by Edd Doerr
"President Obama, Don't Turn Your Back on Women" is the head on a quarter-page ad on the op ed page of the November 28 New York Times. Because this organization of Catholics has credibility, I would like to quite the entire text here ---
"Providing no-cost family planning is good public health policy and an important advance under the Affordable Care Act. But if you grant the refusal clause the Catholic bishops want, you will be supporting discrimination against millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, simply because of where they work or go to school.
"The majority of American Catholics support affordable access to contraception for all women and men, especially during these touch economic times. Catholics themselves use contraception: 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used the family planning the bishops want you tp exclude from healthcare coverage.
"Expanding refusal clauses to allow some institutions and universities to refuse to provide coverage for contraception is not what you promised in healthcare reform. Giving in to the bishops' demands will mean preventive healthcare will cost more -- not less -- for millions of healthcare and social service employees, teachers and university students and their families.
"American taxpayers' dollars should be used for the common good and to enable people to exercise their conscience-based healthcare decisions.
"If you want to do what's right by American Catholics, don't make this deal with the bishops. Listen to the majority of the 68 million Catholics who want contraception coverage for everyone, not the 271 active bishops in the United States who don't.
"Catholics for Choice, 1436 U St NW, Suite 301, Wash. DC 20009. www.catholicsforchoice.org"
Americans of all persuasions should tell Mr Obama the same.
Agreed.
ReplyDelete