Today the Supreme Court decided that Hobby Lobby doesn't have to provide birth control to its employees, despite federal laws that dictate otherwise.
Hobby Lobby claimed that provided contraception violated their religious beliefs. Now, religious institutions... churches, non profits... they were already exempt from these federal laws. But Hobby Lobby is a for-profit corporation. Legally, as Mitt Romney reminded us, a person.
To give you an idea of why this is such a terrible precedent, I present myself. The married mother of three. The accomplished crafter. The SAIC educated artist. The DIYer. I am exactly who Hobby Lobby wants shopping at their store. And I am also who they want to work for them.
Most of the people behind the anti-abortion movement consider themselves religious. And the anti-abortion movement and the anti-contraception movement are closely linked. It seems like madness, but it's true. Because in both of these cases, the philosophical center of the debate is women, daring to have sex for pleasure. If they get pregnant and need an abortion, they're evil, selfish, sinning harlots. If they don't get pregnant because they successfully use contraception, they're evil, selfish, sinning harlots.
That's the common ground. That's where it starts.
Now Hobby Lobby, who claims deep religious beliefs, says it's an infringement on their freedom of religion to support those evil, selfish, sinning harlots if it provides them with a third party insurance plan that includes birth control*.
The fact is that about 99% of women in the US have used contraceptives. Married women are among the most reliable users of the pill*. Working women rely on contraceptives.
And NOT just to keep from getting pregnant.
Birth control regulates periods, letting you control what day it begins, how long it lasts, or even if you have one at all. And with all the side effects of menstruation (cramps, headaches, insomnia, etc.), being in control of when or if these symptoms occur INCREASES your productivity at work.
So if I worked at Hobby Lobby, they would have the right to ensure that I am minimally productive for at least one week out of each month.
Hobby Lobby, which says its deep religious beliefs are behind this legal action, wants to make sure women follow its Christian values. But I don't have Christian values. In fact, as a Jew, it is essentially to me that I take contraception.
The most important law in all of Judaism is to do what you must "in order to preserve life." You can eat any non-kosher food, break the Sabbath, anything- IF it preserves life.
If I get pregnant, I get melanoma. If I get pregnant, I get cancer and a uterus ready to explode. If I get pregnant, I run extremely high odds of death. For me, contraceptives preserve life.
Now that Hobby Lobby has the right to deny me my legal protections because of their religion, I might be fired for taking off my Jewish holidays. Or if I skipped shul and went to work on Yom Kippur, I could be fired for refusing to take my lunch break, what with my fasting and all.
Now Hobby Lobby has opened a door that MUST be closed, to the elevation of one religion over another.
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Hobby Lobby has the right to ignore federal laws under the guise of religious persecution, it's open season on non-Christians in the workplace.
Because as much as these right-wing conservative blowhards claim there is a war against Christians in this country, it's a lie. What's happening is that our country, founded with the understanding that there must be no state instituted religion, founded by men of faith but not CHRISTIAN faith, by theists and deists and Quakers, has reached a point where the "other" religions are visible. Where once in a while, a Christian might assume that everyone around them is also Christian and be wrong.
Jews, Hindus, native peoples, Sikhs, and horror of horrors, Muslims are all around us. Living in peace, administering to their faith in peace, and generally going about their lives.
This so-called War on Christians, it's the realization that Christians don't have the absolute majority anymore. That there is enough of a voice of "others" out there that when a statue of Jesus or the Ten Commandments appears on a state house, somebody is going to complain. Not just to whine for the sake of whining, but because this great country was founded on something important.
"All men."
Not Christian men. Not white men. And not even all male "men." All people. They all have the right to their religious beliefs or to none at all. And no company is above that.
At least, not until today.
It's a dark day in American History. A day when all the non-Christians stood slack jawed and shocked, amazed that now their employer could dictate their lives beyond work, based on some idea that their moral authority is better, that their faith is more important, that their God is better than your God. Or even that their personal idea of God is somehow superior to another person's.
I'll leave you with this, rather than my own furious ramblings.
