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Loading...Dispatches From The War On Women: Religious Freedom Has Gone Bananas
Welcome to Dispatches, your round-up of the latest news from the frontlines of the War on Women. Have a story from your state or an idea on how to push back? Share them here and fight back against the War on Women.
The Catholic Bishops have been at the front of challenges to the Obama administration’s women’s health policies, and as Sam Taxy reports, there’s plenty of reasons for that to cause great concern. The Catholic health care system controls more than 11% of the country’s total community hospitals and more than 16% of the nation’s community hospital beds. That means that women will be denied a tubal ligation after a C-section as religious ideology and basic health care for women routinely clash. Bottom line: if you’re a woman you should avoid religious-based health care institutions all together as there’s no way to know for sure you’re getting robust care.
If it’s robust women’s health care is your thing then Arizona is not the state for you. Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed into law a bill that allows employers that offer employee health insurance plans to interrogate employees about prescription birth control and demand proof that if used it is for something other than preventing pregnancies.
There’s more evidence of the dangers of religious dogma driving health policy. First the anti-choice activists claimed abortions cause breast cancer. Now they claim they cause child abuse.
Republicans may have finally given up on trying to recruit women voters and instead have turned their sights on the youth vote. If so, someone needs to tell that to South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem.
Is your state among the worst states for working mothers?
Here’s an update on the tragic story of justice denied and how ‘stand your ground’ laws fail victims of domestic abuse.
Mexico’s drug war continues to be a U.S. enabled blood bath with women and children bearing the biggest burden.
Zach Wahl’s is really turning into an amazing and inspirational advocate.
Good news: Westchester County, New York voted to toughen up laws designed to fight “sidewalk counseling” by abortion foes at local women’s health clinics.
More good news: an Oklahoma district court judge permanently blocked the state’s attempt to outlaw medication abortions. In a frenzy of anti-choice legislation, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that singled out for prohibition the off-label use of medications to induce abortion. Now, the off-label use of prescription medication raises a host of issues, but as the judge in the legal challenge to the bill made clear, singling out abortion care is not the way to get at those issues.
Thanks for checking back and don’t forget to send in your stories, suggestions and comments. We’ll be back tomorrow with the latest in the best and the worst from the War on Women. So long as the battle rages, we’ll cover the latest, so please check back!
Read more: dispatches, Dispatches from the War on Women, war on women, war_on_women
Photo from spigoo via flickr.
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415 comments
+ add your ownWhats the fuss about? Wow!
No one religion should get to impose its' beliefs on all people. And on top of that it should be a persons physician that decides on any medical treatment, not a religious representative. So glad I live in Canada where we all contribute to our health care system and never have to worry when we get sick that we will not get the medical assistance we need.
Dear Joshua - you said:
Life might begin at conception but it's incapable of independent survival until about 26 weeks of gestation. At conception it's a zygote about the size of a pencil point. There is absolutely no justification for denying a woman the right to end that pregnancy. Nothing gives James or anyone else the right to tell people when or if they should have sex or procreate. Maybe I should invent a religion then I can start making laws telling "Christians" what to do in their private lives.
I should make you aware of the inescapable fact that once the child is born it is also incapable of independent survival and should someone wish to kill either the unborn child or the newly born child it is still murder. Murder by the way is something that most people have a problem with and the minority always have an excuse to terminate human life. By the way if you are going to invent a religion to target only Christians for taking a dim view of murder then you might want to consider why ignore all the other religions who share the same view on murder. I never said when you could have sex – that’s your business but murder is the concern of all!
Donna M, I've got news for you, "Obamacare" already passed. It is law. Unless the supreme court strikes it down, Obamacare's provisions will go into effect as scheduled.
The government can't do anything right? Gee, I hear that on Fox "News" every time I've ever turned it on. Fortunately for us, it is untrue. The military is government, do they every do anything right? The government is NASA. It seems to me that NASA took astronauts to the moon and back -that was something no private enterprise had every carried off. And, Donna, do you know what it would be like with no food inspection? Donna, the government is us, it is not the enemy.
Donna, I suggest you question your information sources. Are they honest? Are they reliable? You keep making statements that make no sense.
