Oberlin College, NPR Shocked Catholic Health Systems Follow Catholic Teachings on Artificial Birth Control
Did you guys know that a Catholic health system follows the Catholic Church’s teaching on artificial birth control, abortion, and gender? WEIRD.
Oberlin College was shocked when it found out the Catholic-run health agency it chose to outsource for student health services is…Catholic.
It’s always Oberlin College. Why is it always Oberlin College!?
The Catholic Church urges natural family planning (which, after the experience, is relatively easy!) instead of artificial birth control. That includes birth control pills and tubal ligation (tying the fallopian tubes to stop ovulation).
Saint Pope John Paul II said avoiding pregnancy is okay, but it “cannot be ‘violated’ by artificial interference.”
The Vatican also confirmed the Church does not distinguish between gender and biological sex. The idea of transgenderism tries to “annihilate the concept of nature.”
So, of course, NPR ran interference for Oberlin and the left’s disdain for the Catholic Church.
Considering people love to bash Catholics, I find it impossible for people not to know the Church’s teaching on abortion, artificial birth control, sex, pregnancy, and gender.
Oberlin “Controversy”
I need to provide the backstory of the “controversy” at Oberlin before I get to the NPR hit piece.
The Chronicle-Telegram reported the changes to Oberlin College’s student health services. Officials hired Harness Health Partners, a Bon Secours Mercy Health subsidiary, a Catholic healthcare facility.
Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar seemed surprised that Bon Secours Mercy Health follows Catholic Church teachings: “When we signed the contract with Harness, we were intent on ensuring that the services available at our Student Health Center were comparable to those provided in the past.”
NPR ran interference for Oberlin College, claiming a lack of transparency and ignorance. Again, who doesn’t know the Catholic Church’s stance on these subjects?
Lack of transparency, huh?
Harness Health Partners does not hide the fact that it is a subsidiary of Bon Secours Mercy Health.
Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Code of Conduct on its website plainly states: “True to our legacy and the work entrusted to us by our foundresses, our Mission reflects our Catholic heritage and commitment to those we serve.”
The Code of Conduct manual is also on the website. It says, “As a Catholic health ministry, BSMH is committed to complying with the Ethical and Religious Directive for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs).”
The Ethical and Religious Directive for Catholic Health Care Services: “Catholic health institutions may not promote or condone contraceptive practices but should provide, for married couples and the medical staff who counsel them, instruction both about the Church’s teaching on responsible parenthood and in methods of natural family planning.”
Jennifer Robinson, a Bon Secours Mercy Health spokeswoman, told The Chronicle-Telegram that the clinic can prescribe artificial birth control with “medical intentions.” The morning after pill can “only be given to victims of sexual assault.”
A patient can fill prescriptions at retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.
When Oberlin discovered the Catholic health center adhered to Catholic teachings (what a shock!), the school also “partnered with a local family planning clinic to offer reproductive health services on campus a few days a week.”
NPR Hit Piece
Can you guys believe that Catholic medical centers and hospitals follow Catholic teachings? NPR’s hit piece makes it sound like the Church has a plan to take over the healthcare system in America and do it by keeping people in the dark:
‘Not transparent at all’
Patients often aren’t aware that these restrictions might affect the care they get, says Lois Uttley, a senior advisor with the health advocacy group Community Catalyst. They may not realize their hospital or doctor’s office has Catholic ties. For instance, Common Spirit Health, one of the nation’s biggest health systems, is Catholic, but you wouldn’t know it from its name. And Uttley says Catholic health institutions typically don’t publicize these policies.
“They are not open and transparent about it at all,” Uttley says. “We think it’s only fair that a patient be warned ahead of time about what she may or may not be able to get at a local doctor’s office or urgent care center or hospital.”
I said I find it hard to believe that people do not know a Catholic hospital or medical center follows the Catholic Church, considering the left has loved to criticize the Church for as long as I can remember.
You know, who cares that these medical centers provide people with excellent care?
It’s weird because a non-Catholic friend who does not use the Mercy health system here in OKC wanted her tubes tied. She knew she couldn’t have it done after the birth of her child at Mercy Hospital. But when she and her doctor discussed which hospital she would use for her child’s birth and tying her tubes, her OB-GYN said that Mercy was not an option for birth then if she wanted her tubes tied after she gave birth.
My friend said she knew that artificial birth control goes against Catholic teaching.
My friend, a non-Catholic, knew it before her OB-GYN told her. Also, her OB-GYN told her it couldn’t happen at the Catholic hospital.
