Hours after they called Obama's plan to shift the onus of providing contraception to insurance companies rather than religious-affiliated organizations a "first step in the right direction," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement dismissing the compromise. The takeaway: Barry can't just transubstantiate his way out of this one.
Essentially, the Bishops haven't budged because the president isn't giving them what they want: the removal of the birth control provision altogether. From the statement:
These changes require careful moral analysis, and moreover, appear subject to some measure of change. But we note at the outset that the lack of clear protection for key stakeholders—for self-insured religious employers; for religious and secular for-profit employers; for secular non-profit employers; for religious insurers; and for individuals—is unacceptable and must be corrected. And in the case where the employee and insurer agree to add the objectionable coverage, that coverage is still provided as a part of the objecting employer's plan, financed in the same way as the rest of the coverage offered by the objecting employer. This, too, raises serious moral concerns.
Good to know that the Catholic Church is with their flock on this one! Mother Jones seems to think that Obama's subtle shift was smart because it was a compromise without a compromise, but we would have been more impressed if he threatened to tithe.
