To add what I wrote previously (if published) if a church does a lot of social work, they can get their tax exempt status registering as a non profit.
4
When Trump has his rallies, if he brags that his administration has waged war on insurance coverage for birth control, he doesn't seem to realize that many of the women in his audience have likely benefited from ObamaCare insurance rules for contraception coverage.
10
I want the democrats to write and submit a bill for vote that denies men insurance coverage for condoms, including the removal of all condom dispensing machines in men’s rooms across the country.
If republicans are against women contraception because it violates their religious beliefs then the same should be true for men’s condoms. Women contraceptives and men condoms are both intended to prevent procreation, which is the sticking point for Catholics and evangelicals.
Democrats, get it done.
26
But Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, said the new rules on contraception were “a resounding victory for true-believing Americans.” They will, she said, end the “persecution of ordinary Americans who for years have been seeking only the freedom to live in accordance with their faith, free from government interference.”
Well, Rep Black, what about the millions of women who truly believe that their medical decisions are most appropriately decided by conversations with their doctors, not their employers?
If insurance companies objected to providing this coverage, it would be a different matter entirely, also problematic, but not just a matter of one group of zealots and a completely irresponsible, ignorant president who could actually care less about this issue, deciding that religious freedom means having the right to impose one's beliefs on the majority of female Americans, 90 something percent of whom use of have used birth control in their lifetimes.
This not about religious freedom; it's about religious authoritarianism. From everything I've read and seen this is less about even the imposition of peeping Tom scolds than bitter old men, who don't want to pay for a service they and their unfortunate mates no longer use. That attitude completely contradicts the whole purpose of insurance, which is collective coverage. Even worse, it's obvious from their attitudes towards social services that the same people could care less once a baby is born.
25
I don't understand. I just don't understand.
Why would birth control be anyone's business? How is it not considered a basic right? How can an employer inflict such a basic indignity on its female employees? The intrusiveness and overreach is astounding. Just astounding.
Further, birth control pills are used for many off shelf reasons like endometriosis.
I cannot believe this is Republican's America. How can Republican women justify this? Who are these women that are okay with this?
Something is gravely wrong with the soul of our nation.
49
if a company is that religious and gets into an employees personal space, that employee, if uncomfortable with that thinking or ideology, has the option of not accepting the job offer or leaving that space under their own power. In the end, this will cost companies with those types of policies great talent innovators and thinkers.
They're loss.
4
Pregnancy is not a disease. Birth control is not health care. Individuals will not be denied access to birth control, they will just have to pay for it themselves. The government’s position protects the First Amendment. Birth control is and has always been an individual choice. What should the government’s role be in circumstances where an individual refuses to take personal responsibility for their actions?
4
Where can I get a list of every business that refuses to include contraception in its employee health insurance, so I can boycott them because of MY religious beliefs and moral convictions?
68
Pregnancy in many age groups put women at greater risk than the pill. Then there is the greatest risk of loss of control and power over their own lives. Shame on the sham.
25
It is quite annoying to see what the GOP is doing and realize that women are helping to keep these men in office. Puzzling!!
22
The big glaring disgusting point of all is the person leading this atrocity. Everyone who admires this hypocritical moron(Tillerson's Words) chooses to be blind to his past and current history. You can't or shouldn't have birth control but you can play around- very christian, call women vulgar names- very christian, grab women against their will- evidently also christian, oh yes and the cheat on your wives- again evidently christian. Yes you stand behind him also hypocritical congressmen- bet your just as "christian" as Trump. The nuns who for some reason are being political and religious all at once, employers who are sticking their noses in where they don't belong. OK, no more Viagra, no more vasectomies, no more sex. Everyone wants to tell everyone else how to live, what to believe in. Oh so christian. I wonder how many congressmen and employers would stand up to a background check and come out as dirty as Trump?And I also wonder how many have had the same conversations with their "girlfriends-mistresses" as Senator Murphy, oh he isn't a senator anymore, had with his while spouting forth his views on women's health in congress and on internet. Next will be restrictions on say driving?
30
Viagra is covered under health plans but not birth control. Only Republicans could come up with something this inane.
21
Anyone who thinks that Trump knows or cares anything about the fundamental principle of separation of church and state is delusional. He is playing to his religious fundamentalist base - you know, the hypocrites that put this disgraceful person in the White House.
33
So are they going to take Viagra and the other erectile dysfunction drugs off the list as well? Or is this just another attempt to undercut the rights of women. It is time to vote the religious right out of office. They are trying to turn this country into a Christian fundamentalist state every bit as bad as the Islamic fundamentalist states. Wake up America before we have no rights left except those that allow us to buy assault weapons with which we can kill each other!
27
Tyranny of the Minority. Maybe it's time for succession: one group of States guided by compassion that recognizes and protects the rights and dignity of all people while the rest rejoice in restoring the Dark Ages.
22
There is a lot of crazy white people in this fake government. Mandating laws to benefit religion and employers is pure and simple discrimination.
22
We Americans definitely need unbreakable laws to forbid discrimination against females at every age and stage of life.
Unfortunately, it seems that our head of government has mistaken today's Americans for a nastier kind of Master race than that of the WWII Era.
14
What's next? GOP outlawing women's shoes?
11
Sounds like 5 inch heels only.
9
idiocracy theocracy = Trumpian dystopia
16
Conservatives won't be happy until all women are back in the kitchen where "god" intended them to be. Only men are allowed sexual freedom in their view.
20
Another day, another stupid idea from the fool that occupies the white house. Employers that don't cover birth control lose my business. Let's have a list of these companies.
35
If Obama era rules already allowed for religious institutions to exercise their freedom then this is nothing more than another roll back on American rights. Disgusting! Stop hiding under your guises of patriotism and religion. Let's burn nasty women at the stake too?!
8
Oho good... Now our healthcare decisions are being made according to religious fantasies and fairy tales.
20
Any women who votes for a Republican is a traitor. And that includes husbands and boy friends. Why aren't we kicking him out. He has done so much harm in this short time. Why is American putting up with this?
21
Does this ruling mean that Sharia Law will now trump US law or do these exemptions only apply to Christian beliefs?
23
Sharia law is more closely related to what you "progressives" desire than the merits of this decision. This decision does not impose "laws" rather it removes laws that impose.
3
I am wondering. Trump had three wives and only five children. Was it abstinence or oral contraceptives? And with all his philandering ways, did any of his partners require an abortion? And at 70 yrs. does he need Viagra? Just wondering!
19
And people are worried about the imposition of Shaira law?
18
Yes, that is why many support this decision which removes the imposition of laws. Y'all desire central government tyranny which impose laws, conservatives believe that central government power must be limited - the entire reasoning behind the constitution.
1
"...on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions."
This is impossible to know and easy to fake. Until we all learned otherwise, Rep. Tim Murphy was famous for many years for his "sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions." So was Dennis Hastert. So was David Vitter.
You can't base laws on somebody's interpretation of a multi-authored omnibus of fictional fables, and if you try we should know instantly you're a charlatan.
19
It is possible for folk to have strongly held beliefs and fall short of perfection in personally upholding those beliefs. Not many perfect people out there, excluding our "progressives" of course who consider themselves perfect..
2
We saw the musical "Cabaret" last night. It is a chilling reminder of what happened in Germany in 1929-30 before the establishment of the Third Reich. And it reminds us that such nationalism can happen here if we merely do too little to stop it.
13
The GoP religious demand public money for religious schools without any accountability. They then turn around and deny public money for everyone who would use it for contraception in the name of ...religious beliefs. Is there no way to hold the religious accountable for anything? To do what is right? To preserve the rights of the vast majority of Americans? To persuade Trump constituent Evangelicals and Mass attending Catholics that this demeans your religion and makes the rest of us wretched and angry? This is the 21st century. Catholics and Evangelicals use birth control no differently from anyone else according to reliable statistical surveys. Must we issue an invitation to the religious to join the 21st century? Or must we all be condemned to the Dark Ages until they see the light?
13
First those who decry what I say, (although maybe not on a NYTimes forum) I I am not a godless heathen, atheist or agnostic and brought up as a Christian but we need to separate church and state, start making the churches pay their fair (fare is more apt in this case) share of property taxes AND personal income taxes to appease those who will raise a hue and cry over this, tax them much less than we charge individuals or business for their income tax. (although they shouldn´t, as some religious organizations like the Salvation Army and Catholic Church are very wealthy.) For churches who take in less than 100K 10%, that-250K 15%, and over 250K, 20% of their revenues (I think the TV preachers who are multimillionaires should pay the same taxes as the rich but they would have the most money and congregants to fight this) those that can not afford to may have to close, but as the Republicans would say, well, let the free market rule. It is incredible that while paying NO taxes a´tall, we the taxpayers have to subsidize the churches, they should get NO government monies, but even Bernie wouldn´t suggest this, sigh. We uphold in this country, one amendment, the right to bear arms but NOT the other, the separation of church and state.
9
Separation of church and state means that neither should impose it's will on the other. The State is the public sphere and you can't get more public than business and commerce. Individuals and organizations should not be allowed to impose their individual beliefs on how the State at large operates. Denying employees health coverage that is a right of all citizens because of personal beliefs is an imposition on the state that is not constitutional. Employees are members of the public sphere, i.e. aspects of the state.
39
Congress simply cannot endorse any faith based belief by respecting it in law, nor can it make laws to interfere with the voluntary exercise of religion by individuals and congregations.
4
Hobby Loopy Lobby should gain millions by not covering birth control coverage, while selling more of knick-knacks, crosses, paintings on black velvet, and stuff.
