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Lawrence O'Donnell started his show off this Wednesday evening by stating the obvious. If we'd gotten single-payer, Medicare for all as a solution to the broken health care system in America instead of the compromise which left employers in the business of providing insurance for their employees, we wouldn't be dealing with this debacle of the Catholic Church fighting the Obama administration on whether they're going to have to cover birth control in their health care plans.

As he noted, employers and the Catholic Church shouldn't be in the business of providing health care and we should not be settling for a system that still leaves millions of Americans uninsured if they lose their jobs and can't afford to pay for the premiums that are sky high when you're out there on your own.

Sadly we're seeing our politicians and a good deal of the media gladly turning this into another culture war and trying to paint the Obama administration as waging some war on religious institutions, instead of it leading to a discussion on exactly what O'Donnell was talking about here and the fact that this debacle is proof of exactly why we should have single-payer and everyone insured at a reasonable cost instead of lining health insurance company CEO's and stockholders pockets.

Why should women in America be put in a position where birth control pills, which have health benefits beyond just preventing pregnancy, and which are a far cheaper to pay for than the cost of a woman becoming pregnant, be subjected to the whims of their employers if those employers happen to be a religious institution? It's wrong. And as O'Donnell said, this is a debate we shouldn't even be having right now, but here we are, still having arguments about birth control and listening to right-wingers try to conflate it with abortion. I feel like I died and landed back in the 1950's listening to this nonsense.

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Chris Matthews has been on a tear all week ever since the announcement that the Obama administration was going to require some religious institutions' health insurance plans to cover the cost of birth control. So who better to bring on as one of his guests than the Washington Post's Melinda Henneberger who just wrote an op-ed full of, as NARAL's Blog for Choice noted "misleading claims from anti-contraception groups regarding the Obama administration's decision to ensure millions of Americans have insurance coverage of contraception."

You can read their rebuttal to Henneberger's column here -- Counterpoint to Henneberger's Column in The Washington Post. You can read their entire response to Hennenberger's claims of discrimination and on the contraceptive coverage in their post, but I wanted to share wanted to share part of it here:

Response: Henneberger's claim implies that she knows the myriad of reasons why all women who happen to work at a religiously affiliated hospital or service agency might need contraception, including those whose doctors prescribe contraception for health reasons and not for pregnancy-prevention.

A recent story in The New York Times ("Ruling on Contraception Draws Battle Lines at Catholic Colleges," January 29, 2012) illustrates the dire consequences for women's health when institutions are allowed to block coverage of contraception:

One recent Georgetown law graduate, who asked not to be identified for reasons of medical privacy, said she had polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition for which her doctor prescribed birth control pills. She is gay and had no other reason to take the pills. Georgetown does not cover birth control for students, so she made sure her doctor noted the diagnosis on her prescription. Even so, coverage was denied several times. She finally gave up and paid out of pocket, more than $100 a month. After a few months she could no longer afford the pills. Within months she developed a large ovarian cyst that had to be removed surgically -- along with her ovary.

"If I want children, I'll need a fertility specialist because I have only one working ovary," she said.

Henneberger claims that the criticism of this new rule threatens the Affordable Care Act.

Actually, this woman's story from Georgetown is one of the key reasons the Obama administration's decision is a win for women. Now, women in this situation won't have to fight for insurance coverage of medication that could prevent them from having health-related complications in the future.

Something that was completely lost on both Matthews and Henneberger in the interview above. As Digby noted earlier today "Said it before and I'll say it again --- with friends like Melinda Henneberger women don't need enemies."

Taylor Marsh had a few words for Matthews and his ilk that are worth sharing here as well -- Rachel Maddow Slams ’60-something Male Pundits’:

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Bill O'Reilly apparently believes that every woman who can't afford birth control has "millions" of options available to them and that women's health care providers like Planned Parenthood are just handing out birth control pills for free to anyone left and right. Which in O'Reilly's opinion makes the Catholic Church's view on not providing coverage for birth control as part of their insurance coverage just fine.

O'REILLY: Look, Reverand, if a Catholic woman or woman who's not Catholic, let's say a women who's not Catholic is working in a Catholic hospital, okay. I've got a very fine Catholic hospital near me, St. Francois out of Manhattan, terrific hospital, and not everybody's Catholic in there... and they want their people...

HAFFNER: And not all their patients are Catholic.

O'REILLY: Right. And they want the mandate. They want birth control. And the Catholic Church says, you know what, this goes against our teaching so, we don't mind you do what you want on your time and there are a million clinics around that'll give it to you free, and you know that, there's clinics everywhere that do it, so what's the beef? They respect the religious tradition of their system. It's not like they're not going to get... they won't be able to get it Reverend!

