The Affordable Care Act, under review by the Supreme Court since Monday, would require religious institutions to provide health plans that cover contraceptives, and has sparked debate among the prominent Catholic community in New Mexico.
Father Stephen Imbarrato, pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows and founder of Project Defending Life, said the Archdiocese of Santa Fe should not be forced to pay for coverage for contraceptives for employees at the 97 parishes and 19 catholic schools throughout the state, because contraceptive use violates the churches’ teachings. The original bill would have required employers to pay for the contraceptive coverage, but some religious leaders said this mandate went against their religion’s teachings and their constitutional right to practice their faith freely. The newest version of the bill would instead of require insurance companies to foot the bill. But Imbarrato said either way the law is an attempt to undermine the Catholic church’s authority.
“Don’t forget the doctrines of the Catholic church are 2,000 years old. They predate all of these initiatives by those who want to make billions of dollars off of contraception, aborted babies and abortion,” he said. “Now they want to push their immoral agenda on the Catholic church. We call this the war on women, why don’t we call it the war on Christianity, the war on people of faith, because that’s what this really is.”
But Micaela Cadena, campaign coordinator at Young Women United, a local nonprofit for young women of color, said the bill protects employees from being imposed on by their bosses and ensures complete coverage for contraceptives for employees who often need them for health reasons.
“They (employers who deny access to contraceptives) are overstepping religious freedom and saying anybody that’s making a meaningful living has to follow and live under the moral, religious and ethical code of their employer,” she said. “That to me is a disgrace to what the ideals of this country are.”
Cadena said attacks on women’s reproductive health are happening in states across the nation, and New Mexico is no exception.
Two bills addressing the question of abortion in New Mexico caused a debate during the recent legislative session which ended last month. House Bill 51 and Senate Bill 157, also known as the Parental Notification Act, called for health care providers to notify a parent or guardian before performing an abortion on a female under the age of 17. Failure to inform a guardian or parent and perform the abortion would result in a misdemeanor charge for the physician.
Both Cadena and Imbarrato fought on opposing sides of the bills. Although both bills failed to pass, Cadena said they are an example of New Mexico’s status in the “war on women.”
“We understand that attacks on reproductive health and reproductive options that are intended to limit a woman’s full range of health care most severely affect and impact young women and women of color,” she said. “The parental-notification act that has surfaced many years in our state legislative session is intended to keep young women in New Mexico, from Albuquerque to our rural communities, from having quality and real access to abortions.”
Imbarrato said the bill would not restrict access to health care, but create consistency across the board when dealing with minors and health care. He said most parental notification is required for most other medical procedures performed on minors.
“The parental-notification bill in essence is nothing more than requiring abortionists and the abortion industry to do what is required universally by every other medical professional in the United States,” he said.
Cadena said unplanned pregnancy affects more than just the women involved.
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“These are issues that are not going to have an impact only on the parents and the rest of the family, but these are issues that are lifetime impacts on the life of that young person,” she said. “Those are decisions that will have a lifetime impact on who they are and the families they choose to create.”
Imbarrato said his organization believes abortion is wrong because the Catholic church believes that life begins at conception.
“Project Defending Life is dedicated to the ending of abortion by changing the hearts and minds of people by convincing women that abortion is not the proper choice for them, that if they do get into an unwanted pregnancy to have the child give the child up for adoption,” he said.
Project Defending Life, which supported the parental-notification act said the bill would help with the long-term goal of preventing abortions, but, according to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, women under 17 make up only about seven percent of those receiving abortions in the U.S.
According to information from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a little more than 25 percent of New Mexico’s population was Catholic in 2008, the most recent available data. Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, said in 2008 about 24 percent of Americans identify as Catholic and the number has stayed around this percentage for the past 50 years.
Cadena said a common misconception is that all Catholic people are anti-contraception.
“Many Catholics do support access to reproductive health care,” she said. “So I think what’s important for us and others to understand is that there’s a difference between the position of the Catholic church and many very faithful, practicing Catholics throughout our communities.”