“I am for freedom of religion and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.”
~Thomas Jefferson
“We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition… In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws...”
~George Washington
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*Yes, I know the ruling specifically covers a subset of contraceptive methods. And despite what you may have heard, these methods (IUD, morning after pill) are NOT abortifacients. This still sets a tremendously dangerous precedent. The precedent that YOUR BOSS gets to decide what medication is or is not covered by your plan, based only on your boss's own perceived religiously moral superiority. If YOUR BOSS says that blood transfusions are against his religion, or that mammograms are against his religion, should he have the power to remove those options from your third party insurance? I think not. And I am not alone.
I honestly don't know what the heck is going on in our country. The desire to control women is just outrageous and the more power we seem to eek out on one end the more a small but very dangerous and vocal minority hold onto us at the other. Birth Control is a personal decision and also a medical decision. I have an IUD in place because of a severe bleeding problem. I do not use it for birth control, I had my tubes tied after the birth of our third child. Not having that medication would put my health and most definitely my productivity as an employee in jepordy. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThese companies really are shooting themselves in the foot. I don't think there's anything short of fleeing a tornado that could get me to set foot into a Hobby Lobby these days.
DeleteIt would be much easier to take your arguments seriously if they were anywhere near factually accurate. The lawsuit never did and still doesn't seek to ban contraceptives as a whole, simply abortifacients, or shemicals and devices which seek to destroy an egg or embryo AFTER it is fertilized. Please stop the spread of misleading information. If you're an employee at Hobby Lobby, you'll still get your "pill", just don't seek an IUD or a "morning after" solution to your situation.
DeleteAn IUD works by affecting the way sperm move so they can't join with an egg. If sperm cannot join with an egg, pregnancy cannot happen, therefore it IS NOT fertilized and NOT an abortifacient. Educate yourself, Chris and "Please stop the spread of misleading information."
DeleteShut your legs ladies and then shut your mouths
DeleteHow about you shut your legs and close your mouth.
DeleteThis is a women's health issue that women should be discussing.
It is utterly shocking.
ReplyDeleteAnd sets such a dangerous precedent!!!
DeleteYou are fast and you are good. So glad you wrote this today. I would not have been able to have a child had it not been for birth control, which helped relieve my polycystic ovary syndrome. I wonder if this same company, with all of its Christian values, plans to pony up money for maternity leave or day care.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent question!!!
DeleteHobby Lobby's health insurance does cover regular birth control pills among the 16 forms of contraceptives they cover. The only 4 mandated contraceptives they won't supply on insurance are Plan B, ella, and two IUDs.
DeleteFor some reason people across the web are not supplying this key piece of information.
I'm *almost* afraid to post this, but have you spent any time in the deep south lately? Where your chances of getting hired for a job are greatly increased by the church you attend, and the fact that you are a member of someone's prayer group may hold more weight than what's on your resume (and you're more likely to be hired than any non-Christian; in fact, you're probably going to be asked what church you attend)? When holding prayer circles at lunch on company, even public property, is a common occurrence, and including scripture in your email signature, even if you're a government employee, is acceptable practice? This has been going on for years -all Hobby Lobby did was make it official.
ReplyDeleteI haven't, and it's a very conscious choice. Living in a northern city, I get to enjoy much of the privilege of passing for white. The farther south I go, the more people see me as being immediately 'not white' on sight. The reactions to my being Jewish range from treating me as a marvelous cultural oddity to a pariah. I remember one very awkward wedding, where my boyfriend introduced me to his grandmother. She asked if my name was Hawaiian, and when I said it was Hebrew she literally turned up her nose and walked away. The fact that this is how people act when it comes to the privilege of a majority religion is in no way okay, and making it official is a giant step in the wrong direction.
DeleteRidinmama fyi- it's not what you know but who you know and that happens everywhere.
