The Catholic Archdiocese of Denver ran a full-page ad in The Denver Post the Sunday before Election Day claiming that contraceptive coverage in employer-based health insurance plans, a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, somehow violates religious liberty.
Aside from being thinly veiled electioneering, the published letter from the Archdiocese distorts the meaning of religious liberty.
The ACLU of Colorado upholds the freedom of all people to practice their religion, whatever it may be, but religious liberty does not include a freedom to impose religious views or practices on others. As long as we have a health care system where many people have no practical choice of insurance other than the plan provided by their employer, access to contraception in these plans is essential. Denial of contraceptive coverage in employer-based health plans discriminates against women in those plans and imposes the employer’s religious practices on those women. That is not religious liberty.
We have been down this road before as a nation. Fifty years ago, when a restaurant owner in South Carolina claimed that he should not have to serve African-American customers because integration was against his religious beliefs, courts rejected the claim. Discrimination against women today is no more justified than discrimination against African-Americans then.
The contraception rule in the Affordable Care Act does not force any women or men to use contraception against their religious beliefs. All it does is provide equal access to health care for women regardless of where they work. In special consideration for religious groups opposed to contraception that are allowed to hire solely from within their own faith, there is already a discrimination exemption for bona fide churches, but companies such as Hercules Industries that want to discriminate clearly do not — and should not — fall under that exception.
Nothing in the Affordable Care Act forces the Archdiocese of Denver to abandon its charitable programs as their letter suggests.
There is a national effort underway by right-wing groups to target 13 states, including Colorado, to pass legislation that uses religion to discriminate under the guise of religious liberty. A “religious liberty” caucus will likely be formed by some Colorado legislators.
We can expect to hear language from that caucus similar to the overblown language in the Archdiocese of Denver ad. But keep in mind that their goal is to allow discrimination, even by organizations receiving public funds or serving the public.
The kind of legislation they seek could deny health care to women or lodging and basic services to people who are gay or lesbian, all in the name of religion. Even in public schools, some students could be denied counseling, or all students could be denied a sound education, because of the religious beliefs of school officials, teachers or counselors.
We all have a right to live by our individual religious beliefs, but not to force others to live by them, too. We also have a responsibility to follow the laws of a society made up of many religious perspectives. Police, firefighters, pharmacists and doctors can’t choose the people they will serve based on whether they like them or agree with them. We should be extremely reluctant to carve holes in the fabric of our society by letting discrimination expand in the name of religion.
Genuine religious liberty is a value the ACLU holds dearly. But discriminating against women or anyone else and calling it religious liberty stands the concept of liberty on its head.
Do not be fooled by the scare tactics and misleading messages about religious liberty from the Archdiocese of Denver and others who wish to impose their religious practices on people who may or may not share their religious beliefs.
Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, is executive director of the ACLU of Colorado.
