Does not actually make Jesus cry.
Classic:
Notre Dame students are circulating a petition opposing the University’s decision to file a religious liberty lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a mandate issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Yes, that would be
the mandate—the one that requires health insurance companies to cover basic preventive health care for women, including (shudder, gasp!) basic preventive health care for women's lady parts.
The university filed its lawsuit in May as part of a massive effort, coordinated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The university claimed that, as a totally private, self-funded religious institution, it would be really super mean to force the university to let women have health care because Jesus was totally against that.
Of course—shocker!—Notre Dame is full of bull:
Since 2009, Notre Dame has received a whole lot of federal dimes, including 32 grants totaling almost $35 million as part of the stimulus program. And while that money may not have gone directly to Notre Dame's health care or its self-funded insurance, since money is fungible, that $35 million does fund Notre Dame's insurance program, in an indirect fungible way. Which means Notre Dame should have to adhere to the same laws and policies as any other organization, instead of hiding behind its claim that it's a religious institution, indistinguishable from, say, the Church itself.
So while the powers that be at government-teat-sucking Notre Dame are willing to help the Catholic bishops wage their holy war against women and health care, the students and faculty of Notre Dame—like the entire rest of the country—think lady health care is swell and great and they'd like some more please. And also, as stated in the petition, they think the administrators are
just plain wrong about all their pearl-clutching that lady health care means the end of freedom as we know it:
However, we believe the philosophical and legal arguments strongly favor compliance with the law. Further, we believe Notre Dame would better serve its Catholic mission by focusing on improving campus services for families rather than embroiling itself in a legal challenge. [...]
It is not yet clear, then, that providing healthcare coverage for artificial contraceptives actually is contrary to Catholic teaching. It is worth noting that several Catholic universities already provide such coverage.
Oh, and as for the insistence by the Church that Catholics have an absolute right, under the First Amendment, to not have to live in a country in which women have health care? Yeah, about that:
U.S. law does not, and should not, treat religious freedom as an absolute right. The First Amendment does not exempt religious entities or individuals claiming a genuine religious objection from neutral laws of general applicability, a category the new contraception provisions plainly fits. Further, burdens placed on a person’s or group’s exercise of religion can be justified if they advance a compelling state interest. The contraceptive policy does that by promoting the health of women and their children.
The Catholic institutions in this country can insist all they want that they are merely representing the interests and concerns of American Catholics. Except they're not. Because American Catholics—like everyone else in this country who isn't a bishop or a Republican member of Congress—thinks health care for women is a really, really good idea.
(Via Think Progress)