DeleteI salute and honor you. You said what you meant, meant what you said, and didn't say it mean.Awesomely well done.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Shalagh
Thank you. <3
DeleteI am so terrified by this decision. The SCOTUS got this one wrong wrong wrong, and I am freaking out. Like, do these people know that The Handmaid's Tale was not actually a how-to manual?
ReplyDeleteI think Justice Ginsburg summed it up best... "The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield."
Deletehttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/best-lines-hobby-lobby-decision
What's truly tragic, Lea Grover, is that your mother didn't abort you. You're taking up too much bandwidth and air for that matter.
ReplyDeleteWhat's truly tragic is how much of a smug cunt you're being with that ridiculous and offensive comment.
DeleteAdd to the conversation with thoughts and ideas rather than anonymous hate.
Damn right, NancyM. Trolls with no counterargument are the scum of the net.
DeleteLies Lies Lies. This article, "My God Is Better Than Your God" is based on a lie, and purposefully builds on and reinforces the lie.
ReplyDeleteNo where in the Supreme Court decision, or even in Hobby Lobby's law suit, was there anything that even hints at preventing women from getting contraception. Please show me where anyone's right to contraception is being infringed upon. The ruling only says that people with such religious convictions, like Ms Grover's religious duty to keep from becoming pregnant, shouldn't be forced to pay for it.
If you want conception, go get it! Nothing in this ruling is stopping you. Just don't ask me to pay for it.
Nobody was asking Hobby Lobby to pay for contraceptives- just to make sure health care plans included them. As all plans in the country must do. To quote Justice Ginsberg:
Delete"Any decision to use contraceptives made by a woman covered under Hobby Lobby's or Conestoga's plan will not be propelled by the Government, it will be the woman's autonomous choice, informed by the physician she consults."
As for paying for it... without insurance, an IUD is more than a month's wages for most women. How on earth is she supposed to get it?
Hobby Lobby is not prohibiting you from taking birth control. No one is disputing your need for birth control or that it can be helpful or beneficial for certain conditions. The only difference is that Hobby Lobby won't be paying for it. Everyone commenting about how they needed birth control for this or that - no one is disputing that. You can still use birth control as you please, the only thing is that you will now have to pay for it with your own money as you do other things you consider necessities.
ReplyDeleteAgain, to quote Justice Ginsburg: "It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month's full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage."
DeleteThat is why people get health insurance in the first place. Why should an employer be able to arbitrarily say who can and can't have what medicine, based on an ideology that says some medicine can be used for things that they don't personally morally agree with?
Actually Hobby Lobby does cover normal Birth Control because they're Christian not Catholic.
DeleteHobby Lobby won't be covering Plan B, ella, and two IUDs.
Do some basic research before you write an article. Birth control pills aren't part of what is affected by the case. Abortion inducing devices and medicines are. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/30/morning-after-iuds/11768653/
ReplyDeleteNone of those medications cause abortions. IUDs are an implantable form of a birth control medicine, so your body can regulate the hormones 24/7, around the clock. Neither are the morning after pill abortifacients. They PREVENT pregnancy. Not end it.
DeleteWe can argue about when life begins, etc., but that wasn't my point. My point is the article is blatantly wrong. It says that Hobby Lobby will not be covering birth control pills. That is completely inaccurate. My criticism is based on the presentation of false information, not someone's personal view of when human life begins.
DeleteThe ruling set a precedent- Hobby Lobby won't be covering IUDs, to start. But where does it end? When Target decides it won't be covering blood transfusions? Or when Osco decides it won't cover colonoscopies? What a doctor prescribes for a patient is not the business of that patient's employer.
DeleteI'm fine with arguments being made about this setting a precedent for future expansion. People do that all the time. While I don't agree with many of the opinions/points made in the article, I support a person's ability to express their opinions. The point I made was that many of the items presented in the article as fact, were inaccurate. I know that since its original publication the article has been amended to point out that it was originally factually wrong. Those amendments did not make it to other places that have reposted the article, such as Huffington Post and Yahoo.
DeleteI'll see what I can do. I had no idea this had been picked up by Yahoo! Do you happen to have a link?
