"This ruling should send a chill up the spine of people of all faiths and even those with no faith at all," continued the minority leader. "If the state is allowed to violate the religious rights of one religion it can violate those of others."

Sen. Rand Paul has an op-ed on NRO today, below.  Both of Kentucky's senators stand ready to repeal this terrible regulation. The interesting twist on Sen. Paul's piece is that he puts the Obama administration's regulation in the broader historical context of socialism:

In his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II delivered a scathing critique of socialism, declaring that “the fundamental error of socialism is anthropological in nature. Socialism considers the individual person simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism, so that the good of the individual is completely subordinated. . . . Socialism likewise maintains that the good of the individual can be realized without reference to his free choice, to the unique and exclusive responsibility which he exercises in the face of good or evil.”


Pope John Paul II’s indictment of socialism is illustrated in the Obama administration’s recent edict requiring nearly all employers — including Catholic hospitals, schools, and charities — to cover sterilizations and contraception in their employees’ health-care plans. Because “contraception” includes abortifacients, this decision — made under the powers granted to the executive branch under Obamacare — also threatens many Protestant employers.
The decision is the latest and most outrageous example of why Obamacare — socialized medicine — must be repealed in its entirety. It is also a shocking example of the administration’s choosing to ignore the opinions and beliefs of millions of Americans.


And while the Obama administration has never been a protector of pro-life Americans’ conscience rights — for example, it supports the federal funding that Planned Parenthood receives — this latest decision attempts to crush the freedom of the Catholic Church in this country. The president has declared a “war on religion,” as Michael Gerson wrote in the Washington Post last week.

Considering Obama’s comments about rural Pennsylvanians who “cling” to their religion, however, this is perhaps not entirely surprising.

The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, correctly described the administration’s actions as “simply un-American,” and declared:

What other constitutionally protected freedoms might an increasingly powerful federal government revoke? What other [government]-mandated violations of conscience lie ahead for other groups of American citizens, in pursuit of what their government declares is in the common interest?

Archbishop Dolan also points out that the administration’s decision threatens the religious freedoms of all Americans. It must not stand.

The president’s contempt for the freedoms of Catholic Americans was also demonstrated in the way he personally betrayed Archbishop Dolan. Last November, the president met with the archbishop at the White House. During that meeting, President Obama reassured Archbishop Dolan that he respected the Church’s beliefs. Archbishop Dolan left that meeting convinced that the president would keep his word.

But on January 20, the president called the archbishop and instructed him that the only “concession” he would give to the Catholic Church’s beliefs was one extra year — until August 2013 — to comply with the contraception mandate. As Archbishop Dolan puts it, the president is “saying [the Catholic Church] has a year to figure out how to violate [its] conscience.”