Wednesday, August 12, 2009

EEOC Discriminating Against Catholic Colleges

Belmont Abbey was providing insurance that included abortion and contraceptives? I was appalled; this is not a minor mistake or an over sight. These are first issues that Catholics address when purchasing health care. The statement from Belmont Abbey is: “As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church,” Belmont Abbey president William Thierfelder said and “There was no other course of action possible if we were to operate in fidelity to our mission and to our identity as a Catholic college.” So now the college has stopped offering these pro-choice products as health care and they are getting into trouble. President Obama vowed during his campaign that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was going to seek out Christian colleges and make them follow EEOC practices. Obama threatened that he was going to “crack-down” on higher education and now the “crack-down” has begun. I understand that the Catholic schools benefit from federal funds by means of grants, federal-subsidized loans and federal financial aid, but we cannot put a price on morality. Pope Benedict XVI is calling for Catholic education and is promoting true Catholic colleges. The EEOC wants to help ‘woman’s rights’ and force a school to overlook their mission. Clearly the EEOC is discriminating against Christians trying to force them to uphold practices contrary to their faith. If the Catholic colleges are being black-mailed into providing abortions for federal funding they are not truly Catholic. This Obama “crack-down” will sort the truly catholic colleges from those who only pretend to be Catholic. Life News
Catholic Femina Speaks: Since providing health care coverage is so important why not look into Catholic Health care? Verus Health LLC is offering “Authentic Health Insurance for the Culture of Life.” In their website they quote the Catechism on each major health care dilemma. The motto is from an American bishop who wrote: “A lot of health insurance plans cover things that are not about health. Abortion, sterilization, assisted suicide... None of that is about health or life, and paying for those things is not really health insurance. This is authentic health insurance.” When providing insurance employers need to seek out companies that promote the culture of Life and support them buy purchasing services from them. Furthermore if Catholics support companies that uphold the church teachings these companies will grow and non-health care will diminish. Don’t just promote the culture of life, support it.

Other Christian College Fears

1 comment:

  1. Why did the insurance plan at Belmont Abbey cover prescription contraception in the first place? Probably because some previous college administration felt that it had to in order to comply with the law. One of the problems with many organizations today is that there is no institutional memory. I don't believe that prescription contraception's presence in the health plan was an 'oversight'.

    Is Belmont Abbey, whose staff is majority non-Catholic and whose students are also majority non-Catholic, a Catholic religious institution deserving of a religious exemption from EEOC rules in the eyes of the law? I doubt it. Not to mention the elephant in the room, which is that, according to Gallup, nearly ninety percent of American Catholics approve of contraception. And however this has been spun by the radical right, the EEOC complaint at Belmont Abbey is about prescription contraception, and not about sterilization or abortion.

    The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is an illuminating document. Reading it, as well as the EEOC letter of 2000 that links EEOC policy to it, makes many of the policy issues clearer. The writers of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act were deeply concerned about gender equality and giving women an equal chance in the workplace.

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