Posts tagged “Contraception”

Unholy Marriage: Planned Parenthood and Obamacare

Posted on May 14th, 2013

In Planned Bullyhood, Karen Handel notes the financial windfall that comes to Planned Parenthood through Obamacare—and how Obamacare provides better coverage of contraception and sterilization than for actual illnesses. Planned Parenthood stands to gain under Obamacare. Nearly all insurance plans must provide contraceptives without a co-pay. Contraception services account for about one-third of its total services (according to Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report). Clearly, Planned Parenthood benefits financially from this mandate— and one can see clearly why Cecile Richards aggressively lobbied for it. And, before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I am against all contraception, let me say that I am not. What I am against is forcing this mandate on religious organizations. It is a flagrant infringement on religious liberty and conscience.…

Categories: Culture, Politics

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The Prophecies of Paul VI

Posted on April 22nd, 2013

A professor in seminary had me read Humanae Vitae, the 1968 papal encyclical on human birth and sexuality, the document most associated with the Roman Catholic stance on contraception. It’s something I ought to reread, having had more time to reflect on it. Mary Eberstadt (in Adam and Eve after the Pill) outlines the predictions of Paul VI on how the world would change if contraception became widely accepted: The encyclical warned of four resulting trends: a general lowering of moral standards throughout society; a rise in infidelity; a lessening of respect for women by men; and the coercive use of reproductive technologies by governments. It all has happened. Exhibits A & B: the “see no evil” approach to Gosnell’s “House of Horrors”; the trampling on religious…

Categories: Culture

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It is wickedness to prevent conception

Posted on July 26th, 2012

How great, therefore, the wickedness of human nature is! How many girls there are who prevent conception and kill and expel tender fetuses, although procreation is the work of God! Indeed, some spouses who marry and live together in a respectable manner have various ends in mind, but rarely children. -Luther, AE 3

Categories: Theology

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Obama: HHS Mandate is all about “freedom from government interference and meddling”

Posted on May 11th, 2012

Doesn’t it feel like we’ve walked through the looking glass? Somehow the Obamacare Mandate requiring religious organizations to provide—against their conscience and long-held beliefs—abortion-causing drugs, sterilization, and contraception is all about promoting “freedom from government interference and meddling.” Huh? This is like the anti-bullying speaker who turns out to be … a bully. “This contraception fight in particular was illuminating,” Obama told a group of women at a campaign fundraiser yesterday. “This is a [Republican] party that says it prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulation. These are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government interference and meddling. But it doesn’t seem to bother them when it comes to women’s health.” I shouldn’t need to remind you, gentle reader, that pregnancy is not…

Categories: Politics

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As available as bottled water

Posted on April 17th, 2012

LCMS President Matthew Harrison in the Lutheran Witness on the Obamacare Mandate and religious freedom: The issue is simple. We are not telling the government not to provide drugs or healthcare for women. We are not pushing for legislation to limit access to anything. Our own health plan does provide medications for specific health needs (which in other cases are used as contraceptives). I would argue that contraceptives (which the LCMS does not reject out of hand) and abortion-causing drugs are as available as bottled water in this culture of death. The “accommodation” offered by the president is a red herring. “Churches and their institutions won’t pay for offensive medications; their insurers will.” Oh? Most Catholic health plans are self-insured, just as the Concordia Health…

Categories: Culture, Politics, Religion

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Unwillingness to devote our lives to fruitfulness

Posted on March 20th, 2012

Many people assume that overpopulation is one of the greatest threats to the future of humanity. But it is not the number of people that threatens, but the kind of people. What is the difference between the murderer, who does so because he thinks his life depends on it, and the advocate of population control (birth control, abortion, euthanasia) who does so for the same reason? In reality, the world can sustain many more people than inhabit it. What we realize in our experience is our unwillingness to devote our lives to fruitfulness as the proper response to multiplication. Note, for instance, that the U.S. pays farmers not to grow crops in their fields and often throws away tons of milk and dairy products…

Categories: Theology

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Human Sexuality: Its meaning and purpose

Posted on March 20th, 2012

During Immanuel’s Sunday morning Scripture Study, we’ve been spending some time in recent weeks discussing various aspects of the HHS mandate requiring religious employers, against their conscience and religious beliefs, to provide sterilization, abortion-causing drugs, and contraception to their employees. We discussed the mandate itself, the government’s increasing hostility to expressions of Christianity, and more recently, the meaning and purpose of human sexuality. Below is a segment where I listed some of the key Scriptural texts and then wrote a summary of what I believe the Bible’s teaching to be on sexuality.   What does the Bible teach about human sexuality? Gen. 1.28 Gen. 2.24f Gen. 4.1 Gen. 9.1, 6, 7 Gen. 18.9-14 Gen. 38.6-10 Ps. 127.3-5 Mal. 2.14f God made the man and…

Categories: Theology

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In the contraception mandate, who is in bed with Obama?

Posted on March 15th, 2012

We have seen previously how the contraception mandate is a dream of the new fascists: inconsequential sex, disregard for children, erosion of religious liberty, and more power ceded to the government. But there is also money to be made here, and Big Pharma is the winner. Here’s Peter Schweizer on the role of Big Pharma: It’s important to point out that among President Obama’s biggest financial backers are precisely the Big Pharma companies who benefit from the mandate.  Sally Sussman, head of government affairs for Pfizer, is one of his biggest campaign bundlers, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Obama on Thursday night. Pfizer sells numerous contraceptives that now must be covered by health-care plans.  Obama’s financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry run deep. During the 2008…

Categories: Culture, Politics

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The core issue in the religious freedom debate

Posted on March 6th, 2012

Rep. Darrell Issa’s recent piece in Roll Call (“Distorting the Debate of Religious Freedom”) challenges the disinformation campaign being waged through the institutional media that religious conservatives are seeking to outlaw contraception. He sets the record straight on the purpose of the hearing at which President Harrison testified: It was the committee’s hope to engage in a robust debate about the First Amendment infringements created by the administration’s proposal. Unfortunately, Congressional Democrats directed by House Minority LeaderNancy Pelosi (Calif.) were more interested in political theater and decided to cast the hearing about something that it wasn’t. Our nation’s founders believed so fervently in religious liberty that they established the First Amendment so people of all faiths could practice free from the fear of persecution or…

Categories: Politics, Religion

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