Most people were probably not aware that there was a fierce battle raging between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration over the “conscience clause,” a Bush-era piece of legislation that exempted medical professionals and religious institutions (primarily Catholic hospitals and schools) from dispensing birth control pills to children, performing abortions, and other morally objectionable activities. The Obama administration has been waffling on this for over two years, but last week the clause was rescinded.
Catholicculture.org outlines what is at stake (A ‘conscience clause’ is not enough). While written for an exclusively Catholic audience, the points apply to all Christians. Author Phil Lawler argues:
Unfortunately, with each passing year our society shows less and less tolerance for the individual conscience. An overweening government requires Christians to accept the prevailing moral norms even when they violate the principles of Christian morality, and powerful private institutions only add to the pressure.
Consider the restrictions that a Catholic—and especially a young Catholic—now faces on the job market. (I write from the perspective of a Catholic. But the same problems apply, with more or less equal force, to others who share the Catholic perspective on these moral issues.)
- A Catholic who cannot in good conscience sign the “marriage” certificate of two homosexual lovers may be unable to serve as town clerk in states like that recognize same-sex marriage.
- A Catholic pharmacist who refuses to dispense abortifacient pills may not be allowed to continue his practice, where law requires him to provide customers with the “morning-after” pill (not to mention ordinary contraceptive pills, which have abortifacient properties).
- A Catholic innkeeper who declines to play host to the celebration of homosexual unions may be stripped of his license to take paying guests.
- A Catholic medical student who objects to involvement in abortion or sterilization may find that only a few hospitals will consider him as an applicant for residency or internship.
- A Catholic social worker who recognizes the injustice of placing foster children in homosexual households will be unable to find work in a state-funded adoption agency.
- A Catholic police officer can lose his job if he hesitates to arrest someone seeking to dissuade a young woman from entering an abortion clinic.
- A Catholic psychiatrist who clings to the age-old understanding that homosexuality is a disorder may be blackballed by his colleagues, ridiculed by the media, and possibly deprived of his professional accreditation.
- And now a Catholic clerk who objects to cutting checks for birth-control pills will be unable to work at any American health-insurance company.
The Evangelicals recognized the threat to private conscience and joined the Catholics in resisting it.
The Orthodox unfortunately said nothing. The Episcopal Assembly was established to offer a coherent and unified voice on the critical questions facing the culture. The debate over the conscience clause was one where our voice should have been heard.
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