This letter by William H. Carey of Dartmouth, a retired justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court who has written and argued extensively on First Amendment issues, appeared in South Coast Today, March 11. 2012. Kudos to Judge Casey.

I have also included links to a video of a Women's Conference held in DC last week, which gives good intellectual underpinnings to the religious freedom arguments against the mandate, a fine article from the Wall Street Journal about the mandate, and an article from American Thinker which makes the point that the passion of pro-lifers like you and me will cause the overturn of O-care. I think you will find them all useful and inspiring. Anne

Your View: A free lunch on contraceptive services

By William H. Carey

The dispute between the U.S. government through the Department of Health and Human Services and various religious associations, including the Catholic Church, is nothing more than a struggle for power.

The government insists that it has the duty to guarantee to woman the availability of contraceptive services freely, on the backs of its employers. The religious organizations claim it is not the function of government and to do so is a violation of freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The dispute is not over the use, popularity, benefits or dangers, if any, associated with contraceptive services. It is about the availability on the lack of employers.

This is not a minor issue. Religious societies are among the largest employers in the United States, and would be the parties charged with the compliance of this law. Their claim is that to make such a demand on them violates not only natural law but also the freedom of religion provisions.

This has been mishandled by DHH from the very beginning.

On Jan. 20, the government, through the Health and Human Services cabinet office, mandated that employers (including religious employers) offer their employees health coverage service, which include "sterilization, abortion drugs and contraception." Catholic employees and others would be forced to incorporate such free services to their employees for contraceptives.

The Catholic Church, employees, religious associations and others revolted upon the mandatory abridgement of their guaranteed freedom of religion without interference by the government.

The isolated language of the act is buried in a 300-page document that would, or could, be read in its entirety by very few people. I don't propose to be one of them.

The language now being questioned sticks out like a sore thumb. It guarantees contraceptive services by employers, including religious employers. Having in mind the vast number of employees working for religious institutions (including hospitals alone), the number of potential recipients would be alarming.

As soon as Feb. 10, less than 30 days after the first surprise, the insurance companies appeared on the scene as rescuers of the so-called "modifications" (now called the contraception mandate) announced by President Obama, with the costs borne by insurance companies, which everyone knows will ultimately be paid for by the premiums of the employers.

This created a new controversy by adding new players - the insurance companies - and created additional problems for them and the First Amendment issue. These new regulations have not been published anywhere familiar to me. Certainly not in the Federal Registry, which is required by law.

This February mandate did not recognize the moral issue.

To make matters even worse, the government tried to amend a "highway bill" to satisfy the objection of religious orders, but the attempt failed.

Their contraceptive mandate is useless to solve the problem and certainly not evidence of good faith by the government, who created the problem in the first place.

The government cannot try to skirt the First Amendment. To guarantee the liberties of the freedom of religion is much more important than politically created mandates during an election year.

We cannot have a rule of law that mandates this type of insurance coverage and a rule of law that mandates freedom of religion.

The more disturbing result is that those staff writers who prepared this "mandate" know this, but tried to sneak it by the American people. It was an intentional ploy to get around the First Amendment. The whole issue, however, is not about the merits or value of the contraceptive service. Couples have that issue to resolve themselves. It is about the government's mandating the availability to all religious employers and making them pay for it.

An accommodation on this issue to the rights of all may be very difficult - but not impossible.

What all involved dearly need is "good faith" of the government, religious societies, insurance companies and all others involved. Nothing however, is insolable if genuine good faith is paramount in the solution. So far, at least, it is lacking.

We remain a Christian nation. The religious societies and the Catholic Church are strong but genuine in supporting the guarantees of the First Amendment and not a politically motivated agency or staff.

Christ has already given us the way to resolve it.

The Bible tells us that the "donarus," or coin, was shown to Jesus to resolve a controversy between parties with the question "Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?" The "donarus" today in this issue is a 300-page document offered by Department of Health and Human Services as the law of our land for the free availability of contraceptive services paid for by employers.

The answer Christ gives was: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Render to God the things that are God's."

As soon as this answer is accepted by politicians and the Department of Health and Human Services in good faith, we will be well on our way to a solution.

Arguments will be heard before the Supreme Court of the United States on March 26-28.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oa8v00X3so&feature=related

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265461876605408.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/03/grandma_marys_passion_for_life_could_be_the_key_to_defeating_obama.html