DeleteYahoo just links to the Huffington Post article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lea-grover/my-god-is-better-than-your-god_b_5544178.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
DeleteThank you Shannon.
DeleteBecoming supermommy be slow to speak and quick to listen. Trust me it works.
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ReplyDelete1. Only 2 women judges said businesses don’t have religious rights. Ginsberg and sotomayer.
ReplyDelete2. HL never argued birth control- only abortificents- abortion causing pills and devices used by less than 5% of women according to the CDC. There is no “denying birth control, hateful to women etc”
3. Justice Roberts stated weeks ago- to say that a company cannot have moral beliefs would open the door for every lawyer to argue that a company cannot be racist, sexist, or homophobic etc.. You could not sue a corporation for sexist policies denying women promotions- only the CEO, or administrator, as a person who stated the policy. So you could sue 1 person for sexual harassment but not the whole company. If one dennys manager said “your fat, and gay and black and I don’t like your kind go somewhere else” you would be welcome to sue his $15 an hour personhood…but not Dennys.
4. in many aspects corporations are treated like persons. This corporation severely cripples its sales by closing on Sundays to observe their deeply held religious beliefs. Were they a faceless corporation they would stay open Sundays and rake in more cash.
5. the govt can have health insurers directly provide these limited drugs, or the govt can provide them, without requiring the employer to pay for them, as it does already in many instances. There is no blockage of care legally speaking.
6. no employee has less access than before- they are in no way harming, they are denying an increased cost to themselves (this is a legal argument) so there is no “denying” of a benefit that already existed.
AND IN NO WAY AARE YOU THE TYPE OF PERSON THAT HOBBY LOBBY WOULD WANT TO EMPLOY
1. Are their opinions invalid because they're women? Don't you think it's telling that the women on the court see how wrong this is?
Delete2. The banned hormonal drugs are not abortifacients. They do not cause abortions.
3. That's a straw man argument. It's a fallacy.
4. When was the last time a corporation went to jail for breaking the law? And why are they immortal?
5. If only that were true.
6. This is not true. As Justice Ginsburg said: "It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month's full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage."
I don't know, my fine arts education, my incredible wealth of experience crafting, and my personal sales records in my previous jobs would definitely dictate otherwise. Believe it or not, I'm an excellent employee.
This is not accurate. Hobby Lobby supports 16 different types of birth control. They don't want to pay for the birth control that murders the baby in the womb.
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you to research what the morning after pill and IUD's actually do. Because they don't "murder a baby in the womb" as you apparently think they do.
DeleteThey prevent egg from meeting sperm.
Here is a novel idea...buy your own damn. Birth control or just shut your legs! The real crime is not any alleged "control" that an employer might have, but where is your outrage over the real power that the federal government had over the employer that forces them to provide insurance at all? Funny that you reference 2 quotes from Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, yet the other 99.999% of the actual words they spike or took the time to write down would be diametrically opposed to your obsession of the nanny state where the feds wipe our asses. From the time we are born until the last cent is paid on our funeral taxes.Stop whining about not getgetting every free handout that you think you are entitled to and get off your back if you want something
ReplyDeleteTom Davis, I love you man...couldn't have said it any better !
Delete"Stop whining about not getting every free handout that you think you are entitled to"
DeleteWTF??
Paying a premium for an insurance plan as a full-time employee is not a handout. It's working to provide medical coverage for yourself.
"and get off your back if you want something"
Who the F@$& do you think you are?? Women make up 48% of the American Workforce and Women accounted for 51.5 percent of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations (2010 US census). Often times we are also the primary care givers for dependants (be it children, disabled parents etc). WE WORK OUR ASSES OFF.
Nancy before Obamacare you would have been correct that insurance premiums were not handouts. However, your commander and chief changed all of that when he lied to us about obamcare not being a tax, but then told the supreme court that it would be in order to get the trainwreck law passed.
