It is well known that the Catholic Church condemns abortion, sterilization and the use of contraceptives. This belief is evident in the ERD's (ethical religious directives) of Catholic hospital systems, prescribing which practices and procedures are allowed and which are sinful. While abortion and sterilization are weighty and significant procedures, contraception is not only simple and cheap, it is extremely common in today's society. This posses a problem for all the men and women, wishing to acquire birth control of some kind, who find themselves within the catholic healthcare system. It also creates a problem for many of the non-Catholic physicians and health care providers working in the Catholic healthcare system as a notable amount of their business deals with contraception on some level.
For some, this is just the way it is but others have managed to find a way around this conflict of interests. A certain catholic hospital system in Central Illinois has created a loop-hole of sorts in the way that they deal with patients asking for contraceptives. If a person walks into a medical office and wants contraceptives, the system now says that the physician or healthcare provider can give it to them as long as they write the prescription on a different pad than the standard one and they say that they are writing it from "their private practice".
If we take a minute to think about this, what this rule really says is this: "You [physician/healthcare provider] are in our Catholic health care system and must conform to our values and morals when practicing medicine--which means no contraceptives. However, if you really would like to, you can just use a different piece of paper and we will just look away and ignore the fact that we think you are sinning."
This poses a fundamental problem that I feel many religions are facing today. The world is changing quicker than ever in both beliefs and technologies and it can be very difficult to continue living by doctrines of the past while keeping up with the present. This example of "turning a blind eye" to the hypocritical practices within the Catholic healthcare system marks a way of dealing with this problem by not dealing with it. It may preserve the system's integrity on the surface, but I feel that a large deterioration of faith reverberates below.
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