George Weigel: Update on the HHS Mandate
The relentless pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegoneblogspot.com – Saturday, March 10, 2012

George Weigel is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies – We have excerpts of his article in “National Review Online” – Mar. 5th – The Battle Continues, Beyond Rush-

“Despite the White House’s rather successful efforts to reframe the media and congressional debate over the HHS “contraceptive mandate” as a right-wing jihad against “women’s health” – cynical ploy aided and abetted by Rush^ Limbaugh’s one-man circular firing squad – the real battle against the mandate and in defense of religious freedom has continued.

“A March 2 letter from Cardinal Timothy Dolan… then described the difficulties of finding a legislative remedy to the problems caused by the mandate, noting that, in the recent Senate debate over the Blunt amendment, “our opponents* sought to obscure what is really a religious freedom issue by maintaining that abortion-inducing drugs and the like are ‘women’s health issue.’ We will not let this deception stand. (As a concrete expression of that commitment, the bishops’ conference is preparing and will soon distribute materials for use in parishes, which make clear that the issue is religious freedom.)

“But as attempts to find a legislative remedy continue, Cardinal Dolan noted that the judicial path to the defense of religious freedom is the likeliest to achieve success, given both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act… Given the Supreme Court’s recent Hosanna-Tabor decision, it is not easy to see how the administration will successfully defend its latest attempt to erode the institutions of civil society and violate individual consciences… As one Catholic feminist blogger put it, “This is as much about birth control as the American Revolution was about tea.”

“The bishops have also, and at last, taken aim at those within the Catholic family urging an acceptance of the administration’s bogus “accommodation.” Cardinal Dolan’s letter took an unprecedented shot at the Jesuit magazine, America; Bishop Lori went even farther in a letter to that journal, noting that its disdain for the bishops allegedly getting lost in “details” of policy ignores every one of the mandate’s infringements on the religious freedom of both institutions and individuals. To which it might be added that it takes a special kind of moral blindness (or partisan besottedness) to suggest, as America did, that requiring Church’s institutions and employers of conscience to provide health insurance that includes abortifacients like Ella is a “detail.” … The issue is clear, and the bishops are all in."

George H. Kubeck *include 13 Catholic label Senators, Tom Harkin, Dick Durbin, Mary Landrieu, John Kerry, Barbara Mikulski, Bob Menendez, Patrick Leahy, Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, etc. Thank you Obama care; we find out who the traitors to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” are.

^A 30 year old Georgetown law student Sandra Fluk appeared before a Nancy Pelosi Committee in support for free tax payers funding of contraception (3 year cost of $3,000). Rush called her a “slut” and apologized for the remark.