Another blow for privacy, and women's control of their lives. Disgusting, let's talk more about freedom.
13
speechless w rage and sorrow- don’t you know that when women have control over their fertility the world becomes a better place for all of us?
11
It sickens me to see religion used as the pretext to discriminate against LGBTQ people and women who rely on health insurance to purchase contraception.
The Trump administration's actions violate First Amendment protections against the governmental establishment of religion.
13
I never understood the "religious freedom" argument as it seems that one religion is allowed to enforce its beliefs on its employees or health beneficiaries.
Freedom of Religion also means freedom FROM religion and the freedom to follow one's own conscience within the laws of the country. Now we are making special "exceptions" for certain religious groups...a dangerous precedent and road to travel along. Free Will also gives the individual the right to choose whether contraception is something they need or not, and something any church should not insert itself into the prevention of. This action is wrong on every level.
13
Trump rules by votes for him. This is ridiculous. Where are the outcries about all the sexual harassment suits agains Trump?
How about we outlaw Viagra and all its siblings. What will all the old men do? The dotards?
I am absolutely disgusted with Trump and the GOP. I am ashamed to be an American with Trump as President, he is horrendous, a crook and a dotard. Anyone who enables or supports him are just as dirty as he is.
14
We've known that Trump disrespects women all along. This is disgusting and horrible and will harm millions of women, especially poor women. Please Please get this man out of the white house, and let's get some decency back in power in 2018--vote Democrat!
14
And yet more than 50% of women who voted in the last election pulled the lever for this misogynistic, philandering, racist troll. And we're outraged?
Of course he would do this, it's what the religious right expect; be pro-life in public, and the greedy corporate execs demand; more money in their pockets at the expense of everyone else.
11
Why do I have to pay for your birth control? When you want to get pregnant am I supposed to pick up the tab for your dinner, drinks and a show?
That said, I think I'd rather pick up the tab for your birth control instead of supporting unwanted kids in perpetuity.
4
Why do I have to pay for your lung cancer? Am I supposed to buy your cigarettes?
That said, I'd rather provide health care to everyone that let my fellow Americans die because I'm greedy and selfish.
17
Can we just split the country in thirds? Narrow minded people take the middle, open minded take the west coast and those too busy at work to care the east coast.
Think about it.
8
October 7, 2017
Oh just has Hillary Clinton beat Trump - we wouldn't be reading this situation and so lessons are loud and clear for the adults and educators for making America normal for practicalities and human freedom of choice for our: minds, souls, and bodies. Realism will prevail for Trump is giving us and world a beating and for all his own - ego and throws out consensus and human dignity to live pursuit of happiness.
jja Manhattan, N.Y.
4
Borrow right wing tactic, this is taking away of person freedom of choice, this is government infringes into our private bedroom . this is about woman's bill of right. and I mean it
6
I urge those men who are against making birth control widely available at an affordable cost to TAKE A VOW OF CELIBACY.
19
American exceptionalism indeed. Failing to take away health care from 22+ million Americans Trump, Price and their GoP minions now try to take away birth control from tens of millions of women and their families. Trump and his GoP facilitators' misogyny laid clear for all to see.
This is medieval. It will result in unwanted births and abortions. It will be a financial burden for the poor. And when coupled with diminished pre- and post-natal visits, slashed medical insurance coverage, impoverished schools and neighborhoods, increased crime and homicides and increased prison populations it spells out a disastrous socio-economic mapping for generations to come.
God-fearing Evangelicals and Mass-attending Catholics (strong Trump constituents) --is this really what you wanted? Does this justify your vote and continuing support for a God-leering Trump? Because this is his campaign-promise-making-good for you. And it makes the rest of us wretched. It debases religion. It is anti-woman. It is cruel. Medieval.
15
These folks literally believe they must suffer in this life to make death a better place forever. They are utterly disconnected from reality.
10
Why is this difficult, if you want health coverage that includes birth control, work for a company that provides it. Both employees and employers should have the freedom to choose and it should not be mandated by a central authority.
5
Since when have employers and employees negotiated on a more or less equitable basis, Dan Weber?
12
So this will take us back all the way to the bad old days of..2009?
I'm not seeing the reason for hysteria here. Most companies will continue to cover birth control. If someone has to pay a small co-pay for birth control why is that worse than someone having to pay a co-pay for medicines addresssing cancer or leukemia or hypertension or heart medicine or diabetes or dozens of other conditions?
The other takeaway is that things that are granted by executive discretion can be removed by executive discretion.
6
The reason is that cancer and all those other things you mention are diseases. Pregnancy is not a disease.
4
"Handmaid's Tale" and "1984" and a little bit of the China one-child policy?
"... employers and organizations may claim broad exemptions from nondiscrimination laws on the basis of religious objections. ..." In essence, religious people are free to discriminate against others, and to impose their own beliefs on others?
Birth control coverage need no longer be covered by employers. 55 million women will lose this benefit. Companies now get to tell millions of women whether or not to use birth control, via financial coercion? Won't poor, working class and middle class women be the most vulnerable?
10
You mean the poor ones smoking $8 a packs cigarettes or sporting $200 tattoos. Those poor?
1
Many commenters ask: "What about Viagra (which, apparently, most health care plans DO cover)?"
Frankly, it would be fine with me if health care plans did NOT cover Viagra. Constitutionally-speaking, though, Viagra is different from a morning-after pill. Congress may adopt a law that mandates Viagra coverage if the law doesn't infringe on someone's Constitutional rights. That doesn't mean such a law would be a good idea -- only that it's not unconstitutional.
But when Congress passes a law that DOES infringe on someone's Constitutional rights, that's not OK. For example, when Congress adopts a law that requires an employer to provide health insurance that covers morning-after pills -- usually called "contraception" but really "abortion," since the woman is already pregnant -- that law arguably conflicts with the religious beliefs of an employer who believes that life begins upon conception and, therefore, that ending a pregnancy is improper. Personally, I do NOT oppose abortion, but I see no justification for requiring someone who DOES oppose it to pay for some third party's abortion. A contrary ruling in Hobby Lobby would have had that result.
Hobby Lobby did NOT prohibit contraception, or abortion, or anything else. It merely held that an employer who has genuine religious objections (or a tightly-held employer-entity whose principal owners have such objections) to abortion can't be required to fund health insurance that covers "contraception" that is really "abortion."
11
Viagra is 100% a matter of enhancing the pleasure of sex for men. Do I really have to tell you that being liberated from worries about unwanted pregnancies enhances the pleasures of sex for many women?
13
This measure proves the shortsightedness, ignorance and basic stupidity of the Republican Party and Donald Trump.
Their main goal should not be to outlaw abortion but to eliminate it. As everyone with a reasonable IQ knows,
abortion is one of the consequences of unwanted pregnancies. As soon as unwanted pregnancies diminish so does abortion.
By making contraception more difficult they make abortion more likely.
Total imbecility.
17
Do stop being short sighted. He's locally growing (is this environmentally better?) an affordable work force and following through with his understanding of profiting from poverty by means of affordable housing. I get it...it's awful. But by not making the effort to comprehend his motive is the equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot.
1
Because the world needs more babies, right, oh people of faith?
It looks like the only people the Trump Administration and the Republicans care about are straight, white men with money. No one else counts for anything.
12
"Because of sincere religious belief..." Not kidding anyone. It is all about money.
I wonder why god will want so many more people when millions have a terrible life with hunger, misery, disease, wars, etc.
This is all a human political and economic creation where god o religion or faith has nothing to do with it.
Will they also stop viagra and other male products?
Shame. It is not christian at all.
11
So ... we're going to protect all religious freedom, right? Including the non-Christian ones?
9
Including the atheists and agnostics, too? Remember that freedom OF religion must include freedom FROM religion.
9
The age of the obscurantism has arrived…
5
I’m an old Catholic, so I get to say something.
There was no such thing as birth control when I was a kid. Want to stop having babies? There was this “rhythm” method, which really doesn’t work. All “rhythm” does is tell you what days of the month a woman is less likely to get pregnant. The Catholic church considered the “rhythm” method to be wrong. But every Catholic mother in the neighborhood, even the devout ones going to Novenas every week, were on the “rhythm” method, usually with not such good results. That’s the only reason the priests weren’t too strident about it.
So, why was even a natural method like “rhythm,” which is basically abstention, forbidden? For one simple reason: the more Catholics on this earth, the better. They were open about it. Be fruitful and multiply, the Bible says, so let's make sure the Catholics get their fair share of that, okay? Women were expected to take their duty to produce more Catholics seriously.
Suddenly, now, it’s all about the sanctity and the miracle of birth. Oh, please, give me a break. It’s never been about anything other than producing more Catholics.
These nuns are hypocrites, nothing more. I’m old, but I have a good memory.
33
I really hope that fair minded people of all stripes understand the danger of today's far right and extremist Republican Party. From gun control to women's health and everybody's health to legalized hate for LGBT citizens to devastating climate change inaction....we must remove the GOP from power across the states and in the halls of congress....our lives realky depend upon it.
18
A solution: make a (very) miniaturized version of a GUN, insert into the uterus, as an IUD. NOTHING must EVER impinge upon the holy Second Amendment. No rules, regulation, or Employer objections. Problem solved. Right, GOP???
11
I often agree with you, Phyliss, but this time I don't even understand what you're saying. I realize it's meant to be sarcastic, of course, but could you please spell it out for those of us not attuned to the sarcasm?
