According to LifeSiteNews.com, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said the "accommodation" announced by President Barack Obama today is nothing more than "the discredited old policy, dressed up to look like something else. It remains a serious violation of religious freedom. Only the most naïve or gullible would accept this as a change in policy.”
He went to say that the White House Fact Sheet is riddled with doublespeak and contradiction.
“It states, for example, that religious employers ‘will not’ have to pay for abortion pills, sterilization and contraception, but their ‘insurance companies’ will. Who pays for the insurance policy? The religious employer.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue was also outraged by the so-called compromise.
"President Obama’s latest ploy just adds insult to injury. If the insurance plan of a Catholic institution must cover services it deems immoral, then such a healthcare plan is offensive, plain and simple."
He explained: "The Catholic League, for example, uses Christian Brothers as its insurance carrier. So if a future employee of ours were to demand free abortion-inducing drugs, and she is allowed to request free drugs from Christian Brothers, then the rest of us would, in effect, be subsidizing her abortion. This is outrageous and will not stand judicial scrutiny."
Donohue also pointed out the cynical nature of Obama's compromise which was intended to "peel off" liberal Catholic opposition to Obamacare. "In other words, the old divide and conquer strategy is in play."
And it seems to be working. Sister Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association, the same nun who endorsed Obamacare against the wishes of the U.S. bishops in 2010, has already issued a statement saying that Obama's new compromise "has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed.”
Keehan is now in league with Planned Parenthood whose president, Cecile Richards, issued a statement accepting the president's "compliance mechanism."
"We believe the compliance mechanism does not compromise a woman’s ability to access these critical birth control benefits," Richards states. "However we will be vigilant in holding the administration and the institutions accountable for a rigorous, fair and consistent implementation of the policy, which does not compromise the essential principles of access to care."
Donohue is warning the president that the central issue of the mandate, that it tramples the right to religious freedom, will not go away as easily as he may think.
"When it comes to the First Amendment, there is no such thing as a half loaf. We want now, and in the future, the same rights we have enjoyed since the beginning of the republic."
There are too many practicing Catholics who will revolt against this new maneuver, perhaps more passionately than before, he says.
"Obama has decided to turn up the heat. He’ll soon see how hot things get when Catholics team with Protestants, Jews, Mormons and others to recapture their First Amendment rights. Indeed, President Obama will now be remembered as the president who brought the culture war to a boil."
The U.S. Bishops have not yet issued a statement.
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