President's contraception decision fits pattern of contempt for conscience

Christian Medical Association: President's contraception decision fits pattern of contempt for conscience

Dr. David Stevens: "The President's so-called religious accommodation today shows that he either has no comprehension of what conscience convictions mean or that he cynically chooses to disregard conscience and play a political game."

Washington, DC--February 10, 2012--The nation's largest faith-based doctors' association, the 16,000-member Christian Medical Association (www.cmda.org), issued a statement today protesting President Obama's decision to continue to require all insurance plans nationwide to pay for sterilizations and contraceptive pills that can end the life of a developing human being.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens asserted, "The President's so-called 'religious accommodation' today shows that he either has no comprehension of what conscience convictions mean or that he cynically chooses to disregard conscience and play a political game. We learned from his executive order on abortion in health care reform that verbal engineering cannot cover up a contempt for conscience.

"Those of us who have a conscientious conviction that contraceptive pills that can end the life of a developing human being are morally impermissible not only deplore paying for them directly; we also deplore the government forcing insurance companies or anyone else to pay for them. And we in faith-based organizations certainly have no intention of instructing employees how to obtain morally objectionable pills, as is required by Hawaii's policy--after which the President's 'accommodation' is reportedly patterned.

"No one--whether an individual citizen, a faith-based organization or an insurance company--should be forced by the federal government to participate in any way in the provision of pills that can end the life of a developing human being. That is simply contrary to American principles of freedom of conscience, and it shows the contempt for conscience inherent in radical abortion ideology.

"As Dr. Martin Luther King reminds us, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'

"As physicians who uphold life-honoring standards such as the Hippocratic oath, we recognize that it is morally or ethically wrong to risk ending the life of a developing human being by using pills such as ella and the morning-after pill. These pills are falsely promoted as ordinary contraceptives despite clear FDA label warnings that 'ella may also work by preventing attachment (implantation) to the uterus' and that the morning-after pill (Plan B) "may inhibit implantation by altering the endometrium.'"

"In his speech at Notre Dame, President Obama promised a 'sensible' respect for conscience, but in practice the President has demonstrated a pattern of contempt for conscience. The President has gutted the only federal regulation protecting the exercise of conscience in health care, denied of federal grant funds for aiding human trafficking victims because a faith-based organization refused to participate in abortion, lobbied the Supreme Court to restrict faith-based organizations' hiring rights and issued a coercive contraceptive mandate that imposes the government's abortion ideology on every American.

Action

"Every American, regardless of political persuasion, should be protesting these assaults on our freedoms and contacting legislators to enact conscience-protecting legislation such as Amendment #1520 to S. 1813, the Surface Transportation bill. This amendment includes the text of the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, introduced in the House by Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb. 1st) and in the Senate by Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)."