1
Manufacturers of these drugs should react decisively. If our politicians are too spineless to stop Trump and defend women's rights, it's time for some other entity to fill the void. Manufacturers should create programs that provide these drugs and devices to women at a range from no cost to low cost and hospitals, clinics and doctors should provide care and procedures at low or no cost. We need to get creative in our fight against what amounts to be a war on women and the GOP and religious right's hypocrisy. They say Islam is oppressive toward women, yet their form of "christianity" preaches its own forms of oppression.
35
Let's just stop hiring graduates of religious institutions -- including Catholic high schools, colleges and universities -- and give favor in employment to those who aren't tainted with the fetishes of Christianity.
13
Aren't we missing the point with all this tiresome religious posturing? (I know, your religion is better than mine.) Covering birth control is not like aspirin. Giving easy access to contraceptives prevents unwanted pregnancies, costs of hospital and maternity care, and added welfare expenses. (I also know you all don't give a wit about the unwanted children after they are born.) Odd that the GOP isn't interested in saving money through preventive medical care. BTW, where's Ivanka on all of this? Ha ha ha.
14
If the boss ever had the audacity to set up roadblocks to my private family planning, I would high tail it to the nearest competitor in a heartbeat. Outrageous.
10
Family planning has tremendous influence over the environment. It is not a private issue. And unlike Guthrie, I don't presume it's mine.
If an argument is flipped and works against you, it likely isn't a strong argument worth pursuing.
For all those who thought that having Mike Pence and his backwoods conservative Christian ideology in the White House would be better than Donald Trump -- now is the opportunity to see just what kind of president he'd be, since this mandate has his unmentioned name all over it.
13
Where do "progressives" get the idea that their rights trump those of their employers? There is no constitutional "right" for having others pay for your contraception - period.
5
Jaco, it has nothing to do with the Constitution rather the ACA requires employers who provide health insurance to ensure the private policies include coverage for contraception, etc. Most of these policies cover Viagra. Why do reactionaries consider women inferior?
7
Thank you for illustrating my point, it has nothing to do with the constitution therefore it is unconstitutional.
1
So where is Ivanka the complicit when we need her with all her fake ideas about helping women. She is along on the circus train for the entertainment I guess. Of course it would be cheaper for insurance companies to cover birth control than pregnancy and its complications or other health issues.
12
This is simply the latest example of Trump shamelessly playing to his base.
Problem is, most Americans are likely against this. That’s ok w me. I’d rather have Trump playing to a shrinking base than trying to expand it. That may be the best way for us to get a real president back in the WH, although 3 plus years seems like an eternity right now.
9
Exactly right! Trump's base believe in individual responsibility and freedoms, while our "progressives" believe in central government tyranny using force to impose central rule.
Please explain to me why this is a big deal. I ask sincerely. Condoms are not covered by insurance, and I have never asked anyone to buy them for me. Life has been fine.
What am I missing? No snark, please, and thanks in advance.
4
Hi DZ,
1) Birth control is not just for preventing pregnancy, but in fact treats a host of other health issues women face: endometriosis, heavy menstrual periods, painful cramping, and more.
2) It's a prescription, and why wouldn't it be covered by all health insurance? Why would a prescription I take be singled out for coverage exclusion? Because ONE of the effects is pregnancy prevention?
If an incredibly effective cancer treatment drug had a side effect of pregnancy prevention, wouldn't you want to be able to discuss with your doctor whether you wanted to take it or not? Isn't it weird that the government is making decisions about which drugs are covered by insurance? Because we are talking about people who receive medical insurance through their employer. So they're paying for coverage which now isn't comprehensive by government mandate.
Condoms don't have any other medical purpose, and it's a false equivalency. Birth control is medication.
I hope this helped a little? I appreciate you asking the question, and the call for no snark! :-)
12
Good question. I would say condoms should be covered to reduce STD and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Bad policy doesn't justify bad policy I guess.
Why do the rest of us owe you an explanation? Why can’t you find out for yourself? Too fearful your own narrative won’t survive?
This is a big deal for several reasons. For one thing, the same pill that can prevent pregnancy ALSO helps prevent ovarian cancer, and helps address reproductive organ-related issues like endometriosis and debilitating cramps. As such, it functions like any other prescription drug the rest of us cover for YOUR ailments. Too, birth control like IUDs that help regulate menstrual cycles (and thus, conditions like PCOS) but cost nearly $2,000 without insurance and sometimes have to be refitted or replaced, which means associated costs.
Moreover, Viagra, which has no medical benefit other than to keep things going, is still covered. Certainly even you can see the double standard.
Another problem is what this whole thing could lead to. This is not about religious freedom, despite what the propaganda blares. This is about chipping away at the ACA, and about shoring up profits at the expense of employees’ health, and their compensation, for which they WORK. What will happen if someday employers can refuse to purchase insurance at all? How will you pay for your kid’s chemo, for your back surgery, for your spouse’s hysterectomy?
Need more reasons why this is a big deal? I got ‘em - just say the word.
12
It's a real outrage that people of faith who run businesses are employing men and women who disagree with them. Surely they can do a better job of finding workers who share all their values and ideals, and reject everyone else. Oh, wait... would that be discriminatory? Let's repeal anti-discrimination laws also, and set up enclaves of people who only believe all the same things. They can live together, work together, gate their communities, and negotiate treaties with other enclaves over goods, services, and behavior during personal encounters.
6
It is concerning, but this does happen all the time anyway.
2
This is nothing more than pandering to his base of conservative Christians. They have a right to behave in any way they feel appropriate. But forcing their brand of morality on the rest of us just doesn’t make sense. For Trump, the liar, panderer, amoral, mysogenistic lout of a man, who bullied his way into office, the electorate needs to send him a clear message: No, sir. We don’t agree with you. And next election cycle we’re all going to vote and put you and your cronies where you belong: Out of office.
13
And why do you assume only young single women use birth control? How about all those married women who want to ensure they don't have more children than they can afford? Guess they should just abstain? And how would you feel about abstaining for decades? Hmmm.
4
These people are so pathetically ignorant that they don't even understand that free exercise of religion is necessarily voluntary, not coerced.
6
Contraception in this country has and will always be free = Abstain. Advice to young women and men , don't have sex with someone you wouldn't want to have be the father/mother of your unborn child. Resist the desire for one night stands and casual sex and this country will have less abortions and less unwanted children. It's that simple!!
3
Actually we're about to have a lot more abortions and a lot more unwanted children. Studies show providing birth control to young people prevents these things, but you're probably anti-evidence, so you won't listen.
But someone really should point out to you that birth control is used by MARRIED COUPLES, it is used by people who already have children (even by 50-year olds with children in college, who might or might not be able to conceive, and who have a high rate of having children with chromosomal abnormalities). Someone should also point out BCP are hormones that are used for many, many conditions other than pregnancy prevention. But somebody--hundreds of somebodies--already pointed that out. Too bad so many people are impervious to facts.
3
Given that you lot have a habit of lecturing men like President Obama on their supposed failure to address issues of black violence in inner cities, one wonders when you'll be bellowing this anywhere in the direction of Donald Trump, Congressman Ryan, Larry Craig, Governor Applachian Trail, Newt Gingrich, Strom Thurmond, David Vitter, Bill O'Reilley, Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, and a long, long, long list of others. Including about seventeen loud-mouthed TV preachers.
Oh, wait. I apologize. A poor comparison, since unlike that long list, President Obama never actually did any of the things he's so often criticized for not criticizing.
On the other hand, there's not one of your beloved honest marriages among this whole pack of "grown men," and yet you're bellowing at kids and single moms.
10
Unbelievable. An old-timer, am I correct?
4
Since Sessions has been thwarted by his own lies of omission regrading Russian meetings he had so he is now trying to create a diversion from the Russian/Trump collusion by attacking women, minorities and transgenders. What a sick person. But then again what would one expect in the Trump administration?
6
what have we become? why the roll back to the 13th century? How did this happen? Is this the face of extreme gerrymandering or just pure jealousy & evil?
10
Make no mistake about it, this is not about birth control nor is it about sex. This is an attack against all women. This is payback for women spending the last 1/2 century being vocal and demanding equal rights. This is payback for their fighting against the sexualization of women. This is payback for women no longer accepting their second class status. This is payback for all the actual rights woman have achieved.
This administration are the rel deplorables and it is disgusting.
19
This is payback for a woman having the gall to run for president (and as the front runner!) and actually winning the popular vote. When do they start work on a border wall to keep out women?
8
Why is this still an issue? We're talking about adult women, not minors, making the personal decisions for themselves and their families. It is 2017 not 1217, women are no longer chattel and since we're the ones who get pregnant, give birth, and provide for children, we should be the ones who get to decide whether we want to have children or not, how many to have, and the spacing of our children.
Insurance companies cover Viagra and there's no fuss either in the insurance world or in the political world about it. So why is there such a fuss over female birth control? The reason given, "religious freedom" is the biggest lie. You are free to worship as you wish. The government isn't shutting down churches or taxing them. As an individual, you are free to decide for yourself whether to use birth control or not. If your religion dictates that you are supposed to have a baby every year until your body refuses or you die in the process, no one, especially government, is stopping you. So why do you want to force your views on me and force me to follow your religious beliefs, even though I don't share them?
15
The men who want to block access to contraception to women tend to want to be hit and run daddies too.
5
So no roll back for Viagra coverage? Let's remember that whenl Viagra, a block buster product which treats male erectile dysfunction, hit the market, insurance companies rushed to cover it.
And coverage for Viagra led to the coverage of birth control pills and other contraceptives for women.
So let's hit those old men in Congress where it hurts! Pull insurance reimbursement for Viagra and see what happens. What's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose!
54
Not to forget, contraceptive coverage is needed for a relatively short period of time compared with the potential need for erectile dysfunction meds and devices. So there is a huge savings on discontinuing ED support.
4
Birth control and abortion should not be a political issue.
Christians opposed to abortion shouldn't have one ( although many of them I know do). Abortion is a woman's right in all civilized countries and it should be that way even in our backward one
. Most women in America are NOT Pro life, Christian or no. Since when is that bigot of of a president and that "holier than thou" AG bigot Sessions the messengers of Our God. I speak as a Christian myself.
14
All the ladies out there who voted for President Mr. Trump will now really be paying for their "concerns" over Hillary's private email server.
You did not "choose wisely."
16
I wish I could be exempt from laws I don't believe in, and then make the NYT concede to labeling those exemptions "protections."
4
So let's see. I am paid less than my male counterpart. I cannot have birth control access to manage even non contraceptive conditions. If I do get pregnant, I either have an unwanted pregnancy or cross state lines to even engage in that conversation. Meanwhile, my male counterpart has condoms, such a reliable method offered free virtually anywhere.
And this all from a man who 'grabs' female genitalia with impunity and a party who is pro choice in the sheets.
Reproductive Injustice live and in effect.
11
Amidst all the chaos, a clear strategy does seem to be emerging. Trump never really meant to make America great again . His ultimate goal was to re-make America in the image of himself . Self serving, hateful, lacking in ethics, morals and character, backward, sick ,divided, untrustworthy, bullying, racist, misogynistic and ignorant. Winning?
10
Trump is Vlad Putin's bomb to blow up the US. He believes the US deserves being broken up in retaliation for it breaking up the USSR.
4
A bunch of old men and people who have taken a vow of celibacy deciding the rights of young, sexually active women of child bearing age. Could things be any more Kafkaesque.
7
“No American should be forced to violate his or her own conscience in order to abide by the laws and regulations governing our health care system,” said Caitlin Oakley, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Which is what this new policy does to those working for people with deeply held religious beliefs. It gives such people the right to force their religious and moral views on their employees. This is a move against religious freedom and toward religious tyranny by the few over the many.
“Religious freedom is the right to believe and worship as you see fit,” Mr. Katskee said. “It’s never the right to use government to impose costs, burdens or harms on other people. You can’t use the government to make other people pay the price for your religious beliefs or practices.”
Which will be the affect of this policy change, a step back from religious freedom, and personal accountability.
“we will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore.”
This from a bully with a history of being morally and ethically rudderless, as well as a history of misogyny. He answer is to allow people of "faith" to become the bullies and to target others.
“a landmark day for religious liberty.”
Clearly Ryan hasn't a clue about religious liberty, but it's a chance for a good sound bite. This policy is a landmark day for religious tyranny.
The one thing they need to know about God is they ain't it.
8
This action gives me an idea just how petty, ignorant, bigoted, racist misogynist and angry Trump, the Republicans and those who consider themselves supporters and base of both really are. Wonder how many women in that base are using or have used birth control. How many men who support this have had a vasectomy or used viagra and had their health insurance pay for it over the years? The hypocrisy and hatred are wide and deep here. Why do we hate each other so much that we're willing to support policies that bring harm to our fellow Americans? Why do we care what others do in the privacy or their intimate lives? Why is it our business to sit in judgment like this?
13
Reason, logic, and evidence has no effect on this convoluted, decades-long idiocy. Wonder what would happen if a handful of large businesses declared that their religion holds that sex is only for procreation, God decides who should and should not have babies, and therefore it is against their religious beliefs to provide coverage for any and all treatment for erectile disfunction and infertility, male or female. Might not accomplish much, but it would be satisfying to watch a new brand of Republican dithering.
6
What if someone started a new religion saying women are the purpose of all reality and men are only necessary for conceiving children (kind of like bees!), and since men are basically interchangeable there is no need to provide them health care whatsoever. Then what if someone started a business and refused to provide health care to men on the ground that this religion forbids it. It would be an interesting test of how hypocritical people are.
No, not really. No need for a test case. I know how hypocritical they are.
And in case you don't get it, I love men. It's religion I hate. Since it doesn't require evidence people could make up any rules they want, and say it's divinely inspired. But of course SOME religious ideas won't be allowed to affect secular law by our government. Nothing that favors women over men will be allowed, that's for sure. Or gays over straights. But the religions can favor men over women, or straights over gays, no problem. And that's hypocrisy, folks.
2
The attitude of the gop seems to be that the person who has hired you actually owns you. This is less about a woman's right than it is about your employer's right to control all aspects of your life.
9
Slavery was only superficially abolished by the US Civil War. Its structural implementations through government remain in effect.
3
Trump is probably not aware or doesn't care that there are now 8 BILLION plus humans on the planet, busily decimating natural resources and habitat for other species.
5
Someone please tell the Little Sisters of the Poor that they weren't being asked to provide contraceptives: they were asked to provide health care. Their stand is hypocrisy at its worst; it is poor women who will suffer and die, and it is poor babies who will suffer and die. I abhor their actions, and I cannot bear to look at their smiles.
14
Not content with personally demeaning, harassing, and discriminating against women, Trump now makes it legal for anyone who feels like it to do the same.
10
Why are employers allowed to practice medicine? I thought doctors needed to attend med school and have a license?
8
Good move for his culture war. Even the Saudis are moving in the opposite direction on women's rights. Apart from race, nothing gets the bases' juices flowing like misogyny and a reaction to sexual freedom (for women). Anything to stop sex and controls women sings to his base. Can he leverage a few more votes from this? Maybe, but he stands to lose more millennial votes (if they vote) than he gains in senior and fundamentalist votes.
7
Can we establish a new religion? The Women and Minorities Religion. We believe it is the right of all women and any other jeopardized persons, to determine their actions free of Christian interference or moral judgement.
7
I dunno, but to me this feels like the absolute worst thing Trump has done yet -- in a long list of horrible things.
It's so deeply unkind, so uncaring. Not what a leader should do to his people.
Get ready for many more abortions, and many unwanted children.
6
Under Obama, religiously affiliated employers such as Christian colleges were eligible to opt out of the contraception mandate based on religious beliefs.
But, "They were required to notify the US health department."
Under Trump they are not required to do so (and in fact anyone can opt out just by stating they disagree.) because "many groups, the Little Sisters included, saw notifying the government as tantamount to actually providing the coverage, because the government could act on that notification to make alternate arrangements for coverage."
How much more controlling and wicked and demeaning to women can they get.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/06/trump-contraception-birt...
13
I find it hard to believe that many people care that much about banning contraceptive coverage. Unlike abortions, contraception is probably used by MOST of the US population at some point in their life.
One concern is the slippery slope. Employees can't be forced to do abortions. Well, OK, sure. Employers can't be forced to provide contraception. Umm, seems odd, but, well. How far do you go? Gas stations on remote highways morally object to gas for gay people? Landlords suspect any single male "might be gay" and no housing? What if it's only black and gay people? And so on. Moral objections must be narrow and rare. Govt already knows that - no moral objection allowed when paying taxes.
9
The only women I have known getting abortions are daughters of men like Pence. Sometimes repeatedly. Their boyfriends definitely believed every sperm was sacred, too. Somehow birth control was worse than abortions. I even had a friend try to get the day after pill after being drugged and raped and the pharmacy turned her away because the pharmacist didn't believe it should be allowed. She went to another pharmacy and the woman there helped her get help. I wish the only people making rules about women were women. The wealthy women will still be able to get whatever they want. This will seriously change everything for the women and girls already struggling. We need to expand Medicare and fire the insurance industry.
12
His decision may not stand up in court...Trump is a businessman who employs hundreds of people and he is subject to the cost involved the the program...therefore he has a obvious conflict of interest making his action bordering on corruption.
8
Doesn’t 45 understand that it’s cheaper for business to pay for birth control than to have to pay women for a leave of absence, etc. or to pay to train someone new to fill her job?
Rather than making America great again, he’s taking us back to feudal times.
10
Birth control for one year is about$700, one hospital birth is about $8000.
6
It's not about what makes sense. It's not about cost. It's not even about ideology or religion. It's all about being elected again: power, control, donations and votes.
It's about winning - it's only ever about winning for Trump - and only Trump.
3
Oh the horror! People having to provide for themselves. What's next requiring employers to pay for women's nail polish and make up? Good for Trump for standing up to the "I deserve 'free' stuff from others" crowd.
Next Trump should let our allies (e.g. dependents)know it's time for them to pay for their own defense.
3
There is nothing "free" about compensation for full-time work.
The employers are just paying your insurance with your own money.
6
Way back in the 1960's, overpopulation was a hot topic. China's one child to a family law, an attempt to control growth, was a disaster, but the problem remains. We do not need all the babies we are capable of producing, we need to be able to take care of the ones we have. Punishing individuals and families by denying them access to birth control and then prosecuting them for aborting children they can't support—whether emotionally or financially—is insane. What is the rationale for this?
8
China would have collapsed if its population had expanded to the expected 3 billion people. Imagine twice the pollution in the same space.
2
dutchiris: What COULD the rationale be? Hatred of women. Hatred of babies and children. Hatred of the poor. Stupidity. Pure spite. Delight in causing pain, suffering, and anxiety for those whom you see as lesser than you, and especially if they are female. I really cannot think of a rational, sane reason. Of course there is religious fanaticism, BUT it should not be allowed to rule over your employees, even though trump and the GOP believe that it should. (On what world did these despicable creeps come into being?!) We have separation of Church and State. Correction: Oh, we USED TO have separation of CHURCH and State.