Then NPR gasped at the thought of “workarounds” at Catholic hospitals. Because, you know, who doesn’t do that? It’s also not a secret. It happens. But the reasons are also not illegitimate:
For example, hormonal IUDs can be used to control heavy menstrual bleedings, so doctors will often say they’re providing the IUD to treat this condition, even if the real goal is contraception.
Or doctors who aren’t allowed to perform a tubal ligation might instead remove the tubes altogether — they’ll just say it’s to lower a patient’s risk of ovarian cancer. Dr. Corinne McLeod, an OB/GYN at Albany Medical Center, says these kinds of workarounds were pretty common when she worked at a Catholic hospital in Albany, N.Y.
“That was basically a wink, wink, nudge, nudge,” McLeod says, adding, “Everybody knew what was happening. That was just the way they got around [restrictions].” One problem with relying on such loopholes, she says, is that if religious higher-ups at institutions get wind of it, they might crack down.
NPR and Oberlin College ruin their argument by including the “workaround” portion in the article.
You can also buy condoms and spermicide at pharmacies. Or you can choose, *gasp*, not to have sex.
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Comments
Choose not to rut like an animal? *gasp*! How can you suggest such a thing. Isn’t it hate speech or something to suggest staff and students control their choices?
Oberlin is becoming a parody of itself that has major power to inflict harm.
I had never heard of Oberlin until recent years, not that I recall anyway.
Now they have decided to make themselves into the clown of over-priced ,inconsequential leftist colleges working hard for the wrong kind of attention. If I had a child who was pondering Oberlin I would tell them straight-up: NOT ON MY DIME!!
Evidently they were jealous when Evergreen got all that attention a few years ago, and decided to go all-in on the clown competition.
Diversity [dogma] of the Pro-Choice ethical religion denies individual dignity, individual conscience, and intrinsic value, and normalizes color blocs (e.g. “people of color”), color quotas (e.g. “Jew privilege”), and affirmative discrimination (e.g. “people of yellow”).
Catholic women and men possess the dignity and agency that accompanies informed choice to mitigate the progress of conflating logical domains and the religious sanction to reduce human life to negotiable commodities.
You can also buy condoms and spermicide at pharmacies. Or you can choose, *gasp*, not to have sex
Reproductive rights, including the first choice to have sex or abstain, the second choice to practice contraception in depth, the third choice of adoption (i.e. shared/shifted responsibility, and the fourth choice of compassion (i.e. shared/personal responsibility), and an equal right to self-defense through reconciliation. The wicked solution is neither a good nor exclusive choice to keep women affordable, available, and taxable, and the “burdens” of evidence aborted and sequestered in darkness. A civilized society has compelling cause to discourage human rites performed for social, redistributive, clinical, political, and fair weather causes.
to keep women affordable, available, and taxable
Was this a typo of some kind, or are you actually advocating for women as commodities?
NPR does hit on a point, in a way: they’re used to “Catholic” institutions, such as the universities and colleges from which many of their staffers graduated, as being Catholic in name only. So it wouldn’t be outlandish for them to think that “Catholic” hospitals are the same — in name only.
So that’s why they are shocked, shocked, to discover that Bon Secours Mercy Health is a Catholic hospital that has stayed true to the mission. There are others, of course, just as there are a few truly Catholic universities. But you can understand the cognitive dissonance of the NPR reporters at discovering the difference.
Dear Alumni,
Recent media reports have inaccurately characterized Oberlin’s plans pertaining to reproductive healthcare and gender affirming care for our students. I wish to be clear. Oberlin is committed to the health and total well-being of all of our students. This commitment requires that we provide a high level of care across a wide scope of services, including reproductive healthcare and gender affirming care.
That is why we were intentional earlier this year in selecting Harness Health Partners (HHP), a division of Bon Secours Mercy Health, as the provider who would staff and operate Student Health Services. Harness Health was a strong partner throughout the pandemic, when they were invaluable in our COVID testing protocols. Bon Secours, a Catholic health system, owns Mercy-Allen Hospital, which has cared for our students for years as the only hospital in the city of Oberlin.
This year, before we committed to expanding our partnership to the operation of our Student Health Services, Oberlin and HHP held a number of conversations about the type of care required to serve our students effectively. These conversations included discussions about gender affirming care and reproductive health as it relates to access to birth control. HHP provided assurances on these issues and both parties worked together to prepare for a new school year.
In recent days, Bon Secours informed Oberlin through media reports and emails that they are no longer comfortable with their prior position with respect to the prescription of contraceptives for the explicit purpose of birth control and the implementation of gender affirming care. While we were disappointed by this change so soon before the start of the semester, we quickly moved to ensure the needs of our students would be met without interruption. Our solution was to turn to another partner with whom we have had an established working relationship.
