Gingrich Calls Obama’s Birth Control Policy as ‘Outrageous Assault’ on Religion
EmailNewt Gingrich upped his attacks against President Obama today over his administration’s requirement that some religious hospitals offer birth control under the new health care law.
Gingrich’s comments come after a week of outrage from the Catholic Church and his fellow GOP presidential candidates over the policy, which mandates that religious hospitals, charities and schools include co-pay-free birth control in their health care plans.
“This is a tremendous infringement of religious liberty,” Newt Gingrich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Every time you turn around the secular government is shrinking the rights of religious institutions in America.”
While the policy was proposed in August, the issue resurfaced last week after Catholic churches across America read letters from the church’s leadership last Sunday condemning the administration’s policy.
Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz pushed back against the church’s letter, saying the policy does not force anyone to buy our use contraception.
“This new law will save money for millions of Americans,” Muñoz wrote Wednesday in a White House blog post. “But more importantly, it will ensure Americans nationwide get the high-quality care they need to stay healthy. The Obama Administration is committed to both respecting religious beliefs and increasing access to important preventive services.”
The church’s letters came in response to a Jan. 20 announcement that Catholic hospitals where the majority of employees are not Catholic will be required under the new law to provide free contraception.
“The fact is what you’re saying is there cannot be a genuine Catholic hospital,” said Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism in 2009. “It will have to be subordinated to a secular government.”
Gingrich, also appearing today on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” added that the policy proved that the Obama administration was at “war” with the Catholic church and launching “the most outrageous assault on religious freedom in American history.”
The former House speaker said policies such as this prove that Obama is “so unacceptable” that he will support his rival Mitt Romney in the general election if the former Massachusetts governor is the Republican nominee.
“I believe President Obama is such a direct threat to the future of this country that I will support the Republican nominee because I believe that President Obama is a disaster,” Gingrich said.
But with the primary season still raging on, Gingrich vowed that his campaign was nowhere near over.
The former speaker finished a distant second behind Romney Saturday in the Nevada caucuses, but said today on “Meet the Press” that he will be in “much more favorable territory” by Super Tuesday, when his home state of Georgia goes to the polls.
Gingrich vowed that “by the time Texas is over, we’ll be very, very competitive in delegate count.”
Texas’s primary is currently set for April 3, but a Supreme Court legal battle over the Lone Star state’s redistricting maps threatens to delay the primary until later in the year.
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Separation of church and public health is vital for the nation otherwise we are no better than the Taliban.
Posted by: Girish | February 5, 2012, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
Gringrich may believe in God; but after seeing Gringrich poll’s, God obviously does not believe in Gringrich.
Posted by: John | February 5, 2012, 4:37 pm 4:37 pm
I am not voting for Gingrich and as a Catholic, I sometimes disagree with the Church’s stance on some issues. However, Obama and his cronies have crossed the line if they are attempting to tell a religious based employer on what they have to cover with their employees. They need to practice what they preach if they really believe in their separation of church and state. I hope they find themselves in court over this.
Posted by: Kathy M. | February 5, 2012, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
coming from the guy who uses religion as an out for the slutty behavior of himself and his wife calista this is almost funny. you haven’t changed a bit newt, still the same old bigoted hypocrit you always were.
Posted by: lily longflower | February 5, 2012, 6:05 pm 6:05 pm
So, the religious right doesn’t want “religion” based business’s to pay into an insurance system where some people may get contraception?
Have the churches renounced enjoying the tax benefits of being a religious organization?
NO! Well, then it’s time they be treated equally as any other business and start paying their fair share of taxes.
Religion based business’s are not being told they can’t be faith based. What they are being told is that, if they employee a certain number of employees, and likely those employees are not of the same faith as the owners of the business, then they must provide those medical services.
What’s so unfair about that?
Why is it fair to exclude employees who are not Catholic yet work in a Catholic based hospital?
Should it be fair that churches be allowed to discriminate against employees who don’t share the same faith as the owners?
That’s what the real question is.
The churches are fighting against freedom, and for the right to discriminate as they see fit, while using their faith to hide behind.
So, if some feel that they shouldn’t have to pay for certain employees to get contraception because it’s counter to their beliefs, then I’d like my money not to go towards helping certain employees who don’t share my social beliefs.
How sane does that sound? It doesn’t. It’s extremely divisive to only want to help those who believe as you do.
Instead of giving tax breaks to churches who basically discriminate against others not like them, we should STOP giving tax breaks to churches.
It’s time they pay just like everyone else, especially since they want to stick their nose into the political debate.
Posted by: TT | February 6, 2012, 10:15 am 10:15 am
Hate to break it to you, Newt, but most Catholics in this country use birth control. No one’s forcing them to use it, either.
Posted by: PDXmum | February 6, 2012, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm
Wow! Gingrich calls himself a Catholic??? Last time I checked adultery was part of the ten commandments. ” Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife.” Remember that one Newt? Where was your religion then?????
Posted by: Jackie | February 6, 2012, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
If Gingrich is not the GOP ‘s we doomed –Mitt Romney is no different then Obama
And Jackie ” the one amoung you with out sin cast the first stone”
Posted by: Aspergus Hermann | February 6, 2012, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
So what the naysayers are saying is the Catholic Hospital is just for them and should no longer be considered a nonprofit. And they should not receive any other Federal Dollars for any services they may offer. I agree.
Way to go … make it all about Religion. That is not what the Government is suppose to do. Separation of Church and State. Do it or go private and only hire Catholics.
Posted by: Joe | February 7, 2012, 6:43 pm 6:43 pm
To all those that think that the Church is wrong in there argument, I have one thing to say. Buy your own health insurance policy! After all, according to Obama care, every person alive is the result of the “disease” known as pregnancy. I don’t think that an employer should have to pay for Your health care at all. Repeal the whole thing!
Posted by: Dan | February 7, 2012, 7:11 pm 7:11 pm
It’s about time someone senior in American politics had the guts to stand up against these fanatical religious zealots. Why should everyone be subject to whatever weird belief the Catholics or the Baptists or the Muslims or the Hindus or the Mormons (you can finish the list yourself) want to be given first place in the life of the nation.
Posted by: Eddie | February 8, 2012, 8:40 pm 8:40 pm