6
I don't agree with this plainly ideological activity by the administration. However, the comment stream is filled with Chicken Little bleating and exaggeration.
Most employers have only one religion and it is profit and/or survival. They'll still cover contraception in their insurance plan because it is one less controversy to worry about. Few women are impacted if we are truly honest here. As to sexual minorities issues, many states and/or localities have applicable statutes or regulations protecting these classes. Some major private companies, not just in Silicon Valley, have internal HR policies supporting them. Where these protections are not in place activist groups will start lawsuits and should. The sky hasn't fallen on these issues, but there are plenty of other nightmarish scenarios concerning the Donald and crew to keep you up at night.
1
All pretensions of national equal protection of law in the US are simply more blatant lies.
3
How naive can you be? Since when has any employer’s actions been related to managing one less controversy?
As for few women being impacted, where did you get that data? My neighbor is menopusal but takes the pill to help control her fibroid tumors.
Besides, even if only a few people were protected, are you actually suggesting that they thus don’t matter? By that logic, no one should get FEMA assistance, since most people don’t experience hurricanes and tornadoes.
Man, you people really need to get out more.
In the meantime, how about the data you mention, i.e. that only a few women are affected? Where is it?
5
These are clearly women’s issues as much as reproductive health issues.
Again, older white males are inserting their mostly personal beliefs into the politics of reproductive health and a woman’s right to choose what is best for her and for her future. And perhaps even her future offsprings future.
Nobody should be forced to make a decision about their reproductive health and choices, while at the same time, there should be continued debate about who must pay for these services.
2
Many of these comments are claiming that the government is taking away women's birth control. That is nonsense. You do not have a right to free birth control. Furthermore, your employer should be free to provide whatever health benefits it wants. Employment is a consensual agreement between an employer and an employee, and if you disagree with your employer's policy on birth control, you don't have to work there.
Lots of people are saying the government is "imposing" religious beliefs on everyone. Not true. No religious employer is forcing anyone to work there. The only group imposing their beliefs on others was the Obama administration, who declared free birth control a right, and forced religious employers to provide it against their will.
6
Well, by that logic, no insurance for anyone, including you and yours.
Correct?
5
"they imposed an impermissible burden on female employees who want cost-free contraceptive coverage"
Only in the land of unicorns and liberal thinking is anything free. In fact, the cost of contraceptives are absorbed by the employer and the employer's work force.
The obvious question is why providing "free" contraceptives is more important than providing "free" diabetes medication or "free" cancer medication? Could someone explain that to me please.
3
I'm in favor of funding most of medical system with a value added tax that makes plain what it costs on every bill, in percentage terms, and the rest with taxes on everything that creates extra expenses, like guns and sugar.
Nonsense. The employer doesn't absorb the cost. The employer takes it out of the employee's compensation. In effect they pay for your insurance with a piece of your salary.
Diabetes and cancer medication have to be covered. That isn't an issue.
Contraception shouldn't be one either.
7
Mookie: All should be provided. It is not FREE to the employee. Employees are (generally) required to pay part of their health insurance premiums. Birth control is a part of health care, just as are diabetes and cancer. All I know is when I see this nonsense is that we need universal health coverage like any other civilized nation provides for its citizens. This country is presently off the wall. Only in the land of monsters and the GOP is health care a privilege and not a right.
4
Pretty sure this just a Trump admin ploy to enrapture the religious right, so those folks will happily rush to support whatever else Trump wants to do without looking too closely, such as astoundingly corrupt budgets and healthcare plans, stripping away environmental protections, etc.
7
"Under the new regulations, hundreds of thousands of women could lose those benefits." COULD is the operative word here.
The sex life of employees is not the boss' business. Nor is it the boss' job to pay for that sex life's consequences.
It is the business of an employer when employees are out on maternity leave and are adding people to their insurance. It is the ir business when women are not able to family plan. It is ignorant to say that work is unrelated to family planning. Notice I am not say sex lives because it is not about sex, it is about control over your future and family planning.
3
Steve Munday: If it is not the boss's business then birth control should be provided. Birth control is part of health care, just like chemotherapy and having your appendix removed. Why should the boss pay for the consequences of cancer or an infected appendix?
5
If religion reasoning gets into political decisions, then religious organizations must be stripped of the non-profit status and pay taxes to government.
By the way, where are the Democratic elites or big shots when we need them?
6
"By the way, where are the Democratic elites or big shots when we need them?"
They're all at Harvey Weinstein's mansion.
We have millions of employers in this country and the majority of the big companies are liberal and this order does not apply to them. Do a research before applying for a job and ask questions during the interview and do not apply for jobs in companies that are against your beliefs. On the positive side, if you work for a company that you like and the employer likes your work and your ethics, chances are you can get a promotion and move up faster. As to BC, no one is taking that away but you should pay for it and it is not fortune. Most people have copays for all medications and many medications are not covered even in health plans and I had to pay full retail price on some medications in the past, even with health insurance - and that was much more than your BC cost.
2
"“we will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced ”
Well, that's a lie to start. He has gone out of his way to do all that and more to Muslims. And interesting that he uses the word faith instead of religion.
But moving on - So, Trump's self-serving action is to allow 'people of faith' to target, bully, silence and control women's lives (and anyone else they feel like), and to impact their well-being, future and freedom.
And, it's not really 'people of faith' is it, it's people who claim to have a particular faith: Roman Catholic Nuns, Evangelicals, Christians of various stripes who insist that they should be in control of everyone's life, aka extremists – something Trump attributes only to other faiths.
It starts with a lie and ends with a lie. It's all about Trump – again, and his willingness to destroy and sacrifice anyone and anything to his own ends.
5
To state what *should* be obvious to every thinking person, all contraceptives should be completely covered by insurance at no cost to employees. Birth control is absolutely essential for women's health. This is not subject to debate or the religious or "moral" beliefs of employers, whether corporate government or religious. Anyone who thinks otherwise has a 1950s mentality that has no place in the modern world.
5
So diabetes, cancer, AIDS and every other drug requiring a copayment are NOT ESSENTIAL for people's, including women's, health?
You're right. That was not obvious to thinking people.
1
So, these employers would rather pay for maternity care, parental leave, and costs associated with pregnancy than help women who might want to postpone pregnancy. Or... that might be the next step... to withhold maternity care coverage. Needless to say.... less contraception means more abortions. Of course, no one will want to work for these companies unless you are too old for either pregnancy or contraception.
6
Hobby Lobby left open some potential for mischief, which some comments suggest is indeed occurring. Here are two examples:
1. The Supreme Court's ruling presumed that an employer's owners' objections are religious-based. That wasn't really an issue in Hobby Lobby, since the plaintiffs were well-known for their anti-abortion views. In other cases, however, it could and should be a big issue. Hobby Lobby didn't hold that an employer could carve out contraception from its health insurance plan for ANY reason (for example: a desire to pay lower premiums). Its objection had to be based on its owners' genuine religious beliefs. Judging from some comments, some employers are claiming rights that Hobby Lobby didn't establish.
2. While many (most?) people have interpreted Hobby Lobby to apply to ALL abortion coverage, the plaintiffs' religion-based objections were limited to contraceptive methods that killed an already-fertilized egg (or prevented it from attaching to the uterus) -- so-called "morning after" pills. The plaintiffs argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that such "contraceptions" were in fact abortions. Most health plans don't draw those distinctions, and Hobby Lobby's didn't. If an employer's health plan DID draw this distinction, however, Hobby Lobby probably wouldn't apply (after all, it doesn't apply to male vasectomies). In other words, a health plan that covers pregnancy-prevention but doesn't cover pregnancy-ending would not be barred by Hobby Lobby.
1
Here's a good example of the confusion running rampant here:
"Republicans and the Trump administration are focused solely on preventing women from getting access to contraception. No one in the GOP has once suggested preventing men from buying condoms."
Nobody is suggesting women can't use contraception. The question is much narrower than that: "Should the law mandate health insurance coverage of abortion, or not?"
I haven't seen this order, and so I can't say that it doesn't go beyond what Hobby Lobby held. But if it doesn't, it doesn't prohibit anyone from buying or using any form of birth control -- or potato chips, or anything else. Hobby Lobby held simply that Congress can't require an employer to provide health insurance that covers contraception if the "approved" contraceptive methods include methods that the employer's owners object to on religious grounds. HL's health plan "approved" numerous contraception methods, including some that terminated pregnancies (often called "morning after pills"). If the HL plan had excluded morning-after pills from coverage, the "approved" contraceptive methods would have been limited to "preventive" methods and the "religious objections" argument would have fallen apart.
Savvy insurance companies will offer health plans that cover only "preventive" methods of contraception, not morning-after pills.
This action is an assault on freedom of religion and on individual freedom. The argument that the employer shouldn't have to pay for some aspect of health insurance is a fake argument. Any such "saving" could be viewed as money that has come from the employee's pay. Thus it is NOT the employer who is paying. And with this action it is the employee who must spend extra money or conform to the employers religious beliefs. Not only is this not freedom of religion but it is an attempt to give the employer more power over an employee's private life.
7
Sometimes I wonder whether people protesting Hobby Lobby (or this order, assuming it doesn't go beyond Hobby Lobby – I haven't seen the order) understand what Hobby Lobby held.
The Supreme Court didn't hold that employees were prohibited from doing anything at all -- using contraceptives of any kind, dancing, eating potato chips, whatever they want. It merely held that an employer whose owners' genuine religious beliefs opposed abortion could not be required to provide health insurance that covered contraception if the "approved" contraceptive methods included methods that ended, rather than merely prevented, pregnancies.
