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From News-Press.com:
Ave Maria joins fight against contraception
Catholic university in Collier County files suit against birth control mandate.
Jim Towey, speaks with students Feb. 10, 2011, outside the student union. / news-press.com file photo
The president of Ave Maria University predicted Tuesday lawsuits seeking to overturn President Barack Obama’s mandate requiring nearly all health care plans to pay for contraception will soon begin to snowball.
Those joining the fight will include evangelical groups and other organizations, said Jim Towey, head of the Catholic university, and former director of President Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
“I think some of the larger universities are wondering what to do,” Towey said.
Ave Maria’s lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Florida by the Becket Fund, a self-described nonprofit, public interest legal and educational institute that protects free expression for all faiths.
The lawsuit seeks the overturning of the mandate on the grounds it violates religious freedom, the First Amendment and federal law, said Kyle Duncan, attorney for the Becket Fund.
The mandate also would include coverage of sterilization and abortifacients, like the “morning after” pill.
“It’s a sad day when an American citizen or organization has no choice but to sue its federal government in order to ensure religious freedom,” Towey said. “As an American Catholic I am in disbelief that I have to choose between being a good Catholic or a good citizen.”
Unless the Obama administration makes “meaningful and true accommodation” to religious-based institutions, such as schools and hospitals, a stream of action to undo the mandate will continue in Congress and the courts, Towey said.
On the heels of Ave Maria’s filing, another lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys defending religious freedom. The college, in Beaver Falls, Pa., was founded in the tradition of the Reformed Presbyterian faith.
Meanwhile, the Becket Fund has filed similar lawsuits on behalf of Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic liberal arts school; Colorado Christian University, an evangelical school in Denver; and the Eternal Word Television Network, the Catholic TV network.
A lawsuit is “definitely being considered” by the Diocese of Venice, Billy Atwell, diocese spokesman, said Tuesday. The diocese covers 10 counties, including Lee and Collier. The United States Council of Catholic Bishops also is looking at its legal options, he said.
The fact 98 percent of Catholic women say they’ve used birth control and 58 percent of Catholics say they want their insurance to pay for health care doesn’t mean the Catholic Church is out of touch, Towey said. “I don’t think the position of the Catholic Church is a matter of popular vote. I find the church very often taking unpopular positions,” he said.
Birth control has been a source of controversy since a papal encyclical on human sexuality was issued in the 1960s, he said. The church isn’t going to change its views because they aren’t popular, and “it’s not the university’s role to try to change them.”
Employees must decide as a matter of individual conscience whether or not they choose to use birth control, but the university’s health care doesn’t pay for it, Towey said. Ave Maria pays $1.7 million for its employees’ health care through Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which covers 95 percent of the health care costs for 129 employees, he said. If the mandate stands, he is ready to discontinue the health plan instead of pay for contraception, and pay the $2,000 fine per employee, per year, he said.
Some will argue the controversy was resolved with Obama’s compromise, which attempted to shift the contraception provisions from employer to insurer, Towey said. “All the White House did was conduct damage control and throw out a fig leaf of compromise that did not address our issue,” he said. “I think people were fooled. But we’re not fooled now.”
Under the compromise, a religious-affiliated institution such as a Catholic hospital or a Catholic school would not pay for contraception as a part of the health care plan for employees. But if an employee wanted those services, the health insurance company would supply it for free.
“They can say it’s free all they want. If it costs money today it will cost money tomorrow and somebody will be paying for them (contraception), and that is the employer,” Towey said.
“The only kind of compromise that would work is a conscience clause that would exempt institutions like ours,” he said.
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