He founded Detroit-based Christus Medicus Foundation, devoted to restoring Christ-centered values to health care, and the insurance company ValuSure Corp., which offers faith-based health insurance.

Married with seven children, O'Dea, 62, is working with an interdenominational coalition in Washington, D.C., to reform American health care.

Register correspondent Valerie Schmalz spoke with O'Dea about some of the most dangerous problems in health care today.


All states allow surgical abortion for any reason to be provided children of any age without parental consent. Even in those states with parental consent or notification laws, where a judicial bypass is required by the U.S. Supreme Court for all state parental consent or parental notification laws, most judges will approve the bypass. Whether or not a parent will be notified depends on whether parental notification laws are in effect. At last count, they were in effect in a little more than 30 states.

Contraception is available to children of any age in all 50 states, without parental consent. Contraception includes all FDA-approved chemicals (e.g., the "morning-after" pill), and intrauterine devices (IUDs) that induce abortion. Contraception also includes diaphragms, Norplant and injectable contraceptive drugs (such as Depo-Provera).

In states that have mandated contraception in health plans that provide prescription coverage, RU-486 is considered an FDA-approved drug and could be given to children without parental consent. Contraceptive drugs and devices that are available to adults in health plans are also available to children at any age without parental consent. Sterilization is an area that needs to be investigated state by state.

It is not a requirement of the federal government or most states that abortion, contraception and sterilization - for any reason - be covered by insurance of any kind.


Yes, they could receive contraception in most plans, and no, a parent would not be informed. In the case of abortion, it depends on the state parental notification laws or lack of them.

If you are in an HMO or traditional health plan in the private sector, most likely you are paying for abortion and contraception for children. The reason most people do not know that abortion for children is covered in their health plan is because either they have not asked or they have been told their insurance plan does not pay for "elective," "voluntary" or "medically unnecessary" abortion.

Here's the catch: "Elective," "voluntary" and "medically unnecessary" are terms that do not have any definition. If an adult woman or pregnant teenager can find a doctor who will agree to perform an abortion, it will be paid for by the health plan, without parental consent. For a plan to exclude abortion, the health plan has to clearly define what these terms mean in the plan design filed by the insurance company with the state or federal government. The reason most people do not know that contraception for children is covered in health plans is that contraception has only recently become common coverage in most private health plans.


The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Private sector policy leaders and plan designers listened when the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women, NARAL, Pro-Choice America, health care consultants and other "reproductive rights" groups quietly, subtly and incrementally pushed confidential abortion, contraception and sterilization in all health plans. Attorneys and health care consultants advised employers to take the path of least resistance and include this coverage in health plans. Whenever questioned about conscience, these plan designers would say, "They can opt out of this coverage, so what's the big deal?" The problem with this thinking is that we are deprived of our parental right to be the primary educators of our children and our right to have the freedom to exercise our right of conscience.

To opt out means parents and their children can decide not to use this coverage. They are, however, still paying for these procedures in their health plan. And, even if parents opt out, their children have access to it without parental consent because of the way the plans are filed with the state and federal insurance agencies. By our absence in this debate, the enemies of life, liberty and justice for all have imposed their agenda on us.

That's going to be huge in health care. At least with the unborn, you have the pro-life community that is very much aware of the unborn, and they continue to fight for them. But the elderly are going to die quietly and peacefully in hospitals, and who's going to know they die?

The end-of-life issues are very scary. They can be done so subtly, and the groundwork has been established. Society says, "Why should you live with pain or live an unproductive life?"

The decisions that are going to be made on all the life issues - most if them are going to be made in health care. It's interesting how the abortion businesses want to become primary care providers. ... They're ahead of us. Health care is the place.

For the past year, the Christus Medicus Foundation, the Catholic Medical Association, the Heritage Foundation and some others have been working to form a national faith-based alliance for health policy based on the need for values-driven heath care reform. Right now, we've got some very major players in Washington who see the need to reform health care financing and delivery as the most significant issue dealing with life and morality issues. And the strategy is to put together a conscience clause for the family, to assist families to make decisions and purchase health care consistent with their beliefs.

One very important bill, sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg [R-Ariz.] and Sen. Jim DeMint [R-S.C.], is the Health Care Choice Act (HR 2355), which would allow businesses to buy insurance across state lines, avoiding costly state mandates in places like New Jersey and New York.

For people of faith, because of President George Bush and the Republican Congress, now is our window of opportunity to really make a difference for future generations for health care. I believe health care is where our culture will be determined. That's where your life and death issues are faced.

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Valerie Schmalz, "Are You Paying for Someone Else's Abortion?," Reprinted with permission from National Catholic Register, Volume 82, No. 10, March 5-11 2006