Obamacare and its quietly anti-Catholic provisions

It became official yesterday. As the US Supreme Court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, the Catholic church now faces its greatest, most fundamental threat in modern American history. And although many Catholics continue to support President Obama, it is probably because they do not understand the implications of the ruling and Obama's battle royale with the Catholic church. 

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Many mainstream Catholics regard Obama positively and even applaud his apparent efforts to build consensus and stay positive throughout his administration. They also seem to applaud his efforts to improve the welfare of all citizens by legislating access to healthcare for all. After all, who does not want people to have health care?  

Certainly, the Church has no opposition to improving the quality of life of all people, especially the poor and disadvantaged. The Church supports making health care available for all. So viewed simply, some Catholics think Obama could be a reasonable choice for president. 

However, the reality of how to open health care to all isn't a simple thing. The reality is, some of President Obama's policies, such as the dreaded HHS mandate in the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act, are overtly anti-Catholic and anti-Life. Other of his policies are quietly anti-Catholic and anti-life.

And while some provisions of Obamacare may be popular and have good intentions, they are tainted with profound difficulties and could have an evil effect. Obama has apparently managed to  stealthily maneuver some Catholics into supporting an anti-life political agenda. 

Obamacare compels Catholics to participate in anti-life activities, no matter how much they are opposed to it. Not only is this evil, but it is coercive and tramples upon our God-given, First Amendment protected, right to freedom of religion and conscience. 

How does this happen?

Obamacare considers contraceptives, sterilizations, abortifacients, and abortion as "preventative services" under its definition of "health care". The underlying presumption is that pregnancy is a disease. When people pay into the Obamcare scheme, whether as taxpayers or through their insurance, their dollars will be used to finance these procedures, some of which must be provided for free to all women. The people have no choice - the individual mandate means everyone pays. 

It is ironic that a national federalized healthcare plan would make anti-life procedures absolutely free while still requiring people to pay out-of-pocket for lifesaving procedures and medications. 

Worse, there is no means to allow supposedly free people to opt out of paying into such plans. Now, even your parish priest must pay for insurance or pay a penalty that will one way or another go into a system that uses his money to fund anti-life procedures. 

Of course the Bishops of the Catholic church have raised this point on behalf of all Catholics, other Christians and people of good will, but the Obama administration has ignored their pleas. 

This is why Catholics cannot support Obamacare in its present form. And the disrespect and disdain for the Catholic Church is one reason why faithful Catholics should not support Obama. This is a problem for the President, because a great number of Catholics are registered Democrats. By disrespecting the church, Obama is actually disrespecting a large portion of his potential base. 

It is true there are other issues besides abortion that should factor into one's election day calculus, but none are so fundamental as coercing church institutions to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion inducing drugs. Certainly, these practices claim more human life than any other government misdeed, even war included. The death toll of the unborn from abortifacients and abortion is literally impossible to calculate. 

Perhaps most fundamentally, is that the controversial "preventative services" offered by Obamacare are rooted in a worldview that is quintessentially anti-life. Nothing good can come of such a worldview, and its fruits must be rejected outright. 

The final reason to reject Obamacare, of course, is that by offering no choice whatsoever to the faithful (ironically, in the name of "choice"), Obamacare tramples underfoot the most critical of our civil rights. 

Ultimately, no matter how charismatic may finds the President or how popular some of the provisions of Obamacare are (yes, several provisions are badly needed - but can be achieved through other legislative and policy means) no Catholic  should support a plan that is so fundamentally anti-life and anti-freedom, nor should they in good faith support its author. 

There is more to Obamacare than meets the eye, and the faithful Catholic would be well served to listen to their Bishops and exercise their conscience and faithful citizenship at the ballot box in November. 

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