First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances
So, again we have a case where a religious institution is going to be forced by secular humanists to defy their faith because the latter believes THEIR views trumps the former. Tolerate much? Emphasis mine, reformatted:
The woefully misnamed American Civil Liberties Union is launching a crusade to force Catholic hospitals to act against Catholic moral teachings and the natural law. This is an un-American attack on religious liberty. The ACLU’s intentions came to light this week after it threatened to sue Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California, which is operated by the Sisters of Mercy. The hospital is a part of Dignity Health, a nonprofit that operates 40 hospitals — 22 of which are Catholic — in California, Nevada and Arizona.
As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday, Elizabeth Gill, an ACLU lawyer, sent a letter to the hospital threatening legal action if it would not relent on its refusal to allow a woman to be sterilized in its facilities after giving birth there to a child due next month. “In an Aug. 17 letter to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Gill said the ACLU would go to court unless the hospital reversed course and authorized the sterilization procedure,” the Chronicle reported. “By denying ‘pregnancy-related care’…, Gill wrote, the hospital is discriminating on the basis of sex, as defined by California law, and is also allowing ‘your corporate entity’s religious beliefs’ to override a doctor’s medical decision, violating a state law against the corporate practice of medicine.”
Once again, we see that that religious beliefs must bow to “woman’s reproductive health”. What, there were no other facilities available to do this procedure with staff that would not have compunctions about assisting in such a procedure? What is it about these people, those folks in the ACLU, that have deviated from their name’s cause to would cost people time, effort, and money to force this upon them? What is it about this attitude, this micro-totalitarianism, that says “you WILL do this, like it or not”? What is it about people that, once again, absolutely desire that that religion in practice not be fully expressed but limited to what Obama has said for years: freedom of worship. That is not freedom of expression, freedom to live one’s values – it is limiting it to a certain place. It is compressing it to only certain times. It is also clear that it is about religious doctrine:
“What we can share is that in general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at Dignity Health’s Catholic facilities in accordance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” said the statement. “As such, tubal ligations are not performed in Catholic hospitals except on a case-by-case basis where a formal review by a committee of physicians and others gives permission to perform the procedure.”
Hmm – the basis of the threatened suit (“Gill wrote, the hospital is discriminating on the basis of sex, as defined by California law”)? Er, I think this makes it quite clear:
…The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say this about sterilization: “Direct sterilization of either men or women, whether permanent or temporary, is not permitted in a Catholic hospital. Procedures that induce sterility are permitted when their direct effect is the cure or alleviation of a present and serious pathology and a simpler treatment is not available.”
But not even that will deny the ACLU in its attempt from trying to redefine the common language out from underneath:
“…the reality remains that there is a clear conflict between the best interests of patients and the directives of the Catholic hospital system,” said the ACLU’s Gill in an ACLU press release. “Religious institutions that provide services to the general public should not be allowed to hold religion as an excuse to discriminate or deny important health care,” she said.
The ACLU then said: “The hospital’s directives, written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, classify common reproductive health procedures as ‘intrinsically evil.”
In fact, Directive 70 published by the bishops says: “Catholic health care organizations are not permitted to engage in immediate material cooperation in actions that are intrinsically immoral, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and direct sterilization.”
What it comes down to is that the ACLU sees evil in others that will not agree with them; moral positions, religious positions that have been held for 2,000 years are now evil in the last few years. This IS trying to redefine someone else’s dogma, the denial of free expression.
That in itself is evil.
(H/T: CNSNews)