Last year, Family Planning Services of Lorain County (FPSLC) supplemented Student Health Services and conducted Sexually Transmitted Infection testing clinics on campus. This year, (FPSLC) will provide reproductive healthcare services on campus, including offering contraception, STI testing and treatment, PrEP and PEP for HIV prevention, as well as Pap exams. FPSLC will offer gender affirming care and dispense reproductive health contraceptives and medication such as Plan B on campus. Currently, they will operate out of the Student Health Center three days a week; on the days they are off-campus, Oberlin will provide transportation to FPSLC, which also is considering offering telemedicine visits for students.
Oberlin already hosts three vending machines that dispense condoms. We are exploring the possibility of placing vending machines on campus that would dispense Plan B and other contraceptives.
As I have said in my various public statements on this issue, equitable access to reproductive health is a personal value that is critically important to me. I also believe this to be an institutional value as well. So I want to assure our students and parents, faculty, staff, and alumni that we will have a layered approach to student care that will include the full range of reproductive healthcare services that our students deserve.
Carmen Ambar Signature
Carmen Twillie Ambar
President
Re: In recent days, Bon Secours informed Oberlin through media reports and emails that they are no longer comfortable with their prior position with respect to the prescription of contraceptives for the explicit purpose of birth control and the implementation of gender affirming care.
IF this is true and not misrepresented, the ridicule being heaped on Oberlin may be overdone. However, after outsourcing their custodial and dining service function in 2020 and now student health services, I am looking forward to outsourcing of the President’s office.
I suppose the Oberlin President could be telling the truth about being misled. However, in light of Oberlin’s past actions and statements, one cannot rely on anything the College says.. It’s far more likely that the defective personalities running Oberlin never imagined that someone might actually believe in their professed values. Or put them ahead of money. When my alma mater, a liberal arts college, donated $50,000 to Black Lives Matter, I amended my estate plan to eliminate a large legacy and stopped making annual donations. When she asked why, I told College’s President that the gift meantI couldn’t trust them to spend my money as they promised. They were raising funds for education and spending them on politics. She was puzzled and said something to the effect that “I never thought of that.” She should have. More importantly, the Trustee’s should have. I share this in part to release my frustration, but more as another example of the consequences of intellectual inbreeding within an elitist bubble.
Congrats to you for sending the college an important ethical and economic message, hopefully your actions are followed by many others.
“I never thought of that.”
Then just how did you ever become a college president? Critical thinking used to be a required skill for that job.
I don’t believe Ambar’s account of Bon Secours’ alleged change of heart on providing Oberlin students with abortions, “gender” “affirming” “care”, or artificial contraception. Not a single word of it. There’s zero chance Bon Secours assured the college before being engaged that it would directly provide those procedures for students. Ambar’s simply lying to cover her butt after she was criticized by the Lefty press.
Which shouldn’t surprise us. After the college’s disgraceful and dishonest conduct against Gibson’s Bakery, they’ve outed themselves as brazen liars.
The timing was likely used to deflect away from the $50M they wasted persecuting Gibsons.
In the real world, Twillie would be toast by now, but I think they are counting on the alumni who know what is happening just going off somewhere and not organizing a coup, while those who do care about the college fall into the NPR listening, PBS watching, NYT reading, Kool-Aid drinking group, who are too convinced that the Gibsons are rabid racists. Twillie et al will keep their jobs, but Oberlin under her/their helm will drift into obscurity having really lost sight of what they are supposed to be, blinded by their own self-interests.
vending machines on campus that would dispense Plan B and other contraceptives
Ummm, I’m pretty certain that would violate FDA regulations and the law.
What this example demonstrates is the influence of inconsistency within our institutions. Sure Oberlin knew this was a Catholic entity but they didn’t realize it was committed to Catholic teaching in it’s policies. Why should they in 2022? After all how many prominent politicians and leaders claim to be people of faith but don’t act accordingly?
This sort of wink and nod at the limitations imposed by membership in a particular belief system isn’t exclusive to Catholic institutions. How many Baptist or Methodist backed Universities and Medical Systems follow the strictures imposed by their own doctrines? People are used to accessing workarounds because they are so commonly available to them and have been for decades.
People say we are still a religious nation but that isn’t true. What we are is a nation of people who retain just enough shame to answer a pollsters question as if their grandmother was listening in on the conversation. Many of us view our religious background and faith as a buffet in which we pick this element but not that one. Choosing the easy parts but ignoring the difficult or the unpopular.
