The irony of today's 5-4 ruling (full pdf opinion) by the United States Supreme Court that closely-held for-profit companies cannot be forced to cover abortion-inducing drugs and birth control in health insurance plans against the religious convictions of their owners is that neither of the cases involved Catholic corporations or Catholic-owned businesses.
Our thanks to the Southern Baptists and the Mennonites for upholding traditional Catholic moral teaching!
The lesson here is that fundamental things are worth fighting for, and that those who truly -- deeply -- believe in what they claim to believe struggle to the end. Large American Catholic institutions, such as Georgetown University, Notre Dame University, and most notably the Archdiocese of New York (see our 2013 post), which cover abortion and birth control in their health care plans, are not the role models in culture wars. Those who stand and fight -- which admittedly involved a lot of conservative and traditional Catholics united with Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialities Corporation -- are the ones who can be counted on to not surrender under pressure.
