2009-11-06
Catholic School Persecuted by Government for Pro-Life Policy in Healthcare Plan
You may have never heard of Belmont Abbey College before, but it's going to be getting some attention pretty soon. Belmont Abbey is a small Roman Catholic college with about 1,600 enrolled students located in North Carolina. Belmont Abbey, being a devout Catholic institution, does not offer abortions, contraceptives, or sterilizations in its healthcare plan (the coverage was removed in December 2007 when it was discovered by a faculty member).
Of course, you can imagine the response from the secular progressives.
Now, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is taking on the case. According to their "findings," the Catholic Belmont Abbey College's refusal to cover abortions, sterilizations, and contraceptives in its health care plan is "discriminatory."
Here's the twisted logic of Ruben Daniels, Jr. - the EEOC District Office Director in Charlotte, NC:
“By denying prescription contraception drugs, Respondent [Belmont Abbey College] is discriminating based on gender because only females take oral prescription contraceptives... By denying coverage, men are not affected, only women.”
Just to state the obvious... if a woman needs to take contraception drugs, odds are that there's a man who will be affected if she stops taking them. The same is true if a woman who would have otherwise aborted her child instead is forced to keep it. It's called child support and it deals a significant blow to a man's standard of living.
But what's more, the sudden change in the reproductive health policies of the college affected men directly, too. Prescription sexual enhancement drugs are no longer being covered. In addition to that, if the testing on the new oral male contraceptive drug Silodosin is completed and approved by the FDA, that prescription won't be covered under the Belmont Abbey College plan, either.
If anything, the EEOC should be raving mad at drug companies that they have offered all these contraceptives to women while DISCRIMINATING against men by not allowing them to have the same peace of mind knowing that they can just take a pill, do whatever they want, and there won't be any procreative side effects from their good time on a night out.
Instead, the EEOC is attacking the Belmont Abbey College and the position of an independent religious institution with over 1 Billion members around the world. Yeah, really classy.
Thankfully, Belmont Abbey president Dr. William Thierfelder isn't giving in:
"All of us need to have moral courage in today's world. We are so resolute in our commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church that there is no possible way we would ever deviate from it, and if it came down to it, … we would close the school rather than give in. So it is absolute, unequivocal, impossible for us to go against the teachings of the Catholic Church in any way. There is no form of compromise that is possible."
Again, this is a testament to how committed to equal rights Belmont Abbey College is! If the EEOC and the federal government demand that Belmont Abbey College cover abortion, contraceptives, and sterilizations in its healthcare plan, they would respond by closing down the school, that way everybody - man and woman - loses their job! That's the federal government in action! That's our tax dollars at work!
I'm so proud.
Not of my government, but of my Church. It's surprisingly encouraging to see people so devout in faith that they are willing to become martyrs for the teachings of Christ and His Church.
As an American, I'm scared to death of what's happening to our country that religious beliefs are being so viciously assailed by the federal government that it's come down to these institutions and the good men and women in them being forced to either compromise their values or continue providing their service to the community.
If you're interested law firm helping to defend Belmont Abbey College is The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
