The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Obama’s Contraceptive Disinformation

Posted on | February 15, 2012 | 37 Comments

Some readers may wonder why I haven’t published anything about the battle over mandatory contraceptive coverage under ObamaCare. Basically, it’s because every time I try to do it, I tend to write a couple of thousand words before discarding the draft.

However, yesterday I was CC’d on an e-mail that some crazy woman sent to multiple recipients at National Review. Given that I’ve never had anything to do with National Review, my inclusion on the CC list was somewhat mysterious, but the entirety of the crazy woman’s message was in the subject line:

Good to know that you agree that Muslim employers can impose Shari’a restrictions on their employees, dumbass

Crazy, right? No one who actually understands the issue would make such a comparison. This issue isn’t about employers imposing anything on anybody. It’s about whether the federal government can mandate certain types of insurance coverage for private employers, even to the point of requiring Catholic organizations to pay for insurance that includes full coverage — no deductible, no co-pay — for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient “morning after” drugs.

In this battle, the defense of Catholic organizations is actually a libertarian position, and the only people who could possibly take the side of the Obama administration are . . . well, crazy people, or perhaps well-meaning people who have been deliberately misinformed about the issue.

Believe it or not, a CBS News poll claims that 61 percent of self-described Catholics support the Obama administration, and that the crazy, ignorant and misinformed are an actual majority of Americans. A few headlines:

Reid to Allow Vote on Rescinding
Contraception Rule
— National Journal

Birth Control Amendment ‘Dangerous,’
Obama Spokesman Says
— Huffington Post

Palin on contraception flap:
“An un-American act”
— Real Clear Politics

Can we at least admit that there is an important difference between (a) not covering something on a health insurance policy, and (b) “denying” something or “imposing” something? And are people too stupid to understand that having government mandate certain types of coverage represents a gigantic intrusion into the insurance marketplace?

But if I let myself get worked up about this, I’ll spend a couple of hours on it and end up with another unpublished 2,000-word draft, so I’ll just quit now.

Category: Abortion, Barack Obama, Catholics, Contraceptive Culture

Comments

37 Responses to “Obama’s Contraceptive Disinformation”

  1. Bobbyranson
    February 15th, 2012 @ 11:33 am

    The issue is even more basic than what you seem to believe. Its about the Federal government telling a supplier what he must give away to its customers ast no cost to them. The next thing you know, they’ll be telling if what we have to buy, like health insurance.

  2. “Obama’s Contraceptive Disinformation”
    February 15th, 2012 @ 12:15 pm

    […] Stacy McCain: This issue isn’t about employers imposing anything on anybody. It’s about whether the federal government can mandate certain types of insurance coverage for private employers, even to the point of requiring Catholic organizations to pay for insurance that includes full coverage — no deductible, no co-pay — for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient “morning after” drugs. […]

  3. King Shamus
    February 15th, 2012 @ 12:18 pm

    Those polls are just a little horrifying.

    Hey Catholics:  Obama’s trying to make your Church’s position on contraception pretty much illegal.  Maybe you could help out a little? Maybe? 

  4. A.Men
    February 15th, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

    Religious people, get a spine! Say NO to Obamacare and Obama!!!

  5. Quartermaster
    February 15th, 2012 @ 1:38 pm

    Roman Catholic Bishops have been rolling over for big FedGov since the 30s. They supported Obamacare, and now they squeal like stuck pigs.

    To say no to Obamacare they would have to wake up and say “what have we done?” Fat chance of that ever happening.

  6. JeffWeimer
    February 15th, 2012 @ 1:50 pm

    She’s right, Muslim employers CAN impose sharia restrictions. It’s not a problem because it’s protected religious expression, much like Chik-Fil-A being closed on Sundays. IIRC, there are a few Popeye’s franchises that can no longer serve pork products (breakfast, mostly) because their Muslim owners don’t want it. 

    I mean, would you expect to get sliced ham at a Jewish deli?

  7. Adjoran
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:18 pm

     The net result of the “contraception” mandate – which includes abortion pills – would be to force the Catholic Church to shut down its hospitals and cease providing health insurance for the employees of its charities.  This would create a huge gap in health care as these hospitals are a major part of the system, not to mention another half million people losing health coverage.

    Creating a crisis, which could only be solved by . . . you guessed it, more massive government intervention.

    All according to plan.

  8. Finrod Felagund
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:37 pm

    And are people too stupid to understand that having government mandate certain types of coverage represents a gigantic intrusion into the insurance marketplace?

