Ramesh Ponnuru writes in the latest issue of National Review:
Ponnuru offers good advice to opponents of the mandate. For example, they should start emphasizing that it’s an abortion pill mandate, not merely a contraception mandate:
Read the whole thing here. Another angle that opponents of the mandate have failed to emphasize is that the mandate won’t merely violate the consciences of “insurers” or “employers”–employees will have to violate their consciences when the government forces them to purchase insurance that pays for abortion pills.
All of the polling to date on the mandate has focused regulating “insurers,” “employers,” and “religious institutions.” But what if a pollster asked whether “individuals” should be required to purchase insurance that pays for abortion pills?
If Americans overwhelmingly oppose the individual mandate–Obamacare’s requirement to buy insurance or pay a fine–then requiring individuals to purchase insurance that covers morally objectionable services must be even more unpopular.
If it isn’t repealed or struck down by the court, the individual mandate–however repugnant in principle–will only directly hit the small portion of the population that is uninsured in January 2014. In August of 2012, the abortion pill mandate will force more than half the country to purchase something they find morally objectionable.
