This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I have had it with the nation's Catholic bishops who rejected the federal government's most recent attempt to provide female employees who work for their nonprofit organizations the opportunity to get free contraceptive health care through a separate plan that the nonprofits don't pay for ("Bishops press for broader birth control exemption" (Tribune, Feb. 8).
The feds developed a way that they would not have to pay for the coverage, and still the bishops moan that they are "forced to violate their morally well-informed consciences," according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
No one's forcing anyone to do anything. A service that the nation's doctors deem essential to a woman's health care is available should a women choose it. It is the bishops who want to force their female employees to do without a choice.
The bishops whine about their religious rights. Well, what about the rights of their employees who want a health care plan that affords them contraception, which a vast majority of Catholics use? Shouldn't they, too, have a choice?
The administration is bending over backward to accommodate the bishops, but they are out to pick a fight. Grow up!
Neil McCormick
Salt Lake City