    Unfortunately, a lot of people are too stupid to understand that, until it affects them personally and directly.

  9. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:39 pm

     It doesn’t matter whether the federal government tells them they have to provide it at a cost or at no cost, the point is they shouldn’t be telling them what they have to provide, period. It’s like if I open a restaurant and decide I’m going to do a contract selling Coke products as soft drinks and the fucking feds come in and tell me I have to also offer Pepsi products. That would not be any god damn different. And yet, three fifths of the American people are fine with it. Well fuck them, I’m not fine with it.

  10. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:44 pm

     Actually its not just Catholics, its all the American people. I think the percentage of Catholics who are fine with forcing insurance companies to provide contraceptive coverage might actually be a little bit higher, as long as they don’t make the church pay for it. Which of course means the cost comes out of the pockets of all the rest of us.

  11. K-Bob
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:45 pm

    No need to write a long post anyway, Stacy.  People are pretty fired up about this on their own.  Just do like Ace and wade into it later when you can cop things from other guys and riff on ’em a bit.

    (What I mean is, he tends not to jump on something that’s already blazing like a house on fire.)

  12. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 2:45 pm

     Maybe if we elect Romney he’ll solve this problem. Oh, wait a minute-

  13. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 15th, 2012 @ 3:01 pm

    http://www.breitbart.tv/senator-gop-mens-club-wants-women-barefoot-and-pregnant/  Barefoot and pregnant?  No woman I know walks around New Jersey barefoot (even at the beach you have to be careful).  It is dirty there!  
    BTW, I am lovin Santorum’s new Rombo ad.  He should have the same people come up with a clever funny response to Obama’s lies about contraception and the GOP.  

  14. ltw
    February 15th, 2012 @ 3:10 pm

    It’s a freedom issue…you know right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.  The virtue of those rights are that you don’t have to infringe on any other person for you to exercise those rights.  Contraception as a mandated right is just forcing someone else to pursue someone elses happiness.

  15. Wombat_socho
    February 15th, 2012 @ 3:48 pm

     You don’t get out much, do you? Just who do you think has taken point on telling Obama where he can stick his mandate?

  16. Wombat_socho
    February 15th, 2012 @ 3:50 pm

     There’s Catholics (who actually go to Church and try to follow the teachings) and catholics who think they’re part of some ethnic group and never darken the door of a church nor follow any rule but their own hedonistic urges. The former are out working for Santorum, Gingrich or Romney; the latter are glued to the tube following the latest on Whitney Houston’s funeral.

  17. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 5:06 pm

     I know there are good and bad Catholics, I’m not meaning to paint them all with a broad brush. But its time to come to grips with the fact that the Catholic Church, at the institutional level, is a leftist organization. It might not be comfortable to come to grips with, but its a fact. You need look no further than to the National Bishops Conference to get your first clue. Just today, they came out with a statement in contradiction of Obamas weasely little Press Secretary.

    So what was that statement? It was a deliberately told lie to the effect that the Church opposed Obamacare so their opposition to the contraceptive ruling was more political in nature and based on their supposed opposition to Obamacare.

    So you may ask, what did the Bishops say in contradiction of that charge? Simple, they told the truth, by pointing out they had always been in favor of “health care reform” that they saw it as a basic human right. And in fact they did support Obamacare from the beginning.

    Don’t take my word for it, look it up. Because with that statement, Obama and his little weasel set the groundwork for sewing the seeds of discord by (in my opinion) trying to turn conservative Christians against the Catholic Church. But still, facts are facts. That statement from the Bishops still yet relayed their support for Obamacare.

  18. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 5:10 pm

     Yeah, on the mandate, but not on Obamacare in general, which they did and still do support. Go back and look at a video of Obama at the signing ceremony for Obamacare. One of the attendees who got a pen was one of the most influential leaders among nuns. And the National Bishops Conference advocated for the law from the beginning, and still do. Why do you think Congressmen like Joe Sestak agreed to sign the bill after Obama (supposedly) agreed to leave abortion out of it? That was to a large extent at the urgings of the Bishops. That is to say, they were involved in both aspects, both in opposition to the abortion question, but in support of the law in general.

  19. Wombat_socho
    February 15th, 2012 @ 5:45 pm

     I’d like to think they’ve finally woken up to the kind of monster they helped create.

