It's About Womens' Rights, Stupid!

OK...I am rarely, if ever, politically outspoken. I have my opinions of politicians, and try to keep them to myself. With that said, I am a total new junkie, especially during an election year.

You can agree with me, or you can be religiously opposed, but I support the public medical insurance option that President Obama enacted. I think it adds an extra safety net for the poor, the disenfranchised, but mostly women at the bottom of our social order.

It does seem, though, that Republicans are going against the grain here, with majority support for the mandate even among Catholics. (One statistic claims 99 percent of American women have made use of contraception. That’s a huge voting bloc!)
Beyond that, criticism of this law is simply wrongheaded. For one, the allegedly new mandate has actually been federal law for more than a decade, following a December 2000 ruling by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finding those who refuse to provide such care in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (Under the EEOC interpretation, if an institution offers preventative care — including men’s medications such as Viagra — then it also must offer birth control coverage.)

But more importantly, mandating that employers provide such basic care for employees is no restriction of religious freedom. Catholic hospitals, which employ plenty of non-Catholics, have no religious freedom; Catholics do, and if they don’t want to use contraception that is their
federally sponsored right.

Republicans have now introduced several bills to restrict women’s access to family planning services, including a bill by Rubio that could impact millions of women — or, put another way, millions of voters.

I also support employers being required to offer contraception coverage to its employees. It is all about Womens' Health, Womens' Rights, and what women want! It now seems like our leaders are having a race to the bottom. How much of womens' health care can our leaders strip away. Family Planning, Birth Control, what-have-you. If the right-wing, religious nut jobs had it their way women would be locked in their homes, forced to wear Burqas, and be stripped of all rights and dignity.

It is our bodies we are talking about. Why do men think they know what is right for women. Why don't the right wing nut jobs just ask us what WE want?...Oh I forgot women are not equal to men, and therefore have no right to say what we think is best!

Congratulations, Catholic groups and GOP leaders, President Obama blinked first. According to the Associated Press, the administration has backed down from a fight over requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide birth control for women free of charge under their health-care plans, and the president will announce a compromise plan Friday at the White House. Churches and houses of worship were already exempt from this provision, but Roman Catholic groups and Republican leaders accused Obama of violating religious freedom. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow accused the GOP of "waging a war on contraceptives," and the rhetoric got so bad that at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, conservative columnist Cal Thomas snapped back that he thinks Maddow is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception.