The health care legislation called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare should be of concern to all of us. On the surface, there are many reasons to oppose this legislation but I fear we don’t know half the story since it doesn’t go into effect until 2014 and many of the regulations implementing its provisions are yet to be promulgated. From the little that has already been done we can see the looming disaster that awaits our present health care system and economy. In addition to that are serious moral and ethical problems sure to arise.
Obamacare is an unprecedented attack on personal freedom under the guise of providing universal health care for all Americans. Obamacare gives the government vast powers to establish regulations which open the door to attacks on religious liberty, freedom of conscience and privacy. We can already see this in terms of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (DH&HS) recent regulations requiring insurance coverage of contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization in virtually all private health insurance plans. These regulations strike at the fundamental rights of people of faith, especially Catholics, to religious liberty in practicing their faith without government interference. A conscience clause provided with these regulations is meaningless since a religious entity cannot take advantage of conscience protection if it serves or employs people of other faiths.
Certainly the Obama Administration cannot be trusted by anyone concerned about traditional moral values relating to the inherent dignity of humans and respect for life. President Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of DH&HS, both worship at the altar of abortion. This utilitarian world view portends great danger in many other areas. Let us not forget it wasn’t many years ago that killing a baby in the womb was abhorrent. We now live with the practice of over 1,000,000 abortions per year in our country. We also have a president who is even on record as opposing efforts to save infants who survive abortion. Clearly, the Obama administration must be removed and Obamacare repealed. We need to wake up to the reality of the bankruptcy of the moral and spiritual standards in our society and the threats to our religious liberty.
Sidney D. Heidersdorf
Juneau
Comments (17)
Add commentSidney,
your a moron
Ridiculous
All this does is highlight the extremists who believe that the only way to stop people in their church from rushing out to abort babies is to make it unavailable.
Have a little trust in your people!
I'd never wish any woman I love to get an abortion, but who am I to deny that to someone else.
Use your own freedoms and stop denying others their rights to control their bodies.
Coverage since 2000
If an insurance plan offers a prescription drug benefit it is required to cover birth control. This requirement has been in place since 2000.
Of course, Mr. Heidersdorf considers all birth control to be an abortion. Nice that he has the privilege to know what is right and wrong for everyone.
Any individual who thinks birth control is immoral does not have to use it. Pretty simple.
98% of American Catholics use birth control. 98%.
The act has never been known as "Obamacare"
There is no such thing as "Obamacare", and the healthcare act was never about Barack Obama's ego. Please stop using childish terms like that.
The healthcare act passed because the American people WANT healthcare for all.
And its passage was always likely, no matter what it said about abortion or contraception, to reduce the number of abortions because its passage was going to mean that fewer and fewer people were going to make that choice out of fear that they couldn't provide healthcare for their kids.
Jesus would probably back the act, since he was on the side of the poor and hated inequality and privilege.
And no, Obama doesn't "worship at the altar of abortion"
Nobody actually WANTS people to have abortions, Sid. It's just that it's not as simple as saying "abortions have to be banned and that's all there is to it".
If you want to reduce the number of abortions, support full access to contraception(since it's unrealistic and cruel to expect everyone who doesn't want to have a child to be celibate), support full funding for day care by some means(if you don't want the state funding it, work to get YOUR church, with its massive wealth, to provide free daycare for those who need itself)so that parents can work to provide for their children, OR, if you can't handle the idea of mothers working, support either funds to subsidize them staying home to raise their kids OR(even better)get rid of the anti-family rules that forbid two-parent families in need from getting assistance.
Those are things that would make a difference and would be both moral AND humane. Saying "you have to give birth and I"m not going to do a freaking thing to help you, but I'll retain the right to lecture you about how morally inferior you are to me in my exalted piety", isn't an answer to anything.
Stop bashing the poor and stop bashing women already, Sid. It was never acceptable and it was never Christian. Just stop already, Especially coming from somebody who used to be a social worker, fercryinoutloud.
what a hypocrite...
Mr. Heidersdorf is.
He would GLADLY attack and limit MY personal freedoms, religious liberty, freedom of concience and privacy by telling me who I may marry or what I may do with my body.
