In response to:
If true, the fact that the Catholic Church employs people and pays them a wage suggests that they are in violation of their own principles. With 98% of fertile women using contraception any payments to anyone without full control of how they spend it amounts to support under this definition.
Freedom of religion cannot allow the beliefs of individuals or groups to limit access to options available to everyone else. Catholics can condemn the use of contraception all they want but they should not be allowed to place barriers in between their employes and products that are perfectly legal. Religious freedom must be thought of more like free speech. You can try to change someone's mind but you cannot alter their options.
"Catholicism teaches that it is a sin to use, provide, or otherwise support contraception."
These words are not from the Catholic Catechism or a sermon by a Catholic bishop. They are excerpted from the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland issued last month temporarily stopping the Obama administration from forcing a family-owned outdoor-power-equipment company to comply with an Obamacare regulation that requires virtually all health care plans to provide women (but not men) with co-pay-free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.
The judge stated the Catholic teaching on contraception as an undisputed fact of the...
1. An employee using contraception is not the same as forcing a company to provide the contraception.
2. Employees are often fired for participating in their "freedom of speech" rights.
You claim "98% of fertile women" use contraception.
Completely false. That percentage, touted by the Obama administration, was based on a surprisingly biased survey. Check out the survey parameters and then get back to us.
You wrote, "Freedom of religion cannot allow the beliefs of individuals or groups to limit access to options available to everyone else"
What?
1. No one is limiting access. Those employees are free to buy what they want.
2. According to your argument, every employee in the country has a case. My employer limits my access to options others have because my employer doesn't pay me enough for me to afford a new car every month.
2. No one is saying that Catholic institutions cannot hire and fire based on adherence to religious beliefs and practices. The issue here is that of employers who do not discriminate based on religious beliefs. Can a Catholic person, group, or organization decide for their non Catholic employees how the spend their money and utilize their employee benefits? I don't think so.
the pendulum swings both ways.
the government should get its nose out of the health and medical industries completely and allow people to be free in choosing the health coverage they desire and in making the medical decisions they desire.
the government has NO BUSINESS infringing on americans' health care and medical decision. NO BUSINESS, NONE, NADA.