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Contraception and conscience

Letter to the Editor

Published: Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Updated: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 22:10

We, officers of Notre Dame's Right to Life, would like to respond to Gary Caruso's viewpoint (Sept 30).

Mr. Caruso condemns Fr. Jenkins' letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebilius, asking that the definition of "religious employer" in the new health care mandate be broadened to "ensure conscience protections" that will allow Notre Dame to continue its work as a Catholic university. The mandate "would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the Church's moral teaching or to discontinue our employee and student health care plans."

Fr. Jenkins correctly denounces the claim that a Catholic university should offer contraceptive or sterilization services. As the Catechism states, "‘Every action … to render procreation impossible' is intrinsically evil" (2370).

Such "preventative services" as health care equate pregnancy with disease or sickness. By this reasoning, the unborn become the result of failed medication. In sharp contrast, unborn children are the natural fruits of the sexual act. As such, any separation of the sexual act from procreation is contrary to human nature.

As a Catholic university, we do not impose Catholicism on our students, but we ask that they respect the religious teachings of the Church that inform the mission of the University that they have freely chosen to enter into.

Forcing Notre Dame to offer contraceptive services to students and staff is a violation of the religious freedom of the University and of the conscience that informs it. This mandate would force Notre Dame to either abandon its conscience, cease providing health insurance or refuse entrance and employment to those who disagree with the Church's teachings.

We would like to praise Fr. Jenkins' many continued efforts to promote the dignity of the human person, and we especially commend his letter to Secretary Sebelius. As violations of human nature, contraceptive services are contrary to what is just, and forcing Notre Dame to offer such services is unjust.

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law," and "an unjust law is no law at all."

 

Christopher Damian

Information Commissioner

Notre Dame Right to Life

Oct. 5

Samantha Stempky

President

Notre Dame Right To Life

Oct. 5

Andrew Lynch

Vice President

Notre Dame Right To Life

Oct. 5

 

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9 comments

Anonymous
Fri Oct 7 2011 00:47
This article never discusses natural family planning
Anonymous
Fri Oct 7 2011 00:37
They're completely different. Natural family planning is always open to procreation and never blocks it. The entire point of artificial contraception is to block procreation. For more information, google articles by Dr. Janet Smith
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 17:19
Isn't natural family planning still birth control? You're trying to CONTROL when you give BIRTH. How dare you! Make more babies! They are sacred!
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 15:36
This is preposterous! Notre Dame has the constitutional right to religious freedom! There is no constitutional right to birth control! The government is taking away the protected rights of academic institutions and hospitals across the country in the name of "access" to "health services" that compromise the religious freedom of those institutions. Fr. Jenkins was absolutely right to protest this mandate, and the students of this university need to unite and protest, as well. And to the people suggesting that there are many around Notre Dame using birth control... that is their individual decision to make. The University does not need to condone that decision, much less provide actual birth control to its faculty, staff, and students. And, by the way, when done correctly, natural family planning (NFP) is actually quite effective. Get a ClearBlue Fertility Monitor on Amazon...
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 15:19
Anonymous at 14:15 ... the point isn't that no one on campus can use or is using birth control, it's that the University shouldn't be forced to provide it as part of the insurance package.
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 14:15
Look around the campus; it's surprise how many married graduate students, faculty, and staff have been in a loving relationship with their spouse and do not have children. Or only have 1 or 2 children. Does the university believe that these people are not having sex? Or that they are all unable to procreate? This rule seems to make people who impose rules feel better about their choices because there is quite obviously a number of people using birth control affliated with the campus.
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 10:06
Just a note ... providing birth artificial control, ceasing provision of health insurance and refusing entrance and employment to those who disagree with the Church's teachings are all things that would force Notre Dame to abandon its conscience ... these are all things that paramount to Church teaching. This is the entire point of Fr. Jenkin's letter -- the situation puts him in a double bind, where no solution allows him to uphold the Spirit of the University. Sometimes, those too entrenched in the pro-life Catholic movement forget that the Church has teachings on other issues.
Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 05:51
"This mandate would force Notre Dame to either abandon its conscience, cease providing health insurance or refuse entrance and employment to those who disagree with the Church's teachings."

Which of these options do you think Notre Dame will choose if the changes Notre Dame seeks are not made? Which do you recommend?

Anonymous
Thu Oct 6 2011 01:04
The full letter is on the right to life website, www.nd.edu/~prolife






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