David K,
As an American, you are not required to offer health benefits to your employees. You can if you choose to, but it is not a federal law. So, why do you offer it if it's against your religion? Of course, offering benefits will make a job with your company more attractive, but your religion, morals and values should come first. We should never put our beliefs on a shelf to go after the almighty dollar. That would just be dishonest.
As of now, employers do not have to offer health insurance...it is up to the employer to decide what benefits come with the job or not. If an employer wants to pay for someones birth control they can. If they want to pay for someones hospital bills or trips to McDonalds, they can chose to give whatever they want to.
BUT...if Obamacare passes and becomes law, then the GOVERNMENT will be the one who decides what employers should pay. THAT SHOULD MAKE EVERYONE CONCERNED! Do we really trust the government to make our decisions for us and tell us how to spend our money??? They can't run any organization well, and now we want to give them more power???
Why doesn't anyone see this and understand this? This issue is not about religion.... it is about a VIOLATION OF OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS! Nobody should have the right to reach deeply into YOUR pocket and take your hard earned dollars that YOU earned. And no one has a right to reach into your neighbors pocket and take what is not rightly yours.
It is a very nice thing th
I think that anyone that "belongs" to a religion does not posess the mental capacity to lead in society. That is why you "belong". You have to believe in fairy tales about people coming back to life in order to feel self important. You are weak minded.
There are religous "leaders" that attempt to influence society. Jim and Tammy Baker come to mind along with the MILLIONS OF IDIOTS that those two SKANKS duped. Yet 25 years later MILLIONS OF IDIOTS are still duped daily by religous hypocrites and FOX news.
America was created to allow the weak minded to live in peace and not be persecuted. It was not created to be taken over by the weak minded that believe in fairy tales. America has been taken over by the weak minded. Just like Hitler took over the weak minded in Germany.
Stupidity is no excuse.
Donna M, no one advocated that the government pay for abortions.
Who did this?
There is a federal law that prohibits the use of tax dollars from being used for abortions.
Where do you get all this MISINFORMATION? Why do you continue to repeat false claims?
David K,
I am not sure what christian scientists believe or why christian scientists don't believe in health care.
The whole messed up thing about health care is that health care is very very astronomically expensive. And some people do not want to pay for their own health insurance. So the government wants everyone else to buy it for them.
My company employees 20 people. In order to have offer them healthcare, we need to pay Blue Cross Blue Shield THOUSANDS of dollars every single month. Month after month just to be in the system. And that doesn't include any dental or eye care. Then, each employee needs to pay their own monthly premium, and THEN they need to pay out of pocket until they reach a high deductible in order to have insurance to pay for anything! When all is said and done, our small company pays about $75,000 towards health insurance and if we are lucky, insurance pays for $200 of office visits if we are lucky.
So no...I do not want to pay for someone's abortion on top of that. Nor do I want to government to keep making up stupid rules and giving us more taxation without representation. The 1st amendment is in place to PROTECT us from our government
Carrie H,
You are right...an employer does not have the right to tell an employee how to live their life. BUT an employer does not have to pay for something they feel is wrong either. Let the employee pay for it themselves.
Also, do you really really think, deep down in your heart, that God would condone a church that murders infants in the womb? Really? The God that LOVES life? The Author of Life would condone this rampant lust that leads to abortion used as birth control?
Where do you find any scripture that allows you to make up your own church with your own rules? ("no scripture is of private interpretation" 2 Peter 1:20) You can't just blur the meaning of scripture and change it to suit your own fleshly desires. The authority to preach and teach came directly from the apostles by the laying on of hands...thereby bestowing on them the authority that Jesus gave them. They were chosen. People just couldn't become preachers just because they felt like it. Why? Because they might not have full understanding of the truth....
"Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and SUBDUE it. The earth is filled
Frankincense and myrrh are both spoken of when women are around men.
They both are used as birth control and both cause abortions.
Tax money does not pay for abortions. Your religion does should not give you the right to tell an employee how to live their personal lives. Because it has I am starting an online church, where we practice birth control and the choice of an abortion. Because religion is protected you won’t be able to force your crazy beliefs on the members and you won’t be able to punish them for following their religious beliefs.
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