ACLU, Obama discover ‘right’ to free contraceptives and abortifacients

Which part of the U.S. Constitution guarantees women the right to have other people pay for their birth control pills and abortifacients? Which part says that the federal government has the power to force religious employers to violate their beliefs or face fines?

Well, there it is, right in the First Amendment. At least, it’s there in the ACLU’s copy of the Constitution. The problem is that this part is written in invisible ink, so all we see are the words “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The part about the federal government having the right to put a hammerlock on Catholic hospitals is hidden in the emanation of the penumbra of the word “establishment.” If you put on 3-D glasses from any movie theater, you just might be able to make it out.

When Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced two weeks ago that church-related facilities such as Catholic hospitals and charities would be forced to provide insurance that includes contraceptives and abortifacients, it caused an uproar.

After toughing it out with a tin ear, President Obama held a press conference Friday to declare that employees of such religious facilities would still get “free” contraceptives, but that insurance companies would foot the bill. The upshot is that as of August 1, female employees of religious institutions won’t have to pay a deductible or co-payment for contraceptives. Instead, other customers, regardless of their beliefs, will pay for those contraceptives. Isn’t that special?

“Now millions more women and families are going to have access to essential health care coverage at a cost that they can afford,” Sarah Lipton-Lubet, policy counsel with the ACLU, told Kaiser Health News. “But as a legal matter, a constitutional matter, it’s completely unremarkable.”

Unremarkable?

The administration’s ham-handed quashing of religious liberty is so remarkable that it has caused liberal Catholics who supported the passage of Obamacare to suddenly realize what kind of terrible power they have handed this administration. The wake-up call ultimately sparked a nationwide revolt and a hasty, semi-retreat by President Obama.

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