Health Care That Provides Contraception And Abortion

[morostheos]

Some of my friends are choosing to get rid of their employer-provided healthcare because it includes coverage of contraception and abortion. They see this as their moral obligation because otherwise they are paying for immoral acts.

What is the Church's teaching on the ethics of this situation?

My initial thought is if someone decides they must do that according to their conscience that is their choice, but it is not immoral to continue receiving healthcare if you have no option of not including contraception and abortion. Is this correct?

[qfnol31]

[quote name='morostheos' timestamp='1350011301' post='2492582']
Some of my friends are choosing to get rid of their employer-provided healthcare because it includes coverage of contraception and abortion. They see this as their moral obligation because otherwise they are paying for immoral acts.

What is the Church's teaching on the ethics of this situation?

My initial thought is if someone decides they must do that according to their conscience that is their choice, but it is not immoral to continue receiving healthcare if you have no option of not including contraception and abortion. Is this correct?
[/quote]
This debate is very relavant amongst Catholic theologians today. Some of the biggest names in Natural Law theory and participation in evil have weighed in on this matter. All of these people are faithful Catholic who have the Church's best interest at heart, but they have not come to any sort of conclusion.

I tend to side with Janet Smith, who has argued that buying into such plans can be acceptable for Catholics and even Catholic employers. First of all we have to admit that some individuals and some employers have a certain place to witness to the evilness of the law. For example, the Archdiocese of Washington is one of the largest names against the mandate. The archdiocese has a particular role to witness to the Gospel. I could imagine a priest or religious community founder who might have a similar role to witness to the Gospel in a particularly heroic way.

As laypeople we have the same mission to witness to the Gospel so we speak out against the mandate in any number of ways. However, we also have responsibilities to ourselves and our families. To buy into such insurance would constitute remote material cooperation with evil. It is remote because we are not directly buying into the abortions ourselves. It is material because we have no desire to participate in the act of supporting abortions or contraceptives. If we did desire to support them, we would be formally cooperating in evil and would be in violation of Natural Law. Janet Smith says that some individuals may in fact find good reason to oppose the law. They might find it wise not to participate in evil in any way whatsoever.

I think in the end that buying into such plans is not a sinful act, so long as we are not merely complicit with them and find some way to speak out against them (if only so that we don't cause scandal should someone ask). At the same time, you may find good reason to protest in stronger ways, like your friends. It takes prudence to understand the best response to your particular situation.