Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian school in Illinois, already had a pretty nice exemption when it came to the ObamaCare mandate to offer emergency contraception to employees and students. Since they didn’t want to provide it, because Jesus hates birth control, all they had to do was fill out a form for their insurance provider saying as much, and the insurance provider would have to cover it instead. Problem solved, right?
Of course not. Wheaton administrators felt it was still too much of a burden on their religious conscience, because they were indirectly supporting abortion. (Which isn’t even true, but that’s besides the point.)
Last year, the Supreme Court said that Wheaton had a point. It was too much of a burden. Instead, all the school had to do was let the government know directly that it didn’t want to provide emergency contraception and it would be up to the government to figure it out from there. (The story didn’t stop there either.)
But Wheaton was determined to prevent any woman on campus from accessing birth control, so they whined some more but the courts no longer cared. So they embarked on Plan B (ha): They’re just not offering insurance to any students anymore. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face…
The decision, announced July 10 and going into effect Friday, will end health care coverage for more than 700 undergraduate and graduate students who were enrolled in the program — about a quarter of the student body.
…
[Becket Fund for Religious Liberty lawyer Mark] Rienzi said it was not enough that the [insurance] carrier would provide the emergency contraception, and that it would be made clear that Wheaton did not condone the services.
All this because they don’t understand (or care to learn) how birth control pills work.
I thought this response from one critic was perfect:
"So…this is what Wheaton is thinking with canceling student health coverage?" —Hannah Notess pic.twitter.com/QhA0ayJ7Iq
— Stephanie Drury—SCCL (@StuffCCLikes) July 28, 2015
By denying health insurance to students, Wheaton may be exacerbating the need for students to obtain care from places conservative Christians *really* hate.
I guess it makes sense if you use #ChristianLogic.
(Image via Shutterstock. Large portions of this article were posted earlier)
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