This is kind of a funny tidbit here - we all know the Catholic Church
is against Birth Control, but here The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this
article. This is absolutely bizarrre, possible sanctions or termination.
Catholic Church, contraception coverage collide
Diocese employees in state could face sanctions,
termination
Thousands of Catholic Church employees in Wisconsin are now eligible
for birth control coverage through their health insurance plans, under the
budget bill passed by the Legislature last year.
But because the church considers artificial contraception "gravely
immoral," at least some of those workers - including non-Catholics - could face
sanctions, even termination, if they use it, one church official said
Wednesday.
"Our employees know what church teaching is. And we trust them to use
their conscience and do the right thing," said Brent King, spokesman for the
Madison Diocese, which began covering prescription contraception Aug.
1.
Reproductive health advocates, including the Washington-based
Catholics for Choice, criticized the stand, calling birth control "basic health
care."
"The reality is the vast majority of Catholics use contraceptive
family planning," said David Nolan of Catholics for Choice. "And making them
access it elsewhere or pay full price because they can't get it through their
insurance is a needless barrier."
Wisconsin lawmakers last year mandated that all insurance plans that
cover prescription drugs offer comparable coverage for contraception.
Self-insured employers were exempted.
Organizations such as Planned Parenthood have been urging coverage
parity for decades. And the state's Equal Rights Division has ruled at least
twice in recent years that lack of equity constitutes sex
discrimination.
The Catholic Church was the main opponent of the measure. In
a letter to Wisconsin Catholics last year, the state's bishops called artificial contraception "gravely immoral" and said it "diminishes the role of God, the giver of life, in marriage."
When the law was passed, three of the five Wisconsin dioceses - Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay - were affected. Green Bay has since converted
to a self-insured plan "in an effort to live out its Catholic faith," spokeswoman Leah Gabrielson said.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is complying with the requirement, but
is looking into alternative coverage, according to spokeswoman Julie Wolf. She
said the diocese may also consider challenging the law.
Detailed information about Milwaukee's benefits and policies was not
immediately available because church officials were in La Crosse for the
installation of William P. Callahan as the new bishop there.
Area Catholic hospital systems Wheaton-Franciscan and Columbia-St.
Mary's are self-insured and, as such, exempt from the provision. Anne Ballentine
of Wheaton-Franciscan said the system provides contraceptive medication when
medically necessary for other conditions but not to prevent
pregnancies.
And at least two Catholic universities, Marquette and Mount Mary,
already offered the coverage before the law changed.
Marquette's policy recognizes that a significant portion of the
university's employees are non-Catholic and that contraceptives are at times
prescribed by physicians for purposes other than birth control, spokeswoman Mary Pat Pfeil said.
She stressed that "the choice to use a contraceptive is both a
medical decision and a matter of conscience."
King, of the Madison Diocese, agreed on the role of conscience in
such matters, but said a true Catholic could only come to the conclusion reached
by the church.
"Conscience isn't what I want or think is best in a situation," he
said. "It must always align with the will of God."
Diocese of Madison employees, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, sign a
document when they're hired vowing to abide by the laws of both Wisconsin and
the church.
He said employees would receive "strong pastoral recommendations
against" using the contraception benefit, but that the diocese has no intention
of policing it.
Because of medical privacy laws, he said, the only way the diocese
would know is if an employee flouted it "in an overt and publicly defiant
way."
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