They are run by a professional staff and independent boards of directors, not bishops.
The National Association of Catholic Hospitals speaks on behalf of their members and agreed to mandatory insurance coverage for free contraception for their employees. Having no power over hospitals and having been undercut by the NACH, the bishops have now cast themselves as the champion of the hypothetical small businessman who doesn't want to pay for contraception coverage, because he thinks birth control is a sin.
That same businessman cannot fire an employee for using contraceptives or getting sterilized -- because it's none of his business.
In Griswold v. Connecticut, the United States Supreme Court, over the objection of the Catholic bishops, said the use of contraceptives is protected by the right of privacy and can't be made illegal. Having lost that battle, the bishops' Plan B is to make birth control expensive and difficult to get.
The bishops' health plan for you? "Your body, my conscience."
-- Bonnie Lembo
Anchorage
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.