  20. Pathfinder's wife
    February 15th, 2012 @ 6:59 pm

    Then there are those of us who are relapsed (because we don’t 100% agree with Church doctrine — one shouldn’t burden one’s church with one’s individual heresies) but nevertheless accept that the Church has its doctrine for a reason — yet still don’t agree with this administration nor this attack on the 1st amendment (or the Church — may be relapsed, but it is still my Church, and I will defend it).
    Church doctrine, and its interpretation (that’s an not inconsequential consideration), will not always put it in either political camp.  To which I say: that’s the breaks; no religious organization is or should be expected to cleave to any political group’s ideology, so be happy when they are on your “side” and accept when they are not — separation of church and state after all.

  21. Quartermaster
    February 15th, 2012 @ 8:38 pm

    Well, you should sell Pepsi products, but that’s another argument.

  22. Quartermaster
    February 15th, 2012 @ 8:39 pm

    I don’t think we can start on the Obamunist too early. The sooner, the better.

  23. Quartermaster
    February 15th, 2012 @ 8:42 pm

    The Bishops don’t care about doctrine unless they get their ox gored. They honor it more in the breach than not.

    And yes, they did support Obamacare, I have a hard time thinking their protest is anything close to sincere.

  24. Quartermaster
    February 15th, 2012 @ 8:43 pm

    As I said earlier, the USCCB supported Obamacare, and they’ve been feeding the monster of big FedGov since teh 30s. They are simply squealing like the leftist pigs they are.

  25. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 10:21 pm

     Coke has more of a kick and Pepsi goes flat quicker.

  26. ThePaganTemple
    February 15th, 2012 @ 10:22 pm

     If they have it was sometime today, after this morning.

  27. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:05 am

     It’s also sweeter.

  28. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:16 am

     To all in this thread: What people either forget or fail to understand is that The Catholic Church is not an absolute monarchy, but, rather, a feudal kingdom.

    The Pope is absolute on certain matters [dogma], but he shares the governing of The Church with his princes [the Cardinals].  In other words: in matters regarding the soul, the Pope is the final word, as he has been chosen by God, but on any other matter, he and the cardinals share power.

    The Church has been infiltrated very successfully by the Left [what some call the ‘Super Force’].  They first took over the Jesuits and then spread their Evil from that base.  Pope John Paul The Great and the current Pontiff are from the faction that has been battling the Left within the RCC, but they can, and have been able to, do only so much because of the feudal structure of The Church.  And no Pope can seek to turn The Church into an absolute monarchy because it was Jesus, they believe, who created The Church and He did it based on the organizing principle of The Apostles.

  29. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:37 am

     And even then, when it affects them, they aim up blaming the wrong perpetrator.

  30. Bob Belvedere
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:37 am

     And even then, when it affects them, they aim up blaming the wrong perpetrator.

  31. Pathfinder's wife
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:39 am

    No…everyone should be forced to sell RC.  Now there’s a soda pop!

  32. Pathfinder's wife
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:46 am

    Their support for Ocare was not unanimous nor without reservations — and pointed to an interpretation of doctrine in which universal healthcare supported another Church tenent.
    It, like everything else, is not a simple black/white thing.

    And the Church (no church really) is going to support a political ideology wholeheartedly all the time, but writing them off all the time will most definitely make it difficult to get their support again in the future.

  33. Pathfinder's wife
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:50 am

    Yeah, and then when people wind up with problems from pursuing their happiness in not so thoughtful ways we get to pay for that too.

  34. Keep Your Eyes On The Prize « The Camp Of The Saints
    February 16th, 2012 @ 11:46 am

    […] From Stacy: …This issue isn’t about employers imposing anything on anybody. It’s about whether the federal government can mandate certain types of insurance coverage for private employers, even to the point of requiring Catholic organizations to pay for insurance that includes full coverage — no deductible, no co-pay — for contraception, sterilization and abortifacient “morning after” drugs. […]

  35. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 16th, 2012 @ 6:20 pm

    And Debbie Wasserman Schultz said all women should get free contraception.  Okay, can I have free whiskey and ice cream too?   Rick Santorum said he is not for restricting contraception.   

  36. The Shockingly Dishonest “Contraception” Debate : Conservative Compendium
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:07 pm

    […] somehow the point still needs making, so I will add my voice to the chorus: Health insurance is not the same thing as access! More […]

  37. Let’s Talk About Sex, Professor : The Other McCain
    February 16th, 2012 @ 10:35 pm

    […] hard not to notice the narrative jiu-jitsu here.The “narrative jiu-jitsu” involves something I explained yesterday: It is actually a libertarian position to defend the Catholic church in this ObamaCare fight […]