Interesting new wrinkle in the Belmont Abbey case:
In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) , Belmont Abbey College president Dr. William Thierfelder said officials at the Charlotte division of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) told him that a decision to close a discrimination complaint against the school for failing to offer contraception coverage was reversed after the matter went to the nation’s capital.
Eight BAC faculty members filed a complaint against the college for removing coverage for abortion, sterilization, and contraception from their employee health insurance, supplied by Wellpath. The faculty first complained to the North Carolina Department of Insurance that BAC was required to cover contraception under state law because it did not qualify for the religious employer exemption. Both the state department and Wellpath, however, disagreed with the complainants.
“If you ever came on this campus, the first thing you see is the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians,” said Thierfelder. “That basilica is connected to a monastery. That monastery is connected to the main administration building.”
The group of complainants, who joined forces with the National Women’s Law Center, then made a gender discrimination complaint to the EEOC, which in March informed the Abbey that it had closed the issue. Two months later, the EEOC reversed its decision.
What is the National Women’s Law Center? Here’s a sample from their website:
Jill offered a presentation called “Prosecuting Pregnancy,” where she talked about state actions that criminalize the medical decision-making and drug use of pregnant women. For example, women have been criminally prosecuted with such charges as child endangerment, neglect, or fetal homicide when their newborn infants test positive for drugs at birth. Jill posed the question: Is it right to prosecute pregnant women when they (or their newborn children) test positive for illegal drugs while we don’t prosecute anyone else for who tests positive for illegal drugs? And she answered it for us, too: No, she said, because having illegal drugs in your body is not a crime — even for a pregnant woman. Jill explained that the Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to criminalize a person’s status, including the status of being an addict. A person can be charged with possession of a drug, but the appearance of that drug in their system can’t be a crime.
A group which insists that taking illegal drugs is not a crime. Interesting, to say the least – but entirely in keeping with a pro-abortion view that absolutely everything is ok as long as you stick “choice” some where in there. I think we can tell where the pressure lies, here – kook leftists weren’t about to let something as trivial as the law get in the way of smacking down a Catholic college which, you know?, actually insists upon being Catholic.
We can expect more of this as long as Obama is President – because his staff it just shot through with people either directly from screwball groups like the NWLC, or in sympathy with their views. Vigilance will be needed to defend liberty.
Blogs For Victory 