In the latest depredation by the Obama administration, Health and Human Services is proposing radical new regulations that would require private insurers – even those covering religious institutions such as churches, schools and hospitals – to fund contraceptive services with no charge or co-pay to the consumer. This ultimately forces the insurance pool to pay for these services, even when they offend the conscience of a good part of the people in that pool. Think of that when you see your skyrocketing insurance tab.

Catholics, of course, are enjoined against even simple contraception. But a little-known fact about some of the forms of contraception, in particular the ones using hormone manipulation, such as the Pill, in that they work by means of a three-stage modality. They first attempt to keep the egg from being released, and then to keep the sperm from reaching the egg, and finally, if a sperm and egg do join together, the pill makes the uterine lining inhospitable for implantation.

That is to say, that if the first two methods fail, the Pill Acts as an abortifacient.

So now, by federal decree, it will be illegal for insurance companies and medical practitioners to withhold services they find morally abhorent, and the people using them won’t have to pay a nickel for them. But the public – you and I – will.

This is the way it always is with the Left. They use the power of the state to cover over issues of individual morality, and they do it at the expense of those who do abide by moral scruples.

It’s interesting to see how Obama announced this scheme at a fundraiser:

“No longer can insurance companies discriminate against women just because you guys are the ones who have to give birth.”

At this point, a member of a laughing audience shouted out: “Darn right!”

“Darn tooting,” Obama answered back—to laughter. “They have to cover things like mammograms and contraception as preventive care, no more out-of-pocket costs.”

Obama continues to think of giving birth as a negative. When he was running for the presidency three years ago, he said that if one of his daughters got pregnant, he would not want to “punish” her by making her give birth.

Obama’s worldview was obvious to many back in ’08, and could have been to all, because the facts were out there for ready discovery should anyone have cared enough to look. But the media was in the tank for Obama and covered for him, and the people followed en masse. Since then, despite incontrovertible revelations about serious corruption within the “reproductive services” industry, Obama has stood steadfastly behind it, vigorously protecting the hundreds of millions of public dollars Planned Parenthood extracts from the American taxpayer each year.

It would be too much to expect much else from the general public at this point, but one wonders when the religious left will wake up, if ever.

It’s quite a neat scheme, really – use the power of our own government and our own money to subvert the values we believe in. And they are doing a spectacular job of it.

In the face of this, the temptation is to look to the political realm for solutions. The political realm is necessary and has its place, of course, but by itself it is wholly inadequate. Obama’s Republican challengers – those who are running, and those who are not, has been an keen object lesson in the futility of trusting in princes. The battle is the Lord’s, and if our victory is to be real, it must be won in such a way that the glory is His alone. That is why the real action in this war is the battle of faith. There isn’t a leader that can lead, or a Constitution that can protect, unless this nation exalts the Lord as God, in the daily lives of its people and in its institutions. Unless we humble ourselves before Him, we will watch every advantage, every liberty, all truth and goodness, slip away despite our best efforts.

The empty promises of statists avail nothing but more bondage. They suck the people in with their handouts, but over the long term they rob their vitality in the bargain, and make them dependant on further handouts.

It’s time for America to disavow its unwise dependence on man, and to avow again its utter reliance on the good and abundant hand of the Almighty. Let the church arise!

Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. –Hos 6.1-2