The Madison Catholic Diocese and St. Mary’s Hospital in the area have issued this (slightly paraphrased) statement to all of its employees:
Our new insurance plan covers prescription contraceptives like birth-control.
But if you ever take those pills, we’re so going to fire you.
They have this insurance plan because Wisconsin law has mandated that “all commercial insurance policies with a drug benefit [have] to cover prescription contraceptives.” And that was the cheaper option, so the Diocese went with it.
Still, the hospital is working to get “a religious exemption inserted into the law.” I don’t know why that matters. If people actually follow the (misguided) tenets of the Catholic faith, they wouldn’t be using the birth control, anyway. There’s no need for a religious exemption. I guess the Diocese doesn’t have any confidence that their own church’s members will follow their silly rules.
There’s a voice of reason in the article, but it’s not like the Catholic leadership is going to pay any attention to that:
Chris Taylor, public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said she is pleased with the turn of events but disappointed that institutions would spend energy trying to thwart the law.
“Birth control is basic health care that 95 percent of women use at some point,” she said. “I would hope that we don’t have entities — Catholic or otherwise — trying to erect obstacles to health care for their employees.”
If the Catholic Church excommunicated every woman who’s ever used birth control or had an abortion, I seriously wonder how many of them would be left on their membership list…
(Thanks to Robert for the link)
