It goes against the Catholic church’s doctrine to take birth control.

Okay.

I was raised Catholic, and I have a lot of issues with that stance, but that’s not what this particular opinion article is about. 

This particular opinion article is essentially about whether or not it is a burden for the Catholic church to fill out a one-page form. I am inclined to believe the answer is no, because a one-page form is literally the shortest a form can be.

But who is championing the Catholic Church’s right to not fill out a one-page form but Pittsburgh’s own Bishop David Zubik, the man who confirmed me and who also probably thinks I am going to hell for using birth control.

Zubik has journeyed to Washington to testify before the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell, a case that continues the discussion that the much-publicized Hobby Lobby case began, in which the court ruled that a corporation can have a religion and that the corporation’s religion can be violated. 

 I also disagree with that. But the workaround that was created in that ruling also applies to actual religious organizations, like the Catholic Church. The Hobby Lobby case established that under the Affordable Care Act, organizations that believe birth control is a sin do not have to cover birth control for their employees in their insurance policies. 

Instead, they must “notify the federal government of their desire to invoke this exemption (ordinarily by filling out a short form) and disclose the company that administers their health plan. The government then works directly with that company to provide birth control coverage plans to the employer’s workers,” according to a November 9, 2015 ThinkProgress article. 

So the Catholic Church doesn’t pay for healthcare that violates its religious doctrine, however unrealistic and outdated, and women still receive vital healthcare that ensures they have control of their futures. It seems like a solution that benefits everyone.

But it’s not enough for Zubik. He believes that even filling out the form is an undue burden on the Church, a restriction on its religious rights. According to a March 21 editorial in the New York Times, the Church’s argument states that filling out the form makes the Church complicit in providing birth control.

That’s absurd. Just fully, infuriatingly, outrageously absurd. 

This isn’t about religious freedom. If it were, the Church would be satisfied with the accommodation that allows it to opt out of the process of providing birth control.

This is about controlling women and forcing them to abide by the Church’s teachings. Who is being oppressed here: the organization that was able to force federal policy to change because of its opposition to basic women’s healthcare, or women who rely on birth control to maintain their hormone levels and a modicum of control over their futures?

A 2012 Gallup poll found that 82 percent of Catholics find birth control morally acceptable, and the Guttmacher Institute found that 98 percent of Catholic women have used contraception when they were sexually active. 

But numbers like these don’t matter to a Church that, despite a historically progressive Pope who thinks the Church is losing followers because of its outdated social policy, continues to police women’s behavior even as it has no problem covering Viagara in its healthcare. 

So good luck to Bishop Zubik and his persecution complex. I just hope he understands that garbage like this is exactly what drove me and many of my friends away from the Catholic Church.