Atlanta archbishop asks Catholics to speak out against birth control regulations

ATLANTA,None — The archbishop of the Catholic Church in Atlanta has encouraged all Catholics to challenge new health insurance regulations from the Obama administration.

The new regulation would require all health insurance plans, even those at religious institutions, to cover birth control costs.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory wrote a letter to be read from every Catholic church pulpit in the area on Sunday, blasting the new health insurance regulations from Health and Human Services.

He called the regulations  a matter of grave moral concern, a direct attack on our religious freedom and called on Catholics to fight the mandate.

The regulations require all insurance plans to cover birth control, from contraception to sterilization.

"The very fact that we're being required to provide options that we find religiously objectionable is itself objectionable," Gregory said.

Gregory said the regulations would require the archdiocese's insurance plan to cover things like abortion drugs for his administrative assistant, Kelly Knight, something she does not want on her plan.

"It goes against our faith. It's not something that should be provided," Knight said.

Gregory said he expected a different result from the regulations, which came after a long series of talks between the church and the government.

"What came down was the most sweeping and restrictive set of regulations that we've seen," Gregory said.

Gregory called on Catholics to employ prayer and political pressure to change them.

The challenge from the church comes just as Barack Obama goes back into his role as a presidential candidate.

WSBTV