That's it.
The Court explicitly declared that its ruling wasn't a "reduced premiums" declaration for large faceless corporations whose owners really didn't have anti-abortion religious beliefs. Nor would its ruling apply if pregnancy-ending contraceptive methods were not on the "approved" list. For example, if a health care plan covered, say, IUDs but not morning-after pills, Hobby Lobby would not apply. HL's health plan did NOT draw such a distinction, however; morning-after pills WERE on the "approved" list.
The Hobby Lobby holding is being "abused" in several ways. Some mischaracterize it as having outlawed contraception, or at least morning-after pills, which it didn't. Some large corporations reportedly are relying on it to deny coverage for preventive contraception, which it didn't authorize.
The photo is really appropriate. First, no, your birth control is not your boss's business to pay for. Second, loud-mouthed street protests are the extent of this generation's fight for a better world. Easy, just scream in the streets. Politics is cheap grace, as implied in most of what we want in life. We have a right, and all we need to do is scream. Rights without duties are a sham.
10
But viagra is your bosses' business to pay for, Dlud? What world you you live in?
49
Ludicrous. I don't see why it's my boss's 'business' not to pay for birth control; it's likely not their business to pay for my father's Viagra, either. But the fact is, when employees AND employers pay into health care, health care should cover what the person needs. Otherwise, it's just a blanket for folks to discriminate -- as will swiftly be the case.
And it's not 'easy' to scream in the streets. This alone is a willful, dismissive, treatment of history. Without people in the streets, civil rights would not have been achieved. Without people in the streets, you would not be enjoying many of the worker protections (and this weekend) demanded by the labor movement.
Which makes me wonder what 'duties' you imply people should have. To shut up? To cross their legs, if they are women? No thank you. Truth to power.
6
Street demonstrations are sometimes necessary to bring issues to the attention of those who are less interested in keeping themselves informed on current affairs, the intellectually lazy, in other words.
5
Money = Speech
Corporation = Person
Religious freedom = free pass to discriminate indiscriminately
Welcome to the ORIGINALIST interpretation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Sorry women, LGBTQ, people of color, Muslims, Jews, poor, disabled, people from the wrong country, and the environment...
42
'and the environment'? I've contemplated such an argument. Here's the trouble, if women's rights were fully realized (as I would like them to be), Africa would likely become covered in development of all kinds. Poverty is exploitable and destructive in its own right, but greenwashing construction afforded by such rights may be even worse. Not until land is protected can we proceed.
So, normal people are ok.
Whew!
1
As the founders intended, white male landowners make and enforce laws. It's time to let go of the near-mystical reverence given to the Constitution - it is a product of a time and place. While an excellent foundation, it is not a sacred text.
4
A modest proposal:
The Guardians of Privilege in the Congress should pass a law that
1) makes a woman's sexual intercourse outside of marriage and without the permission of the husband a felony.
2) makes any sexual intercourse involving unmarried women a felony.
3) permits corporate employers who sincerely believe that sexual intercourse is "original sin" to fire, without violating any civil rights or labor law, any employee suspected of such activity.
4) reinstates the prohibition on women owning property or being able to sign contracts (except prenuptial contracts) without the husband's or father's written consent.
6
Now we know there really are people like you, stephen. Are you russian?
5
I believe he was being satirical, as evidenced by the reference to the "Guardians of Privilege." That said, I am also certain there are members of Congress, and their constituents, who would openly cheer such regulations or laws. While they are quick to assert religious freedom, they conveniently forget the 1st Amendment, which, in supporting religious choice, effectively supports freedom FROM religious dictums.
1
You've misinterpreted Stephen's post. His first three words, "a modest proposal" are a reference to Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," one of the best and most outrageous examples of satire in literature. Stephen is actually arguing against those actions.
3
Of course all medications that help prevent pain (cramps, excessive bleeding, etc) should be covered by insurance. I'm not sure where anyone is saying that won't be. Pills used to treat conditions were always covered IF your doctor wrote a diagnosis, but not if you just wanted to use them to prevent pregnancies, those you had to pay for. What makes anyone think this is different?
Should recreational birth control be fully covered? It never was when I was younger.
It just seems that way too many people here are demanding "free stuff".
No one should deny anyone access to birth control, but I'm not sure anyone needs to pay for it. Or are we saying that people are so out of control that they won't use it if there is a co pay? That's what Obama changed, the co-pays.
I can remember having to travel a long way to obtain birth control when I was in college, I had to find a gynecologist (in the Village) who would not tell my parents. I didn't want to get pregnant, so I traveled. Thank goodness that it became easier to obtain as I got older, but never expected it to be free.
I chose to work for someone who provided good health insurance. I would have made more going elsewhere, but that was my choice.
Why does everyone expect free now? It's not free, someone else is paying for you, whether it's an employer or the rest of the tax base.
We have become such a spoiled nation.
10
It's not "free." You pay for your insurance coverage with the expectation that your policy includes essential health benefits such as birth control. When you remove the benefit, you're still paying for the insurance, but now you're forced to pay an additional cost, just by virtue of being female.That's called gender discrimination.
5
Don’t you see that making access to birth control free and unfettered saves you, the taxpayer, in the long run? Now that abortion is becoming inaccessible, why exactly would you do anything to encourage unwanted pregnancies? For lower income people, birth control is not cheap. Why not make it an unquestionable right for all women of child-bearing age? Employers don’t want to be bothered by maternity leaves, so really it is in their selfish interest to discourage pregnancies.
There is a part of me that thinks some religious zealots don’t want women to have sex as often as they wish. Putting up roadblocks to contraception and abortion are their efforts at social engineering. Those same zealots who got rid of CHIP are really saying they want child bearing only from white, upper middle class women who can afford to be stay at home moms.
2
Ralphe: Your comment is the poster child for universal health coverage. We all pay according to our ability, and EVERYONE IS COVERED. Everyone pays, and no one is disenfranchised. Health care is a right, not a privilege for the chosen few. Sadly, we have some very poor (yet hard-working) people in our nation, and no citizen of a nation as wealthy as this nation should be denied health care, and left to rot. You CHOSE to work for someone who provided good health insurance, and that was lucky for you! What about people who have no choice, no education, and did not benefit from the social/economic privileges that you had, whether you had these privileges by design or by ability? What about people who are too sick, too handicapped, or too elderly to keep working, or who cannot find jobs? Also, people get horrible diseases that bankrupt them, even if they HAVE health insurance. Most health insurance seeks to deny coverage in the WORST situations. Little visits to the gynecologist they usually pay. Once something horrible happens, that's when they turn off the money faucet. Universal health care is the answer, not leaving people to die. Why is it that every other civilized nation knows and practices this? Spoiled? I think not. The spoiled ones are those who are among the most privileged, entitled, and elitist in this society. They don't care about anyone else, and they don't want to dwell on what it is like to live a life that is lesser than their own.
5
A few questions this poses: who in a company deceids what religion the company is? Is it one CEO, a board? Will a companies religious affiliation change anytime a new CEO is put in place? Will this apply to all health issues? Will vaccinations, transplants, or a host of other issues be able to be banned?
19
I expect these would be private/family-owned businesses, like Hobby Lobby or Chick-Fil-A, where both the pay and the benefits are skimpy anyway. Publicly traded corporations' only religion is money, so as long as it doesn't cost too much, they don't care.
2
Just as corporations are not, in fact, "people," they also cannot practice a religion. This whole line of "legal" reasoning is a joke.
2
Probably the owner. Certainly not me or you.
3
The Trump Whitehouse. Guns v women. It's painfully clear whose rights are held more sacred.
32
I feel like these people sit around in a room and brainstorm how to make life worse for the average American.
42
Guess DJT is OK with more children being born into poverty. As it is now, Medicaid covers half of all births in the Greatest Country on Earth.
19
He doesn't care he just wants the applause and attention.
what a great plan by the dump administration:
- more unplanned parenthood
- force women and girls to give birth to children they don't want and can't afford
- take away maternity care
- take away childhood nutrition programs
- cut education funding
- take away health care for poor children
what a great picture of family values is being painted by donny dump and company!
28
Congratulations to the Trump administration on a commonsense move!
6
What is sensible about more unwanted children? More abortions?
5
Religious freedom means the freedom to practise one's own religious beliefs, not to impose them on others.
36
The nuns are definitely a good pr tactic. The problem of course is that they shouldn't be able to impose their beliefs on all of their employees. Should a female custodian have fewer healthcare options simply because she finds work at a Catholic institution?
10
Best not to work for religious organizations unless you share their beliefs. None of them pay well, that's for sure.
2
Well, they’re setting up the pendulum to swing the other way. I’ll give them that much.
12
We need to stand up and say, "It's a more competitive employment mix than you think. If you won't cover birth control, I won't work here - and I'm going to tell the world!" We must do that for those women who do not have that empoyment market leverage. We must do it to keep others from dividing our rights and privileges based on gender. We must do it because it is right, it speaks truth to power, and it protects us by protecting others.
12
The Catholic Church has got to get real. Birth Control is a method to give life, enable to make families develop better, and to not cause children to suffer, as in "unwanted" or the lesser "unplanned".
My mother left the Catholic Church in the 1960s after having five spectacular children, I as the first, but one within a one and 3/4 year period. She wanted a life as an artist, then teacher, then college instructor, at the same time an art gallery owner and private art teacher, writer, and special art therapist, who was known world wide for a form of art therapy.
