As many of you are aware, last week President Barack Obama ignited a war on personal freedom and his loyal supporter liberal U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown was immediately out supporting the President’s crusade. 

• Sherrod Brown Does Not Support Legislation To Widen The Conscience Exemption For Contraception Coverage. “HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Jan. 20 that it had released its final rule requiring that all insurance plans include contraception coverage, with no co-pay or deductible, with a narrow exemption for religious institutions that employ only people of their own religious persuasion. … A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), who is up for re-election this year, said that he does not support legislation to widen the exemption.” (Tom Troy, “Reproductive Insurance Reviewed,” The [Toledo, OH] Blade, 1/31/12)

Meanwhile, even some of the President’s closest confidantes– including Vice President Joe Biden, former White House chief of staff Bill Daley and former Democrat National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tim Kaine – have all broken ranks with Obama on this issue. 

Given that Sherrod Brown continues to support this government overreach by the Obama Administration, we wanted to highlight what some Ohioans are saying about this important issue.

• COLUMBUS DISPATCH:  “In an overreach so stunning it shocked some of the president’s most staunch liberal supporters, the Obama administration announced it would not exempt Catholic hospitals and other religiously affiliated institutions from the requirement under the health-reform law to provide free birth control and coverage of sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs. …  Congregants at Catholic churches around Ohio and the rest of the country last week were urged to protest the decision, and pray about it. The ruling gives more fuel to President Barack Obama’s critics who have been claiming for years that his administration has little regard for traditional religion and personal liberty. However, many Catholics who have been liberal-leaning also were angered by the decision.”  (Editorial, More to come, Columbus Dispatch, 2/7/12)

• KEVIN O’BRIEN AT THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER:  “If the administration doesn't back down from this outlandish overreach, the courts -- or maybe even Congress (remember Congress?) -- will undo it.  But another aspect of this fight is more subtle -- and in some respects scarier, because it affects every American.  When the battle was raging in Congress over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- the abominable misnomer much better de scribed as Obamacare (well, except for the "care" part) -- its proponents assured Americans that it did not constitute a federal takeover of the health care industry.  Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort!  Now, less than two years into the Obamacare era, we have the federal government ordering all health insurance companies to provide a certain kind of service to all comers and dictating who will pay for that service and how.  Since a church that opposes the entire product line on doctrinal grounds is putting up a fight, we've all been brought up to speed on how the administration's edict conflicts with religious freedom.” (Kevin O’Brien, See the healthcare takeover now, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 02/09/12)     

• CINCINNATI ARCHBISHOP DENNIS SCHNURR:  “As Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr and other Catholic officials speak out publicly against a new federal rule involving free birth control, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defends the switch and says the criticism is misguided. … The archbishop wrote, ‘In so ruling, the (Obama) administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).’” 

• SISTERS OF CHARITY HEALTH SYSTEM IN CLEVELAND:  “The Sisters of Charity Health System is a Cleveland-based Catholic health-care organization which, in collaboration with other Catholic health ministries, actively promoted the passage of the Affordable Care Act. We are dedicated to increased health-care coverage and access and are supportive of the law’s efforts to improve quality of care and patient outcomes.  I ask the vice president to help Catholic and other faith-based employers with a recent federal action. We are very disappointed with the Health and Human Services rule on women’s preventive services that requires the inclusion of contraceptive coverage and sterilization in employer-based employee-benefits plans. The regulation denies adequate conscience protections for religious employers like us.  Our faith motivates us; we carry out the healing mission because of God’s call. And we are blessed to be joined in our ministry by a diverse and inclusive work force.  We urge President Barack Obama to be consistent with existing provider conscience-protection laws and allow us to exercise our First Amendment rights to conscience protection as faith-based employers.  Please fix this discriminatory rule.” (Sister Judith Ann Karam, Reverse rule for contraception coverage, Columbus Dispatch, 02/09/12)

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