In response to President Obama’s announcement that religious organizations will not be exempt from Obamacare’s requirement that all health plans cover certain abortion-producing drugs, sterilization procedures and contraceptive devices by 2013, Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “in effect the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.” America’s Catholic leadership is learning that providing “free” government health care comes with strings. Too often a commendable concern for people’s welfare makes them — and most of the rest of the population for that matter — blind to the costs.
The hammer has now fallen and the choices will be agonizing, and not only for Catholics.
