How can anyone determine the true conscience of another person? What if it is religious in nature and others in the same religion feel differently? That is the most crucial question to be answered in the battle against the use of contraceptives.
Religious conscience can and does change. Contraceptives are now commonly used by Catholics. A 2014 survey of typical Catholics in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, conducted in response to a request by Pope Francis, shows that the church’s core teachings on sexual morals, birth control, homosexuality, marriage and divorce are now considered unrealistic and outdated by many Catholics.
On the matter of artificial contraception, St. Petersburg Bishop Robert Lynch said, “Catholics have made up their minds and the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful) suggests the rejection of church teaching on this subject.”
Religious conscience is the issue in the U.S. Supreme Court’s current Zubik v. Burwell case. Some religious nonprofits don’t want to tolerate the presence of birth control in student and employee health care plans, even though they don’t have to pay for it. Catholic nuns have refused to sign off on allowing coverage of contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act.
Contraceptives are a health issue. Recently, Pope Francis said that couples could practice birth control if there is a chance they might conceive a child infected with the Zika virus, which is linked to paralysis and microcephaly (when babies are born with abnormally small heads and face lifelong disabilities). The virus is spreading, and there is no known cure.
Should religious conscience against contraceptives be more important than the health of women and babies? That is the decision the Supreme Court will soon have to make, in particular the four male Roman Catholic justices who had approved the right of religious conscience in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.
Gene Proctor
West Bath
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