DeleteAlso, I am not discounting the presence of women in the american workforce for one second. My post is referring specficially to women who think they are entitled to free birth control. If you fall under this category then my post is targeted squarely at you. Entitlements are supposed to be for people who cannot help themselves. Not women who want to get reimbursed for having sex. If you cannot see the difference between those then there is nothing anyone can do to help you.
Tom, this isn't about "free birth control," and it's not about getting "reimbursed for having sex." This is about an employer deciding he can ignore any federal law because it disagrees with his personal religious belief.
DeleteAnd that's not the way laws work. And it's not the way our freedom of religion works. Freedom of religion means NOBODY is allowed to force their religion on somebody else. Not the government, and not corporations.
If people can't tell the difference between that and getting on some moral high ground regarding their perceptions about birth control and premarital sex, that's probably why ideological wingnuts managed to get this far in the first place.
Who is forcing religion on anyone here? If my employer's personal belief is that birth control is equal to murder, who the hell are you to tell them they have to pay for it? How is that forcing religion on someone? You steal from me to pay for your birth control and I am forcing my religion on you? That makes a lot of sense! I noticed today that Walgreens is now looking to move their company overseas to lower their corporate tax burden. Soon CVS will follow to remain competitive. Median income has been going down or staying the same since owebama took office. The only new jobs are part time because employers cant afford to provide benefits any longer. Sure they have the cash, but as soon as they go down that road their shareholders will force them into bankruptcy so it is not an option. At what point is enough enough already? Economic facism does not work! The rest of the world is trying to get out of it,and we are diving in head first! Let's keep crying about not getting our $20 birth control pills paid for by our employers, though...that's what is really worth all of our attention here!
DeleteIts not about you, Lea. In your flurry to strike as many drama buttons as possible in one very poorly reasoned essay, you have totally missed the point - its not about you. Who it is about are the unborn children being killed by abortion and abortion-inducing pills. Why wasn't that demographic, the unborn children which were favorably affected by this decision, ever mentioned in your article? Hobby Lobby courageously stood against an evil aspect of one of our government's laws and called them out on it - no one should be forced by our government to fund something as horribly, and morally, wrong as the murder of unborn children. Abortion is a moral curse upon our nation. Anything that curses our nation like that is everyone's concern.
ReplyDelete*facepalm*
DeleteThe morning after pill does not cause abortions. It prevents sperm making contact with an egg.
IUD's do not cause abortions. They prevent sperm making contact with an egg.
Not to mention, there are many many uses for these medications that have nothing to do with contraception.
Also, abortion may be a "moral curse" to you, but it is not to the majority of women in our nation. Having the ability to plan when a child is brought in to this world provides that child with resources like stable housing, adequate income, proper nutrition and healthcare.
Your personal religious and moral beliefs are for you to understand, not me and certainly not the rest of the country. This is about an employer having control over an employees healthcare and how terrible, invasive and dangerous that can be. My morals shouldn't dictate anyone other than me, same goes for you and for every single employer in this country. There is absolutely no reason an employer should have a say in an employees medical concerns. Ever.
Once we eliminate the defective thinking that abortion is "healthcare", progress might be made here. Half the people who enter an abortion procedure do not survive - abortions are 100% fatal for babies. Explain how abortion is "healthcare" for the baby... explain how the baby's health is improved after an abortion. Abortion is NOT healthcare.
DeleteThank you that 'your morals should not dictate to anyone other than yourself' - logically, now you will cease demanding that the rest us fund abortion when it violates our morals.
For all the millions of women who experience the tragedy of carrying a baby with no chance of survival outside the womb, who are forced to terminate wanted pregnancies because carrying them to term might kill them, or for whom a very wanted baby has missing organs, external organs, or a cancerous placenta, I commend you on your stunning lack of empathy or compassion.
DeleteExplain how this case has anything to do with abortion...because it doesn't. Iud's and morning after pills prevent egg from meeting sperm. Unless the definition of abortion has changed drastically, you are talking about something that is completely irrelevant to the case.
