intersection

One way to figure out which side of an issue you should be on is to see who else is on that side. I learned this when living in California, the land of the ever-expanding propositional ballot. Those measures were often written to purposely confuse and confound the voter, so I would always check to see who wrote the proposition and who was for and against it.

So, let’s take a look at Pres. Obama’s so-called “compromise” on the HHS mandated “free” contraception coverage. Does this regulatory language presented to us on February 10 actually do what the White House said it would: remove the obligation from churches and religious institutions to provide and pay for birth control coverage, including contraception and abortifacients?

On the “for” side (Obama has given us something we can live with/something we like/we’re happy, very, very happy), we have:

• NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, at least until 2003, when they chose to stop spelling out the acronym–gee, I wonder why? Just what you want, an organization that tries to hide what it is)
• Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States
• RCRC (Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a group that uses religion as a fig leaf to cover up their abortion agenda and even presents as one of their ethical justifications the idea that abortion can be considered a self-defense measure)
• CHA (Catholic Health Association, the useful idiots of the abortion coalition)
• Liberal columnists like E.J. Dionne and Jon Meachem (and as a mark as to how low Time Magazine has fallen, the last time I checked, Meachem’s article had only seven comments)

On the “against” side (Obama continues to violate the First Amendment/this “compromise” was no compromise/this is insulting), we have:

• USCCB (United States Council of Catholic Bishops, not always right on the prudential issues, but hopefully never wavering on the teachings of faith and morals)
• Notre Dame Law School faculty
• AUL (Americans United for Life, bringing a lawsuit against the mandate)
• NRLC (National Right to Life)
• Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (headed by Dr. Robert Land)
• Rabbi Meir Soloveichik (Director, Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, Yeshiva University)
• ACNA (Anglican Church in North America, headed by Archbishop Robert Duncan)
• George Weigel (Distinguished Senior Fellow, Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center)
• Individual Catholic churchmen, like Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Diocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Diocese of New York, and Donald Cardinal Wuerl of the Diocese of Washington

Okay, time to pick your side; I know mine.