And El_boorba is absolutely right - who the heck is Mr. Heidersdorf to presume he determines the moral and spiritual standards for me?
I am a good person. I empathise with those who are not like me, I help those in need when I can. I give of my time. I try to set a good example. I do not lie, cheat, or steal. I hold no hatred (granted, frustration sometimes) for those who make choices I would not. I show compassion.
I'm just guessing that's more than Mr. Heidersdorf does. And that is moral and spiritual enough for me, I don't need a wafer and a building, and someone in a robe telling me who to hate and be against to be a moral person.
kenb41
Your second post was excellent - well said, sir.
@teabagger
I wonder if you're able to appreciate the irony of your invective?
Han -
Clever AND a vocabulary builder! Nice.
Kenb
Kenb. "work to get YOUR church, with its massive wealth, to provide free daycare for those who need itself" They do through Catholic Communities...
A much larger scale is needed, though
(I recognize what CCS has done...and have several friends who've worked for it).
Some new information....
Some things that came to light on the news tonight.
First - in 2001 - Six Republican Senators, Snowe, Collins, Chaffe, Spector, Smith and Warner co-sponsored a bill, S104, to Require? You guessed it - contraceptives be covered by all health insurance.
Second - Catholic businesses, which recieve public funds, have been providing contraception in health insurance for YEARS - including 77% of Catholic law schools.
Lastly - 28 states already mandate contraception in health insurance - Eight states currently have rules which do NOT exempt churches from providing contraception in health insurance. The new health care law actually provides an exemption for them they did not have before!
This made-up, ridiculous, "war on religion" is being pushed by a few, tired, old ultra religious zealots, and should be put to bed immediately.
praise for PPACA
My insurance company can't throw me off the policy if I get sick!
My insurance company can't make me wait for treatment or refuse to cover me for a pre-existing condition!
My insurance company must spend 85% of premium dollars on actual patient care, not bonuses for CEO or "overhead" or they have to pay it back, so premiums will stop being jacked up!
My children get to stay on my insurance until they are 26!
My adult children can get free contraceptives, so they will not ruin their lives by having kids too early, AND no abortions necessary!
Wow, looks like most of this regulates the scummy policies that insurance companies were getting away with, and you want to nit pick over the insurance company covering contraception?!? If you truly love your fellow man, give them the right to make their own choices. That is what Jesus would do.
Apt Title.
You are both morally and spiritually bankrupt. Religous fanatics like you give religion a bad name. People like you who hide behind the bible are one of the worst scourges on this earth. The sooner you crawl back into your cave the better.
Ah sidney...
I wonder. Sidney says "We need to wake up to the reality of the bankruptcy of the moral and spiritual standards..."
Lessee... Slavery is illegal. Civil Rights are in place. Women can vote...ah. There is the point of contention for Sidney. Women are not chattel anymore. They get to decide for themselves what to do with their bodies.
I wonder why Sidney's public outrage was silent when we found out about the widespread sexual abuse of children by the Catholic clergy? Or the intentional placement of priests known for sexual abuse of children in the villages of Alaska. Of the intentional relocation of those priests to new villages as their sexual abuse of children started to become public?
Of course, in Sidney’s mind the cause of all that abuse is Women’s Rights.
unbelievable -
That the president "compromised" on this issue.
What are there, 100,000 bishops in this country? As opposed to around 150 million women, 98% of whom (age appropriate, of course) use birth control? And have been supplied birth control through about 70% of Catholic institutions for at least 10 years?
Talk about opening the door - so now we all have to question potential employers about what religious group they are affiliated with, in case someday we might need a blood transfusion, or a heart valve replacement? Or are Catholics really naive enough to believe that this will only apply to their religion?
I'm only slightly appeased by the knowledge that insurance companies will simply raise their premiums, and everyone will pay for this care anyway.
Thanks, Catholics - your war on women continues - you won't be happy until we are all right back to the 1600's.
I think the Catholics ended
I think the Catholics ended up looking the worst out of this story. I heard people were walking out on Bishop Burns here at the Cathedral when he was spewing his nonsensical company line on birth control...