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So who should care about this? Why worry about it if you're not Catholic and have no problem with widespread use of contraception -- or even abortifacients? Here's why, as Professor Glendon explains:
At the deepest level, we are witnessing an attack on the institutions of civil society that are essential to limited government and are important buffers between the citizen and the all-powerful state.
Those of us who believe in freedom have an overwhelming interest in preserving the strength and the health of non-governmental entities -- from religious institutions to a free press to a thriving private sector -- because they balance the power of the government . . . and thereby help to secure our freedom. And the health of religious institutions is absolutely vital to the success of the American experiment, because without the morality and self-control that religious faith helps to instill, it is impossible to remain free -- because there will be ever-more need for domineering government to rule over people who have become incapable of controlling themselves without intense, constant oversight. (This is what John Adams was warning about.)
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Any attempt, however well-intentioned (and this ObamaCare attempt was NOT well-intentioned, in my view) to undermine the vibrancy and health of the civic institutions that balance federal government power is an attack on freedom. And it should be repulsed with a unified, unflinching repudiation by all those who love freedom.
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