A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS COULD UNDO THE HOBBY LOBBY RULING AND PROTECT WOMEN, by Sarah Jones --
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/01/endangered-republicans-congress-change-scotus-ruling-protect-women.htmlThis article looks forward from the SCOTUS decision. (Any underlines are mine.)"The Guttmacher Institute issued a press release (on Tuesday, July 1) that should frighten Republicans, as it clearly lays out the future going forward after Monday's egregious SCOTUS ruling giving corporations the right to deny contraception healthcare insurance coverage to women. Guttmacher points out that the administration could take actions but also, Congress could act through new legislation."
Of course, new legislation is not going to happen in today's hyper-partisan Congress, but there is a mid-term election coming up in the fall. The President has said that he will protect women's rights on this issue; but it is unclear what, if anything, he can do on his own. Whatever happens, it is not going to be an overnight fix. We, as women, are looking at another long fight for equality."As (was) pointed out (on Monday), this is a huge platform to hand to Democrats in an election year. Republicans are now going to be running against birth control, and as Guttmacher notes, 'More than 99% of women aged 15-44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method.'
Discriminating against contraception because it might be used as an abortifacient is a fail. Furthermore, Hobby Lobby objected to at least one form of birth control that regulates a woman's eggs even before they are fertilized. But taking this a step further, contraceptives are often prescribed for medical reasons...IUDs are often ordered for women suffering from hemorrhaging. The only other option is endometrial ablation surgery, which means she can never have children.
Let that sink in for family values.
The Guttmacher Institute also made it clear that the government has a strong case for its contraceptive policy, 'Indeed, in an impassioned dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg...made it clear that the government's case for the contraceptive coverage policy is very strong. Decades of scientific evidence and the life experiences of millions of women show that contraception enables women to prevent unintended pregnancies and to plan and space wanted pregnancies. That, in turn, has numerous health benefits or mothers and babies, and promotes women's educational, economic and social advancement.'"
Ms. Jones' article then references the facts that Hobby Lobby invests in companies that manufacture birth control devices and drugs--including the company that manufacturers IUDs--and also has a vast business relationship with China where abortion is mandatory."As Republicans chase themselves off a right wing cliff, not only their 2012 platform embraced the liberty killing personhood amendment, but when parsed out, it was looking like they wanted to abolish contraception all together. And here we have Hobby Lobby making that argument.
The thing is, a real Congress could change this. A Congress that was willing to put people first could change this. Democrats and Independents can run on something that almost everyone agrees upon, and that is that women's healthcare should not be something an employer can opt out of, and birth control is part of a woman's health care.
The worst hypocrisy of this whole debacle is the fact that birth control is the single best way to reduce abortions, and yet Hobby Lobby and the GOP are against it for 'religious' reasons, which they tie to being 'pro-life'. This is not even the usual GOP position of being pro-fetus, but rather, this is being pro-abortion. They are actually causing more abortions on purpose, because they know that empirical evidence shows that access to birth control reduces the number of abortions."
The problem is, the far-right has convinced itself that ANYTHING that will prevent a pregnancy is wrong. And once they managed to put God into their message, they became a classic example of not knowing when to stop. In their zeal to prevent abortions, they have latched onto any product, device or service associated with pregnancy without thinking of the consequences of their ire or the results their ire can yield, i.e. less contraception = more unwanted pregnancies = more abortions.
It's an argument that an intelligent examination of the facts could dismantle in minutes; but these people are deaf to any opinion but their own. It is up to the rest of us to keep the lemmings in check...and that means voting in November and in every election before and after. We need the voice of Democrats in our government. We need legislators who respect the separation of church and state.
We need a Congress that works.
