U.S. Contraception Mandate Takes Effect for Businesses Without "Safe Harbor"

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Yep. The Political War on Religion has begun. Make no mistake.

So. What are **you, **personally, going to do about it?

Would you cave and pay the fines? Business as usual? Whistle in the dark?

Would you risk Jail?

I wonder… Just how many ‘Catholics’ here will **continue :eek: **to put our Political Adversaries, into office, yet once again, by voting for these Democrats?:cool:
 
I don’t like the road our nation is heading down, it just isn’t the right way.
 
Pray that this evil we have allowed to creep into the white house year after year after year after year (talking about many many many of our presidents) be removed from power. Pray that we can stop them before Christ does.
 
mdgspencer said:
The mandate is now in effect, beginning August 1, for many U.S. businesses, requiring them to finance contraception, abortion-producing drugs and sterilizations. Many Catholic and other Christian owners right now are being given the choice of violating their consciences or paying stifling or crippling fines that could put them out of business.
see www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/contraception-mandate-takes-effect-for-businesses-without-safe-harbor/
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Kathleen Sebelius - Secy of HHS - was the former governor of the state of Kansas and was a close personal friend of the late abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. She would have large support dinners and programs in the Governor mansion on his behalf and in support of him. She was counseled three separate times by her Bishop, Joseph Naumann, before she finally withdrew from receiving communion - she was Catholic .

The Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the USA, and if this next election returns Sebelius and Pres Obama to office, then “we catholics” never even began to fight, we just surrendered our faith, our consciences and our children
 
Well said.

The Catholic Christmas tree is about to be shook. The ornaments will fall off.:cool:
 
As a private employer who has a heath insurance plan that I offer to my employees, I now face the choice of either offering health insurance that covers objectionable procedures or not offering insurance and making my employees assume that risk entirely. Also, if they are Catholic, the burden of going against their own consciences is now *their *choice, and not the choice of their employer (me). It’s a no win situation.

Is there any clear instruction for private employers with a Catholic conscience? This is the big elephant in the living room that no one wants to acknowledge. You hear pious platitudes about fighting for religious liberty, but no clear direction from anyone as to what the average Catholic entrepreneur is supposed to do. I even sent a question to CAF Ask An Apologist, and that has not been answered in a few weeks. NCCB website is no help. Nothing.

Anyone have any insight?
 
Windmill said:
Anyone have any insight?
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Well, there’s the law suits associated with this filed by the Catholic Bishops and there’s the upcoming 2012 elections.

First, we see who wins in November. If Romney and (hopefully) Republican controlled congress reverse the bill in matters related to this, then you’re in the clear. If Obama wins or the Dems keep control, then our last gasp is hoping that the US Supreme Court strikes it down.

If both of those avenues fail, I think it is then that the tough choice becomes reality.
 
Now it’s official. Catholic businesses will have to pay a tax for being Catholic. A jizya.
 
Julian0404 said:
Kathleen Sebelius - Secy of HHS - was the former governor of the state of Kansas and was a close personal friend of the late abortion provider, Dr. George Tiller. She would have large support dinners and programs in the Governor mansion on his behalf and in support of him. She was counseled three separate times by her Bishop, Joseph Naumann, before she finally withdrew from receiving communion - she was Catholic .

The Catholic Church is the largest denomination in the USA, and if this next election returns Sebelius and Pres Obama to office, then “we catholics” never even began to fight, we just surrendered our faith, our consciences and our children
Click to expand...
Well said!
 
mdgspencer said:
The mandate is now in effect, beginning August 1, for many U.S. businesses, requiring them to finance contraception, abortion-producing drugs and sterilizations. Many Catholic and other Christian owners right now are being given the choice of violating their consciences or paying stifling or crippling fines that could put them out of business.
see www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/contraception-mandate-takes-effect-for-businesses-without-safe-harbor/
Click to expand...
I have already dropped the coverage for my employees.
 
Windmill said:
Seems that the National Catholic Bioethicists Center has just put out a guide for Non-Exempt Catholic Employers:

ncbcenter.org/document.doc?id=450&erid=0
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Thanks for sharing that.

Yes, I think it’s unfortunate that Christian business owners like you and Bob have been somewhat neglected in the debate. You guys don’t even get the one-year reprieve.

I somewhat understand. It’s easier to argue religious liberty when talking about the government coercing religious institutions to violate their own teachings. When you bring it down to the individual level, I think the general populace has less sympathy as they figure every unscrupulous business owner would gladly claim “freedom of conscience” to get out of paying for as much as they can. It’s a tougher sell. It’s certainly no less a violation of religious liberty, though.
 
Joe_5859 said:
Thanks for sharing that.

Yes, I think it’s unfortunate that Christian business owners like you and Bob have been somewhat neglected in the debate. You guys don’t even get the one-year reprieve.

I somewhat understand. It’s easier to argue religious liberty when talking about the government coercing religious institutions to violate their own teachings. When you bring it down to the individual level, I think the general populace has less sympathy as they figure every unscrupulous business owner would gladly claim “freedom of conscience” to get out of paying for as much as they can. It’s a tougher sell. It’s certainly no less a violation of religious liberty, though.
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It is a serious violation of religious liberty, for Catholic business owners and even Catholic insurance companies, and others. They are required by the HHS to reject their faith, violate their conscience, go out of business, or pay a fine for the privilege of remaining Catholic.
 
Nimzovik said:
Yep. The Political War on Religion has begun. Make no mistake.

So. What are **you, **personally, going to do about it?

Would you cave and pay the fines? Business as usual? Whistle in the dark?

Would you risk Jail?

I wonder… Just how many ‘Catholics’ here will **continue :eek: **to put our Political Adversaries, into office, yet once again, by voting for these Democrats?:
Click to expand...
Too many, I’m sure.
 
estesbob said:
I have already dropped the coverage for my employees.
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Bob, What about you and your own family? Did you drop your own coverage? Did you compensate your employees for lost benefits? If so, how did you calculate this?

If you’d fel better about discussing this with a fellow Catholic businessman privately, please PM me. I would love to get advice from you.
 
Wrote my Congressman a while back and heres his response.

Dear Thomas :

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about the Obama Administration and their position on religious liberty as related to contraception and abortion. Your (name removed by moderator)ut is appreciated, and it is an honor to be your Representative in Congress.

As you may know, the Department of Health and Human Services recently unveiled proposal s which would require religious institutions such as hospitals and schools to provide sterilization and contraceptive services, including abortifacients .

As you will no doubt be please d to know, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Ac t of 2011 was introduced into the House Energy and Commerce Committee by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry on March 17. This promising legislation would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to ensure conscience rights for healthcare insurers or providers. This would, for example, prevent a Catholic hospital from having to offer abortion or contraception in violation of Catholic religious teaching.

As a strong supporter of 1 st Amendment Guarantees of freedom of religion and expression, I am strongly opposed to the idea that the government has any place in ordering a private entity -religious or not- to perform an activity that violates their conscience. In order to protect these organizations from an ever expanding and intrusive government, strong conscience laws play an important role.

Also in regards to our 1 st Amendment rights, I believe every person should be able to exercise their right to free expression. While this is a very contentious topic, every person engaged in this discussion deserves a civil discourse, including individuals such as Sandra Fluke. We need to disagree reasonably in the public square in order to preserve civility in political discussions.

Although I do not sit on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I believe that in light of President Obama’ s recent actions this legislation is more important than ever. For this reason , I have signed on as a co-sponsor of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act . Again, thank you for your concern, and please do not hesitate to let me know if I may be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Chuck Fleischmann
Member of Congress

Its a start anyway.
 
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