DeleteTo all the people that actually believed this article wake up because there is no excuse for ignorance. In other words don't believe everything you hear. Do your own research
ReplyDeleteI agree this is a bunch of hear say minus the facts. I would not credit this as legitimate journalism. A creative way I see to drive traffic to her blog
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing about this! This decision sets a dangerous precedent.
ReplyDeleteI agree- it's a very dangerous slippery slope. Or, as Justice Ginsburg said, a minefield. Thanks for commenting!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere was never any question of the public paying for anybody's medicine. Insurance coverage is not a tax.
DeletePlan B and Ella, just like IUDs, are used to regulate a variety of hormonal imbalances. They do not cause abortions, and they are not used exclusively for the prevention of pregnancy.
BUT EVEN IF THEY WERE- do you want to live in a country where you boss can decide what medicine your doctor is allowed to prescribe for you? The only people who should have a say in your private medical care are you and your doctor. That's why we have HIPAA laws.
This isn't about having sex, premarital or otherwise. This is about whether or not you have the same rights as the corporation you work for. And right now, according to the Supreme Court, you don't.
Supermommy whether you want to call it a tax or a mandate doesnt really matter. The only purpose that argument served was when Owebama needed to lie to the american people by selling it as a mandate before then telling the supreme court something different in order to get it passed. Insurace coverage is no longer an option and is enforced the same way taxes are, so it really doesnt matter what it is called. If we dont pay it we get fined at rates that will only go up every year, at amounts determined by the policicians who have all opted out of the system. And you are worried about employers having too much power here? Really? How about the government's power? I can no longer purchase the plan I had before because it doesnt comply with their regulations, which also means my doctor is no longer in my network. I could give two shits about whether my co-workers are getting subsidized to have sex or not! What about the veterans that have died recently in government-run health facilities? Do you really think that our entire system will be any better than that in a generation from now? They screw up just about everything they touch and you want them to be in control of our entire healthcare system? Why dont you ponder that while you are waiting on the damn website to get fixed
ReplyDeleteThe moment somebody claims that an employer dictating their employees' healthcare for their own religious reasons is in any way connected to "subsidizing sex," you turn this conversation away from substantive issues and make it about policing women's sexual choices. And last time I checked, nobody has the right to tell somebody else whether or not they're allowed to have sex, or whether or not they have to.
DeleteIf you don't like it, don't work at Hobby Lobby, they have a right to refuse birth control if its against their religious beliefs. and besides its a craft store.
ReplyDeletesuck it up.
This is a crazy, huge step BACKWARD that I don't understand. WHY are we still mixing church and state? WHY are we considering corporations as PEOPLE? The only thing I can hope is people will be motivated to let their congress know how they're not happy with this decision. And as cruel as it may sound, people with these antique beliefs are nearing the end of their lives for the majority. There are of course zealots of all ages, but I just really hope the modern, progressive, realistic thinkers can take appropriate action, so that women get to decide what happens to their own bodies, as a free country would indicate. Great article.
ReplyDeleteI'm completely baffled that a corporation has more rights than me. Did you see John Oliver's take on this?
Deletehttp://mobile.theverge.com/2014/7/1/5860870/john-oliver-mocks-companies-for-wanting-to-be-people
In the story (& movie) "The Lorax" there was one last old Lorax who "spoke for the trees" against the modern, progressive, realistic thinkers of his time who had killed all the trees.
DeleteAfter the people with "antique beliefs" are all gone, who will speak for the babies before the modern, progressive, realistic thinkers have killed them all?
Perhaps you can explain, where in the abortion procedure, the baby gets to decide what happens to their body - as a free country would indicate?
A fertilized egg has about as much sentience as an apple.
DeleteJust out of curiosity- if you believe keeping an egg from reaching a sperm is abortion, and therefor murder, do you believe killing a full grown animal is murder? When do cattle decide whether or not to enter a slaughterhouse?
abor·tion
Delete: a medical procedure used to end a pregnancy and cause the death of the fetus
: the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus
mur·der
: the crime of deliberately killing a person
It looks like unfertilized eggs are not a part of the definition of abortion, nor are animals a part of the definition of murder.