I haven't used a Planned Parenthood clinic for my health care in quite a long time, but years ago they worked off of a sliding scale as to what they charged for some of their services, and they weren't free for everyone by any means. And they certainly would not have been free for someone who has a full time job and hopefully is making a living wage that O'Reilly's talking about here that work for the Catholic Church.

I'd love for O'Reilly to elaborate on who he's talking about here that supposedly give women who earn a decent wage or salary, and who aren't destitute, that are supposedly being handed "free" birth control pills and contraceptive services, but I don't expect to hear that explanation out of him any time soon.

And as I've elaborated in earlier posts that seems to be completely lost on Bill O'Reilly, preventing pregnancy is not the only reason for women to go on birth control pills. They have other health benefits as well. Sadly that wasn't pointed out to him during this interview.

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On this Monday morning's edition of Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough did his best to carry water for the Catholic Bishops and church leadership that have been actively campaigning against to the Obama administration's decision to make religious institutions across the country start covering birth control for their employees.

I don't know if Scarborough is unaware of the statistics as to just how many Catholics disagree with their church's position or if he's just lying to the audience at MSNBC, but he decided to start arguing with Chuck Todd when he even mentioned the possibility that there is "a little bit of a split on this" among the church's membership. And I find it highly unlikely that Todd didn't know just exactly how big that split is, given his background as a pollster. He's been running the numbers on elections and voter trends since his days at Roll Call and it looked to me as though he knew exactly how large the divide is and just didn't want to argue with the bully Scarborough.

For a little reminder on just how many Catholics don't agree with the leadership, I'll just refer readers back to Blue Texan's post here -- If Obama Administration is 'At War' with the Catholic Church, So Are Most American Catholics.

If Joe Scarborough actually believes that this issue is going to cost Democrats the state of Pennsylvania in the upcoming election, he's completely ignoring the fact that most Catholics aren't practicing and don't believe in the views of their Church's leadership. That's a fact he'd rather ignore here since it doesn't fit in well with his talking point he decided he was going to hammer home for the morning.

I left out the portion of the segment where the Rev. Al Sharpton was trying to argue with Scarborough about his statement where he conflated the Catholic Church and the issue of birth control and the Ground Zero mosque debacle. I would imagine Al had a hard time during that portion of the segment in part because he didn't look like he understood what point Scarborough was trying to make any more than I did, but that didn't stop him from arguing about it with him.

Rough transcript below the fold.

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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he's had it with President Barack Obama "respecting every other religion on the planet," and thinks it's time for him to "respect our religion" instead.

At a campaign event in Florida on Monday, Gingrich seized on letters read at Catholic Churches across the U.S. that condemned the Obama administration for making birth control more available to women.

"Callista and I were at mass last night, and I believe at every Catholic Church, they are reading a letter about the Obama administration's attack on Christianity," Gingrich explained. "This is a fundamental assault on the freedom of religion. ... If you help me win the nomination and then you help me win the election, on the very first day I'm inaugurated, I will sign an executive order repealing every Obama attack on religion across the entire government."

"I think we need to have a government that respects our religions," he added. "I'm a little bit tired of being lectured about respecting every other religion on the planet. I'd like him to respect our religion."

While he was at it, Gingrich also charged that the current Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, had waged his own war on religion.

"Gov. Romney imposed on the Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, a position against their conscious," he said, possibly referring to the misleading claim that Romney supported government-subsidized abortions. He could have also been referencing a decision the former Massachusetts governor made to provide the Plan B birth control pill under Medicaid.

"Gov. Romney cut off Kosher meals for Jewish senior citizens who were on Medicaid to save $5 a day," Gingrich continued.

The New York Post reported last week that that Romney had used his veto in 2003 to reject $600,000 in funds that would have allowed poor Jewish nursing homes to get Kosher meals.

(H/T: Think Progress)

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A Catholic cardinal in Chicago on Wednesday compared the gay liberation movement to the Ku Klux Klan.

Appearing on Fox's Chicago station, Cardinal Francis George complained that this year's Gay Pride Parade route would mean that Our Lady of Mount Carmel might have to cancel Sunday mass for the first time in almost 100 years.

"You don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism," George said.

"That's a little strong analogy, Ku Klux Klan," Fox Chicago's Dane Placko noted.

"It is," George agreed. "But you take a look at the rhetoric -- the rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people. Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church."

Upon hearing the church's concerns, parade organizers agreed to move the event start time from 10 a.m. to noon.