No employer should have any knowledge or purview over any employee's health matters. No employer should have any particular ability to influence the health of its employee.
I hate that health care can be parsed. It should not. No religion, no employer, no outside organization has any legal right to determine the internal health, the internal domain of any person in these United States.
I hope that we can get rid of Trump as soon as possible.
21
What Richard B Katskee said:
“Religious freedom is the right to believe and worship as you see fit,” Mr. Katskee said. “It’s never the right to use government to impose costs, burdens or harms on other people. You can’t use the government to make other people pay the price for your religious beliefs or practices.”
The Right Wing Christian movement is under the control of the Antichrist.
23
What amuses me in all this is that the last time I checked my employer, the City of Chicago, a long standing bastion of Democrats has never covered my birth control. Coverage is limited to drugs deemed "medically necessary" & "for illness or injury." Not wanting to get pregnant falls under neither of these. Even when I went thru in-vitro and it was medically necessary to regulate my cycle with birth control, so that I could be implanted within a certain time frame, I was left standing at the pharmacy counter trying to take to task the insurance provider. I was left paying for it out of pocket each and every time. As my employer is a municipal agency, it can skate around certain federal insurance regulations. My guess is that's probably true for most government insured employees. The City of Chicago also doesn't cover such things as any medical bills resulting from a suicide attempt. Somehow that's a choice...irregardless of any rational explanation that it's the result of depression. You can however pour a pint of liquor or dozens of beers down your throat everyday and be covered for drying out and any other long term illnesses that result from years of alcohol abuse. You can also riddle your body with all sorts of inflammation with poor dietary choices & smoking and you're covered. This Trump measure is a distraction that the medicine for profit world wants you to focus. Who writes these rules???? Someone obviously with no sense of logic.
14
The most evil and dangerous man in the world today. Yet the people and the establishment put up with him. I must be in a parallel universe. This can't be happening.
19
This is more than just birth control---this is making babies be born to women who do not want them or will not care for them and will harm born babies for all of their lives. How many unwanted children can tell you the horrible lives they have lived from being forced to be born. Birth control is a protection to unwanted babies and abusive parents. No one wins in this ruling.
17
Strange how 'government overreach' is a problem when environment or guns are concerned. But in the case of women, it can even reach 'into' our bodies.
DOUBLE TALK
GET OUT OF OUR BODIES
37
Sometime in the (hopefully near) future, after this heinous manifestation of global misery is finally collared and put to its rightful end, it will be impossible to produce a film that captures more than a handful of rubble from the Himalayan pile of shameless villainy and needless suffering Trump will have unleashed on the world - in anything short of a fifty part mega-series...
This puffed up blustering empty suit proves every single day, many times a day, that he is completely void of anything resembling human spirit or consciousness.
19
Seriously does Trump have a book that lists all things that will enrage everyone but his base? 1. Anything that Obama did. 2 Anything that makes the rich richer 3. Anything that supports women 4 Anything that supports minority rights etc etc. Short sentences with bullets.
11
A revival of Lysistrata anyone?
13
So christian science employers who don't believe in medical intervention can deny all health insurance (except praying) to their employees.
12
Will my moral objection to war now allow me to stop paying the share of my taxes that goes to the pentagon?
29
Sign me up! Also, let me know when I can stop paying to subsidize the fossil fuel industries.
5
Everyone surrounding him while he signed the bill is unable (by sex or age) to have children. His signature is a blatant ploy for votes, completely disenfranchising the women who will bear the burden of children, while simultaneously being punished by the Grand Old Phonies for being women.
12
At the risk of being called a right wing, religious fanatic, birth control is a right, but it is not an issue of health care. No one is prevented from acquiring the Pill, however, they should have to pay for it.
2
Men getting women pregnant should be a right as well. So unless you’re trying to exercise that right, why not shoulder the responsibility and pay a tax as men for the right to practice the act of procreation. That tax should be sufficient to fund birth control for every woman in America who wants and needs it.
12
Respectfully, what you said isn't true Rich. Many women are prescribed birth control for health issues. I would also argue that being able to use a safe and proven method for family planning is a public health issue.
But that is only one part of the larger point here. What they are saying is that an employer or anyone can refuse to follow the law based on a religious belief, even if they work for the government. This opens a potential for further fracturing in our society as religion will be used as a means for refusing a law. We have long ago enshrined the separation of state and religion and most of the country does not want to have live in a theocracy, of any religious faith.
4
Rich, I respectfully disagree with you. My employer-based insurer fully covers Viagra without requiring so much as a $1.00 co-pay. I pay for Viagra, along with others, via our weekly contributions deducted from our paychecks. I can't opt out or tell the insurer or my employer that I want the money taken from my paycheck for my health insurance to cover costs that I need covered. But that is how insurance is supposed to work--everyone contributes, and everyone benefits, even if I pay for Viagra and you pay for birth control. My birth control costed $200.00 per month, no co-pay, and not covered until the ACA mandate. Additionally, my gyno visits aren't covered either, so it is a big expense. I make a moderate income, and not having to pay $200.00 per month has helped me a lot.
3
Until the day that I see nuns actually handing out condoms on the street I will not believe the law "force(s) nuns to provide contraceptives." There is no complicity. It's the insurance company that's required to provide the coverage even when the employer exercises its right not to cover it. This is SO MUCH hypocrisy I don't even know how to think about it any more
17
Another substantive reason to separate health insurance from employment.
18
Yes. Human population control is the most imperative sustainability issue facing our planet. And as obvious as this solution would solve much of the current "health care" insurance problems, neither Republicans with their religious, belief-bases blinders and Democrats who have no solution beyond big gov can grasp it.
1
So if your employer has a strong religious belief, they can impose that belief on you. If your employer is a devout Seventh Day Adventist whose religion prohibits blood transfusions, the same rule applies. If your employer is a Christian Scientist whose religion eschews any medical care and only supports prayer for treating illness, the rule applies. We're way down a very slippery slope.
17
In Trump land, the mythology of a few outweighs the needs of the many...
2
When Obama passed the contraceptive mandate, he underestimated the power of religious groups such as Little Sisters of the Poor. They had determination, divine intervention and a group of excellent lawyers. These nuns are not pushovers. Good for them.
7
If these so called "Little Sisters" actually cared about the poor they would support increased access to contraception.
2
Not all of us buy your Invisible Sky-God theory, and I might add that your nuns also had an incompetent President on their side.
3
Yeah - that little ol' folksy Catholic Church. What a real win for the scrappy, tax-exempt little guy. Real David vs Goliath scenario, amirite?
5
This is great news for religious freedom which was under attack during Obama's presidency. People were forced to provide products that went against their religious beliefs and principles. This is a good sign for Jack Phillips, the Colorado cake maker, who was forced to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. He refused due to strongly held religious views, the gay couple sued and now it is heading to the Supreme Court. It has affected his livelihood but he should win this very important case for religious rights.
4
The Little Sisters were not required to provide contraception, the Supreme Court doesn't pass regulations, and I think we'd be far more amenable to your views were they based on reality.
6
WMK Obama never stood against religious freedom. He stood for religious inclusiveness and the right that each person, Christian or other, has the right to be--and that includes Christians, Muslims , Jews, Gays Lesbians and others. Christian beliefs are fine but Christians have no right to impose their freedom on the freedom of others.
6
WMK. Refusing to treat your breathren kindly and generously is not the exercise of religious freedom, it is a sign of an evil that Christ would despise. Shame on you.
5
so as a protest, lets all cancel our health insurance, they are kinda taking it away anyway, solidarity and follow the money, only thing that works..the insurance industry would be panic-stricken
2
Now that's interesting...
My brother (no insurance) pays out-of-pocket in VA. He's charged a small fraction of what a person with insurance is charged.
@Apparently-
He'll probably end up paying a little more when he has a heart attack or is diagnosed with cancer. Even when he ends up declaring bankruptcy under crushing debt, we get to pay for his ill-advised decisions.
3
We need an amendment to the constitution:
Corporations are Not People and Money is Not Speech
That is the first step to telling back our Republic.
10
Guess all those 18 year olds who still must register for the draft under threat of losing student aid can stop now or should. Just say it’s against your religion. By the way paying taxes, hmm against my religious beliefs. As I am a registered Conscientious Objector I believe I should be allowed to defer that portion of my taxes that go towards the military.
14
This is terrible policy. Freedom from religion is necessary for a modern society to work. In this new future are we going to carry around religious identification to ensure we don't upset people of another faith? On the other hand I look forward to decent employers being able to fire extremist Christians for their schewed beliefs.
4
How is this not a precedent to allow people with strong religious convictions to deny funding through their taxes any government program or action that they feel violates their beliefs? How about strong moral convictions?
4
I see you are from Canada so you might not be aware, religious organizations are EXEMPT from paying taxes in this country. Just another layer of the hypocrisy.
1
Too many of the age group this most affects, millennials, sat out this past presidential election. Sometimes we get smart too late.
8
...or they were persuaded by the red herring Sanders. As time goes on though, I wonder if Hillary would have marched forward into total planetary destruction steered by her blinders. She proved not to be strategically adept when she lost the electoral.
Those who seek to make it more difficult and expensive to obtain abortions and contraception are likely some of the same people who deplore the rising proportion of people of color in this country. I would guess that poor minorities will be most affected and will therefore multiply even more rapidly. I hope the anti-reproductive freedom contingent is pleased with its handwork.