"It looks like unfertilized eggs are not part of the definition of abortion..."
DeleteThen it looks like the medications Hobby Lobby now chooses not to allow their third party insurers to cover aren't abortifacients.
You know, I'm kind of confused here. I have an IUD. That, originally, was not my plan. My plan was to go in and get a tubal ligation done. We are married and have two children. A third child would, at this time, would be difficult for us financially for many reasons. We knew that we were done having children. I go to a Catholic hospital. When I went in for my appointment, I was informed that a tubal would not be done there because the hospital is against doing them. The actual surgery would have to take place at the other hospital in town. Then, the doctor was concerned about the risk of surgery so we discussed it and I had an IUD put in instead. He was able to put it in at that time, at that hospital (again, a Catholic hospital). But, I would have had to go to another hospital to have a tubal done. Can anyone explain that?
ReplyDeleteHere's another thing that boggles my mind. People freak out about these four forms of contraception because of the concern that it may prevent a fertilized egg from implanting which some people consider to be causing an abortion. If this is the concern about those forms, then why aren't more people pushing for babies to be formula fed? Breastfeeding can do the same thing, only naturally! Breastfeeding can cause the hormones to fluctuate and prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. So, why isn't more said about this? I mean, if we want to preserve all POSSIBLE life, then breastfeeding shouldn't be okay either.
An excellent point!! Where are the anti-breastfeeding crusaders?
DeleteOnce we eliminate the defective thinking that abortion is "healthcare", progress might be made here. Half the people who enter an abortion procedure do not survive - abortions are 100% fatal for babies. Explain how abortion is "healthcare" for the baby... explain how the baby's health is improved after an abortion. Abortion is NOT healthcare.
ReplyDeleteThank you that 'your morals should not dictate to anyone other than yourself' - logically, now you will cease demanding that the rest us fund abortion when it violates our morals.
As said above:
DeleteFor all the millions of women who experience the tragedy of carrying a baby with no chance of survival outside the womb, who are forced to terminate wanted pregnancies because carrying them to term might kill them, or for whom a very wanted baby has missing organs, external organs, or a cancerous placenta, I commend you on your stunning lack of empathy or compassion.
Millions? Really. No doubt miscarriages, stillborn, and other very sad things happen to babies and their mothers instead of completion of a birth - but don't demean their dignity by using a fictional magnitude of statistics to prop up your position.
DeleteYes, millions. 1.2 million abortions a year in the US, approximately 15K of them post 20w- nearly all of which are responses to news of a fetus that is incompatible with life outside the womb. Interestingly, the statistics are drastically different for post 16w, largely because many women simply didn't know they were pregnant before then.
DeleteSo the question of "millions" comes down to, earlier term abortions- why did they have them? Like the women who have endometriosis and a pregnancy causes life threatening complications? In the case of one woman I know- stroke like symptoms and possible neurological damage? Or women with compromised immune systems who get cancer when they get pregnant?
And then there's the timeline- even IF we're only talking about terminating pregnancies post-20w, only in the case where a fatal fetal abnormality has been proven, then over what time period does it take to reach 1million?
This ruling has implications beyond the calendar year.
This ruling means nothing compared to the disaster of the healthcare law...whine and moan all you want about the hobby lobby ruling, but birth control costs $20-$30 in most places. When I am forced to now cover an $8,000 deductible and pay $4,000 more (yes i said more...as in extra on top of what I was already paying) for annual premiums why are you so concerned about not getting free birth control? Your loser in chief is crushing our economy right before our eyes and you are worked up over this? The only thing your foolish comments are missing is how this is somehow George Bush's fault
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ReplyDeleteI wish we were still living in the Enlightened Age.
ReplyDeleteJust read through the comments & I have one other thing to add. Do you know the first thing that would be legalized if men had babies? Abortion.
ReplyDeleteI mean it is legal but it would be paid for like all the companies who don't want to pay for health care b/c it's for women but will pay for unnecessary elective penile enhancement for men.
ReplyDelete