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Reuters General/ - Article, Ter, 03 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Catholic university in Ohio ends
birth-control coverage
(Reuters) - Xavier University, one of the oldest Roman
Catholic colleges in the United States, will cut off
birth-control coverage for its employees in July, a
move that has divided faculty members and students
on the Cincinnati campus.
The abrupt cancellation of insurance benefits at the
Jesuit university in Ohio comes amid a furious dispute
between the Obama administration and the nation's
Catholic bishops over contraception.
The administration has mandated that nearly all health
insurance plans provide free birth control by this
summer, with limited accommodations for religious
institutions that oppose contraception on moral
grounds. Top Catholic bishops have blasted that
mandate as an attack on religious freedom.
President Barack Obama's allies, in turn, have
accused the church of obstructing an important benefit
for women.
The controversy prompted Xavier President Michael
Graham, a Jesuit priest, to review the health insurance
plan offered to the university's 935 employees.
Graham announced this week in a letter to the faculty
that the plan will cease to cover contraception on July
1.
Some faculty members who relied on the coverage
said they were surprised and upset at the sudden end
to benefits, which could raise their out-of-pocket costs
for contraception by hundreds of dollars a year.
"It hadn't occurred to me that this would ever be an
issue," said Tina Davlin-Pater, an associate professor
in the department of sports studies.
Davlin-Pater, an athletic trainer who is not Catholic,
said she viewed the denial of birth control coverage as
an indication that "it's still OK to discriminate against
women in today's world."
Student Facebook pages crackled with similar
comments on Tuesday as word of the decision
circulated. Amid the anger, a few on campus stood up
to back the university administration.
'NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEN THERE'
"That coverage never should have been there in the
first place," said Meghan Savercool, a junior majoring
in theology. She called the move a crucial means of
"upholding the Jesuit Catholic identity of the
university."
The contraception mandate that sparked the Xavier
move is part of a broad push by the Obama
administration to provide free access for Americans to
a variety of preventive services, from mammograms to
childhood vaccinations to birth control.
The Catholic church considers artificial contraception a
sin - and does not view pregnancy as an ill to be
prevented - and the bishops have protested the
inclusion of contraception as a mandatory benefit.
Surveys have shown that an overwhelming majority of
Catholic women of reproductive age have used
contraception at some point, despite the church's
teaching.
The birth-control mandate is tied to Obama's broader
2010 healthcare law now under review by the U.S.
Supreme Court.
If the court strikes down the law, the mandate would
likely evaporate. If the law is upheld, nearly all plans
would have to cover contraception by August 1.
Religious institutions will have an extra year to comply,
though several have filed suit to try to block the
provision from ever taking effect.
The controversy has jolted some Catholic college
presidents into scrutinizing the health insurance plans
offered to their employees, hunting for potential
conflicts with church doctrine.
"Many times, contraception was covered and the
organization didn't even know it," said Michael O'Dea,
executive director of the Christus Medicus Foundation,
which promotes Christian healthcare.
It is not clear whether Xavier officials knew
contraception was covered in their plan. A
spokeswoman said the university's administration
would not comment.
Some on campus said they suspected Graham had
come under intense pressure from the diocese, and
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