KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -
A national battle over birth control has many people upset. Now, leaders in the Kansas City metro are speaking out.
KCTV5 News spoke to one local bishop who wrote a letter that was read to parishioners this weekend at Mass that says the church is taking a stand against the government's new health coverage plan requiring churches to offer their employees health plans that include contraception.
The bishop said he's ready to go to jail over this issue.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, KS, said this health plan is an attack on not just Catholics but all religions.
He said, under the Obama health plan, Catholic employers would be forced to offer their employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception – all services that violate their moral beliefs.
"It's not essential healthcare, this is a new innovation. It's not a disease they are responding to, and if people want contraception, there's plenty of access of contraception in our culture and society – it's not really a problem," said Naumann.
KCTV5 also talked to the president of the local Planned Parenthood who explained that churches, synagogues and other places of faith are exempt from this and it would only impact, for example, Catholic hospitals, universities and charities that hire anyone for the job regardless of their faith.
"We would say if a hospital chooses to operate as a business, it ought to follow the same rules other businesses follow. The bottom line is, women have the right to exercise their own religious freedom and make their own decisions about birth control," said Peter Brownlie with Planned Parenthood.
Wednesday in Washington, Republicans vowed to reverse the president's new policy on birth control and push ahead legislation to undo that requirement.
Click here to read more on what both Republicans and Democrats say about the policy.
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