The parade is normally held on the last Sunday in June. The route was changed to accommodate a large crowd after more than 800,000 people attended last year's event, causing crowd control and traffic problems. A 10 a.m. start time was suggested to reduce the amount of drinking.

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D) on Wednesday called for George to apologize.

"The Cardinal's unfortunate choice of words in comparing the LGBT community to the Klu Klux Klan is offensive," she told ChicagoPride.com.

The Gay Liberation Network released a statement calling George a "mendacious" man for "trying to deflect criticism of church policies that promote discrimination."

"It is ironic that George chooses to mention the KKK, as they are but one of the most extreme examples of organizations which have used religion to shield themselves from criticism of their hateful policies," the statement said. "While an overwhelming majority of lay Catholics support equality for women and LGBTs, the Catholic leadership has a history and present practice of discrimination which they apparently will go to quite extreme lengths to defend."

Time for your weekly podcast with The Professional Left, our own Driftglass and Bluegal. Have a great weekend everybody and enjoy the podcast.

You can listen to the archives at http://professionalleft.blogspot.com/ and make a donation there if you'd like to help keep these going. And as Bluegal noted in her post: DG mentions Anderson Cooper's interview with a Texas Birther, which is here.

UPDATE from Blue Gal: The podcast hit its 100,000th listener earlier today. Thanks to everyone who listens, and to C&L and Heather for their terrific support!

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A victim of pedophilia is calling on a Senate candidate from Wisconsin to speak out against the Catholic church diocese where his abuse occurred.

Ron Johnson is vying for Sen. Russ Feingold's job but hit a snag Monday when video surfaced of him testifying against a bill, which was later defeated, that would have given additional rights to children who were victims of abuse by public and private organizations.

In his diary at Daily Kos, Jud Lounsbury wrote:

Johnson was there to oppose the so-call Child Victims Bill, which would have made it easier to go after child predators. Under Wisconsin current law, many children do not come forward until after the statute of limitations has expired-- this law would have made exceptions in such circumstances.

From the Green Bay Diocese Finance Council perspective, this meant that many more child victims of predator priests would come forward and that they would be forced to deal with more law suits. And more law suits mean spending more money, which Johnson and the Finance Council obviously opposed.

Usually, though, such institutions will try to kill such legislation quietly behind the scenes. Rarely do we see someone like Johnson defend such an unseemly position.

As a part of his testimony, Johnson asked, "I think its a valid question to ask if the employer of the perpetrator should also be severely damaged, possibly destroyed, in a legitimate desire for justice?"

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has accused officials in the Green Bay diocese of covering up sex crimes.

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A Phoenix nun along with a hospital Ethics Committee made the decision to go forward with a procedure that aborted an 11-week pregnancy and saved the life of the mother. Sister Margaret McBride was then speedily excommunicated by the Catholic church.

"In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy. This decision was made after consultation with the patient, her family, her physicians, and in consultation with the Ethics Committee, of which Sr. Margaret McBride is a member," according to a statement from St. Joseph's hospital.

Cannon Lawyer Father Kevin O'Rourke told NBC News that in his view McBride should not have been punished. "A person knowingly and willingly performs an abortion, then that person is excommunicated. But my contention is that there is nothing knowingly and willingly done in this regard. They were acting, you see, to save the life of the woman and that was their main concern," he said.

The move is prompting some to ask how the church could move so quickly to punish a nun who saved a woman's life yet they take years to defrock priests who have molested children, reported NBC's Lee Cowan.

"In answer to the question, I would say it doesn't look good," said O'Rourke.

Rachel Maddow talks to Sinead O'Connor about the Catholic Church's abuse scandal. As Rachel noted in the previous segment:

MADDOW: Last month, Pope Benedict issued a pastoral letter of apology to the Catholics of Ireland. But the church took the extraordinary step of actually having the letter read aloud at Sunday mass all over Ireland.

Sinead O‘Connor, for one, is not accepting the apology. In a “Washington Post” op-ed last month, she wrote this, quote, “Benedict‘s apology states that his concern is, above all, to bring healing to the victims.”

“Yet he denies them the one thing that might bring them healing, a full confession from the Vatican that it has covered up abuse and is now trying to cover up the cover up. He suggests that Ireland‘s victims can find healing by getting close to the church, the same church that has demanded oaths of silence from molested children.”

“As Ireland withstands Rome‘s offensive apology, I ask Americans to understand why an Irish Catholic woman who survived child abuse would want to rip up the pope‘s picture. And whether Irish Catholics, because we dare not say, ‘we deserve better,‘ should be treated as though we deserve less.”

Transcript of the interview below the fold.

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