The White House said Tuesday it wants to allay the concerns of Catholic church-affiliated employers over a new requirement for them to provide birth control coverage regardless of their religious beliefs.
The Catholic Church wants to frame the issue as an intrusion by the government into its religious beliefs, but women's health advocates said the church is overstating the order and it only requires employers to give insurance.
Planned Parenthood is all about women controlling their reproductive lives, whether that means abortions or birth control.
The Catholic Church is directly opposed to any interference in natural reproduction: no birth control and certainly no abortion.
"The response is already beginning, but mainly bishops from around the country have come out against this," said Father Christopher Mahar, rector of Our Lady of Providence Seminary.
The Catholic Church sees the order to provide birth control as a violation of its right to hold basic beliefs, regardless of the opinion of government regulators.
"They're insisting that we provide services that violate the consciences of those who run the institutions. Whether it be a Catholic university, Catholic hospital, Catholic school, there are fundamental beliefs that are central to us as Catholics," Mahar said.
Defenders of the policy say churches can opt out of birth control coverage, but the affiliated institutions need to give their employees essential health insurance.
"I understand their objection. I think that it has been answered by applying that objection to the church itself, which does raise its own money, serve its own people and oftentimes employ Catholics only," said Susan Yolen of Planned Parenthood.
"But I think when you get into hospitals and the kinds of ways they raise their money and the services they do, I think you're in a different place," Yolen said.
The church has taken this up nationwide and it hopes to force the government to back down or at least expand the exemption to include not just churches, but also the institutions associated with them.
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