Even Liberals Agree Obama HHS Mandate Has No Conscience Exemption

Opinion   |   Ashley E. McGuire   |   Aug 3, 2012   |   3:26PM   |   Washington, DC

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. wrote, “the [Catholic] Church’s leaders had a right to ask for broader relief from a contraception mandate that would require it to act against its own teachings.” He said that the administration had “utterly botched” the way it handled the mandate.

Former DNC Chairman Tim Kaine said that the administration made a “bad decision in not allowing a broad enough religious employer exemption.”

National Catholic Reporter’s Michael Sean Winters said of President Obama’s handling of the mandate, “The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again.” MSNBC host Chris Matthews said that it is, “frightening when the state tells the church what to do.”

The editorial boards of several left-leaning publications, some of them Catholic, also denounced the mandate in its original form. The editors of Commonweal wrote, “It is hard to see what is “liberal” in coercing religious individuals and institutions. … One does not need to oppose contraception to see that, in this case, it’s far less important than the principle, and practice, of religious freedom.”

The editors of the Washington Post opined, “This time, too, we think the administration came down on the wrong side of a tough call.”

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

LifeNews Note: Ashley E. McGuire is a senior fellow with the Catholic Association and editor of www.Altcatholicah.com. This originally appeared at the Washington Post.