Our Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter accounts lit up with commentary so dramatic following the Supreme Court ruling, one would think the Court gathered up every box of contraceptives and dumped it into the Boston Harbor. Rest easy liberals, your birth control is still safely on drugstore shelves. Here we address the top misconceptions:
Women’s access to contraceptives, abortion-causing drugs, and sterilizations has not changed. What changed is who is paying for the objectionable coverage. If you have insurance through your employer, then that insurance company will provide you with free coverage now and your employer will not pay for it. Page 2-4 of the Majority Opinion states:
“There are other ways in which Congress or HHS could equally ensure that every woman has cost-free access to the particular contraceptives at issue here and, indeed, to all FDA-approved contraceptives. In fact, HHS has already devised and implemented a system that seeks to respect the religious liberty of religious nonprofit corporations while ensuring that the employees of these entities have precisely the same access to all FDA-approve contraceptives as employees of companies whose owners have no religious objections to providing such coverage….Under that accommodation these women would still be entitled to all FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing.” [Emphasis added]
Access remains the same. Who foots the bill for contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs switches to insurance companies or to the government. Let me repeat: you are still not paying for your own contraceptives.
President Obama’s press secretary stated after the Supreme Court decision that “today’s decision jeopardizes the health of women employed by these companies.”
The Obama Administration’s statement reveals just how out-of-touch the presidency is. As stated above, the decision did not change the access to birth control but who pays for it. It is also important to note, birth control’s main purpose is to prevent or destroy pregnancy which is not a medical disease or medical condition. A women’s sexual health is strained when we engage in the use of contraceptives and sexual relations – not before it. The side effects of taking birth control can be headaches, dizziness, breast tenderness, nausea, blood clots, breakthrough bleeding, decreased libido, and mood swings. It also doesn’t protect against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, which is a risk when engaging in sexual intercourse. A woman who is not engaging in sexual intercourse and/or not using contraceptives (say a married couple that is open to life or women who are abstaining from sex) lead extremely healthy contraceptive-free lives.
Religious liberty trumps the whim of the government to provide a free drug that doesn’t even prevent a disease. Religious liberty is the first right protected by the First Amendment of our Constitution. There is no right to free contraceptives, free abortion-inducing drugs or free sterilizations. It’s just not written into the Constitution…nor should it be… its not what our country was founded upon. (We are founded upon the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, taxation with representation etc.)
The vast majority of the 100 lawsuits against the Mandate object to sterilizations for men and women. The misinformation is coming from the fact that Hobby Lobby objects to the four types of birth control that are abortion inducing drugs that destroy an embryo after conception has taken place. Once conception takes place, the embryo is a distinct human being. Just ask Science. Hobby Lobby’s faith agrees with Science that at the moment of conception the child has a different DNA than the mother and the baby’s hair color, eye color, and gender have already been determined. Hobby Lobby objects to the destruction of that unique human person and therefore will not pay for the abortion-inducing drugs. Viagra is not objected to in these lawsuits to because it promotes procreation – it does not prohibit procreation.
LOLOLOLOL. No. Thank you for the entertainment though Senator Harry Reid and Planned Parenthood.
These employers have never told a woman whether or not she can use abortion inducing drugs, sterilizations, or contraceptives. Employers are not making decisions for women.The people who run the companies are only making a decision for themselves: they will not pay for something they believe to be a grave moral wrong. Planned Parenthood retweeted yesterday that 70% of Americans believe women should be able to make their own reproductive rights decision.
I would imagine its even higher; probably closer to the 100% range. Both sides agree women should be able to make their own health decisions. Illinois Right to Life certainly believes birth control has a negative affect on women’s health and destroys the authentic dignity of women but nobody is prohibiting a woman from taking birth control. (See above)
This rumor was actually started by Justice Ginsberg, which is why it bears weight for a lot of people. However, the Majority opinion made sure it’s ruling specifically stated it only pertains to the objectionable coverage. On page 3 the majority quotes and refutes Justice Ginsberg’s dissent stating:
“We do not hold, as the principal dissent alleges, that for-profit corporations and other commercial enterprises can ‘opt out of any law (saving only tax laws they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs.’…Nor do we hold, as the dissent implies, that such corporations have free rein to take steps that impose disadvantages…on others’ or that require ‘the general public [to] pick up the tab.”
Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius publically admitted she never reviewed a single legal memorandum on the constitutionality or effect on religious liberty the HHS Mandate would have. Check it out for yourself:
If you’d like to invalidate this ruling because all men made it, then you must also agree the ruling legalizing abortion should be invalidated since all men made that ruling too! Now, that’s a point we could get on board with!
Open dialog and disagreements make our nation more intelligent. When engaging in the public sphere discussions, arm yourself with the facts so we can have an intellectual discussion. And if you hear seemingly absurd comments such as Mitt Romney himself removed all contraceptives from American drug stores, I implore you, don’t buy it.