People say we are still a religious nation but that isn’t true.
I disagree wholeheartedly. It’s just that the dominant religion has changed to Progressivism.
“For instance, Common Spirit Health, one of the nation’s biggest health systems, is Catholic, but you wouldn’t know it from its name.”
Who would ever suspect from the name that this organization had religious connections? The spirit is one of those little organs near the gall bladder, isn’t it?
“Why is it always Oberlin College!?”
Because they are the Florida Man of colleges.
Why on earth is Oberlin worried about birth control? I thought all its students were queers and dykes.
Well, you thought wrong.
Gotta take care of the campus minorities…
Queers and dykes have children. Just ask Secretary Bootijudge. He and his husband/wife each got one other own at the same time. It’s like matching shirts.
They’re puzzled because they thought only a small fringe of fanatical “Ultra-Catholics” actually take Catholic doctrine seriously. Ordinary “devout Catholics” are like Pelosi and Biden.
Ultra-MAGA Catholics, please.
“Moderate Catholics” are people like Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
In finance and law, it’s called due diligence. Signing a contract with a provider and not understanding the document’s provisions is plain stupidity.
No one forced Oberlin’s administration to sign the contract. Oberlin has once again proved that holding a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate does not mean you’re smart or have common sense. That applies to NPR, also.
Yeah, but due diligence is like work and all. Learning and Labor is the biggest lie on the Oberlin Seal. More regurgitating and lounging. Reaping, Rioting, and Griftmatic are what is being taught.
So some people in Oberlin’s administration didn’t do their homework and now want to blame penguins for eating said homework.
There’s these newfangled inventions called telephones where you can talk to people at a business and discuss what you want.
These days, nothing makes me happier than reading the delicious put downs of my Alma mater! Thank you Major Wood et al, for delivering the delicious snark. When I was a student the head of the Spartacus Youth League was a Long Island trust funder! By the way, I loved “The Death of Stalin”!
You have to wonder who would send there kids to a school knowing that the staff is not smart enough to read the contract before they sign it. If your that dumb, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you. The contract is one page and it has only an “Accept Terms” box you can check off.
“You have to wonder who would send there kids to a school knowing that the staff is not smart enough to read the contract before they sign it.”
Parents who can write an airtight, binding educational contract?
From “One Oberlin: The Academic & Administrative Program Review [AAPR] Final Report”:
(1) Oberlin College is in dire financial straits. The College is heavy with employees and light on students so it is dipping into its endowment to balance the books. Even with recent cost cutting, it remains bloated and inefficient so even more cost cutting must occur.
(2) Oberlin overcompensates hourly staff and under compensates faculty while refusing to abandon lucrative housing and meal contracts to student coops. It has too much faculty/staff/administrative space and too little student housing.
(3) Oberlin College administration is desperate to increase student enrollment, “the real and perceived value of an Oberlin education must increase.” So increase benefits while cutting costs even though enrollment is declining (and thus the majority of their revenue).
(4) Oberlin Arts & Sciences students secure career-related jobs by graduation at roughly half the rate of their liberal arts college COHFE peers and 42% of universities, so to add value the report suggests business, management, marketing, finance, accounting and global health courses without the faculty or funds to staff them.
Bottom line is this. Oberlin management truly embraces the woke philosophy and that has proven to be wildly expensive yet they adamantly refuse to abandon it while it bleeds them dry. They cannot or will not increase their endowment and yet are desperately seeking donors to provide marketable skills and degrees for their students. They’re ignoring the decline in enrollment and rely upon increased enrollment to balance the books. Oberlin lives in a fantasy world.
The Oberlin senior management – officers and board – are grossly incompetent and the school is on the path to failure. That’s why they resisted the Gibson case beyond all reason and why these insane situations keep arising.
https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/content/about-oberlin/aapr/aapr_final_report.pdf
Read the contracts? Apparently, they don’t read the reports before making them public on their websites, either.
You mean… socialism doesn’t work?!
Who knew?
It only works when there’s more “other people’s money.” Their investment portfolio of endowments is what’s keeping this insane process going even though there are less and less students willing to buy their product. So the only thing standing between Oberlin socialists and ruin is the US stock exchange.
So a Catholic hospital adheres to Catholic doctrine unlike most “Catholic” universities? Good to know they at least were paying attention during religious ed!
Or you can choose, *gasp*, not to have sex.
But that would violate the doctrines of the Progressive Church!
Hedonism is a foundational value to Progressivism.