New York senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was asked last month about Catholic hospitals that do not wish to provide women with emergency contraception, which in some cases can act as an abortifacient. According to the Associated Press, Senator Clinton replied that “conscience clauses” are appropriate in some situations, but “if there is a justifiable reason for some professional not to offer services, then wherever that professional works, there has to be immediate offering of services.”
In other words, Senator Clinton said she would support certain individuals following their consciences and religious dictates, but not any institution as a whole. So Catholic hospitals would be required to violate Catholic teaching and belief.
Thus did the senator try to play to both sides; she ultimately failed to support those hospitals run by religious institutions that seek to operate within the guidelines of their respective religious faiths.