5
Commercial fictitious legal entities (aka corporations) are granted special "privileges" (not "rights") which everyday people do not enjoy. They have been granted those privileges to provide goods and services to society. Commercial corporations were fabricated by legislatures to perform those functions and no other. Corporations do not exist in the Constitution.
The Founders and the early legislators in our great nation maintained EXTREMELY tight reins upon corporations. In the early years of our nation it was necessary for a legislature to debate and pass a bill authorizing each incorporation request. People were expected to do business as private individuals fully personally responsible for their own actions, as did the Founders. Once granted an incorporation request it was normally granted for a limited life span of typically three to five years to perform some limited function such as build a road or a hospital.
People are 100% free in the US to pursue business without being granted the PRIVILEGES of operating as a commercial fictitious legal entity. If one requests the PRIVILEGES of operating as a commercial fictitious legal entity, then that is for providing goods and services only. It is not to pursue one's religion. If one wishes to pursue one's religion, one is 100% free to do so OUTSIDE the fictitious legal entity in which one enjoys unique PRIVILEGES not granted to individuals.
6
The Con Don's insurance pays for him to take Viagra to keep his "tool" functional. He, however, thinks he has a right to try to take away a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body.
There are certain ways to prevent pregnancy.
Women - refuse to have sex until your male partner stands up for your right to determine your own future.
Socially conscious people - stop attending mass and church. The supposed "christians" who support The Con Don and his Robber Baron Good Old Boys Cabal think they have a right to tell women how to live. They do not.
Temporarily sterilize every boy at the age of ten until they are married and/or old enough to be responsible for creating new human beings. Put the onus where it belongs. Problem solved.
28
"The Trump administration on Friday moved to expand the rights of employers to deny WOMEN insurance coverage for contraception."
It's disgusting that all of these hypocritical men in power like *Trump*Tim Murphy*Jeff Sessions*Paul Ryan* have no issue with insurance coverage for MENS birth control like vasectomies, even viagra, and the wide availability of condoms, yet want to deny WOMEN the same choice.
35
Hear, hear EGG. I didn't read your comment before posting mine but agree that the fact that male enhancement drugs are covered by insurance but the boys in charge want to take away a woman's right to protect herself and future children is preposterous.
Shows how out-of-whack the "male model" of power-over others is. It belongs in the 5th century - not in this millennium.
11
If you don't like the insurance coverage that your employer buys for you, you should buy your own. This is the problem with voting ourselves benefits paid for by other people.
15
Sure - we'll just drop our coverage at group rates. Sounds like a plan.
2
Have fun buying health insurance on your own. In fact, how about offering that option instead for those with a problem with offering comprehensive plans that cover women's health care.
5
That's what insurance is, KBronson. The lucky never collect on it because they didn't suffer a loss.
2
The freedom to choose is a double-edged sword. In the USA employers can choose to deny and employees can choose to walk or pay (and I'm guessing that 'the pill' is rather inexpensive).
The 'civil war' here is not over, nor might it ever be. One side of the political battlefield brought a vile gunslinger into town, and preaching from the pulpit will not win the day.
It's time to stop sympathizing with the 'deplorables' and see them as the enemy they are; ignorant, narrow, vile, mean-spirited. They must be defeated because they can't be 'convinced'.
13
Discrimination against women and what about separation of church and state ? No boss should ever decide on whether a woman should get contraception as part of her healthcare. What about Viagra and vasectomies coverage for men ? Come on ...this is 2017, not 1712 !
14
What next? Christian Scientist employers don't have to provide any
health care? Trump and the Far Right coreligionists are trying to force the rest of us to live by their religious views. Hobby Lobby was simply wrong. If you are going to do business in the USA, you must follow the Laws of the USA. If your religious beliefs interfere with your employee's constitutional rights, either you get out of business or follow the law.
16
I feel like we're in a time warp going back to the 1950's.
19
...there was a lot more land and wildlife then
3
Was the idiotic statement about "the calm before the storm " that Trump smirked about on Thursday while entertaining the country's top military brass about Friday's announcement. I would not be surprised since Friday was the anniversary of the Access Hollywood tape's release. Trump is cynical and conniving enough to have dreamt this up. The hypocrisy is astonishing.
9
I don't care what you believe. But when your beliefs interfere with my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, we're going to have a problem.
25
Got to hand it to the left at the ability to create a completely false narrative. No one is "denying" contraceptive coverage to anyone else. They're just saying that they don't want to pay for it. There's no Constitutional right to have someone else pay for your contraception. Even without insurance, it costs about $10-$20 a month. No one is not taking the pill because they can't afford it. Times, you can do better than this.
13
Cost is a minor issue here to most people. It's the slippery slope we are starting down. Pretty obvious - but I am glad to point it out to you.
6
That's a myth. Even WITH good insurance, birth control pills cost more than $10-20/month.
8
So no Viagra, no vasectomies then too, right? OK.
Trish is right though: this isn't about cost. It's about the ability of a religious group to establish government policy. Any student of history could tell you that never ends well.
2
Why not just a sweeping decree that everything should be dialed back to 1940? That way we would be spared this drip, drip, drip of regression.
7
Many conservative Republicans don't believe that any woman should be allowed to have an abortion, even if the ultrasound indicates that the fetus has microcephaly, or if the pregnant woman is developing life-threatening preeclympsia.
Some have said that the replacement of a replacement of the Affordable Care Act should not provide insurance for prenatal care.
Many hate the idea that Medicaid pays for health care for poor children.
Now they don't want unmarried woman to have access to contraception . Yes,
that is the issue- See the statements from the Trump political appointee in HHS who has responsibility for federal birth control programs and research.
Vonservative Republicans should consider the following facts available on the public CIA website: The USA has the highest infant mortality rate of any highly developed country (we are about equal to Cuba). The USA has the lowest life expectancy of any highly developed country. And we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates of any highly developed country.
These folks preach respect for life and individual freedom? Hipocrits!
11
Make no mistake we are legalizing religious entities ability to discriminate against the rest of us, and women in general. A couple of points already presented but need emphasis, birth costs far more than birth control, and why are we not discontinuing coverage of vasectomies also. Betcha five bucks Hobby Lobby still covers them.
12
I haven't read the order. Maybe it goes beyond the Hobby Lobby holding. But if it doesn't, isn't the order just saying an employer can rely on Hobby Lobby without needing to file a lawsuit that goes all the way to the US Supreme Court?
Keep in mind that the Hobby Lobby plaintiffs distinguished between (1) contraceptives that actually PREVENT conception, as I gather most do (equivalent to a vasectomy in a male): from (2) contraceptives that "work" by killing an already-fertilized egg (either directly, or indirectly by preventing it from attaching to the uterus) -- commonly known as "morning after" pills. Because federal law required employer-provided health insurance plans to cover ALL types of contraception, federal law effectively required an employer to pay for what many employers considered to be abortion. The Supreme Court ruled in Hobby Lobby that an employer owned by someone with genuine religious objections to abortion couldn't be required to pay for health insurance that covered "morning after" pills and similar contraceptives. The Court didn't say someone couldn't take a "morning after" pill -- it ruled simply that the person's employer couldn't be required to pay for it.
I understand that Hobby Lobby made it necessary to determine whether the employer (or its principal owners) really had "religious objections" to abortion. That wasn't really in dispute in Hobby Lobby since, I gather, the plaintiffs were well-known for their anti-abortion views.
3
Do you really think Congress has any lawful constitutional power to respect faith based beliefs in legislation, lawyer?
8
Oh the horror! People having to provide for themselves. What's next requiring employers to pay for their nail polish and make up? Good for Trump for standing up to the "I deserve 'free' stuff from others" crowd.
Next Trump should let our allies (e.g. dependents) it's time for them to pay for their own defense.
9
Let's hope you are very young because this is excruciatingly naive.
Insurance is to cover meds that Americans need. If you are going to let your employer decide if you can be treated or not is about as goofy as it gets.
11
The notion of people getting "free stuff" is imaginary. A woman is paying for her health policy through her employee contributions. She shares that cost with her employer. She is also paying taxes on her salary which go to support health system, physician training, research, and other factors in our complex health system. What is being contested is whether she must pay a co-pay for a physician-prescribed medication or contraceptive device and whether employers are even required to offer benefits that include a medication prescribed by her physician for contraception or other treatment needs because of *beliefs* of the employer. This is the government using a religious test to intrude in a person's health care. This impacts the entire health system and it's worth thinking seriously about what has been proposed with this encroachment on an individual's health care.
56
If women have to pay for contraceptives on top of paying for insurance, then men should pay for vasectomies and viagra on top of their insurance.
As for dependents paying for their own defense, I guess this would include Trump's own dependents (e.g. Don Jr.) paying for their own legal defense?
6
This new series of religious orders by the Trump administration are offensive not just because they are being rolled out, but because who is rolling them out. While the Catholic Church, Christian Extremists, and other religions can hold whatever misguided beliefs they want, and have the full right to promote them, the state, which is supposed to be a secular institution providing welfare, equality, and safety, has no reason and no right to favour a particular religion, especially in the 2010s. This is just another example of the Trump Administration failing to realise the purpose of the government that they have hijacked.
10
The change does not compel employers/insurers NOT to provide access to birth control.
It just removes the boot of government off the necks of employers/insurers.
8
Oh yes it does. My sister's company, a large corporation, yesterday issued a memo that
birth control prescriptions and "devices"
will no longer be payed for by the corporations
insurance.
9
bobandholly - Exactly. It's a choice the corporation is making. Trump is not banning the company from providing that option.
3
It is mickey mouse red tape created only to lend weight to juvenile fantasies. Nothing but wasted time, money, and lives. Why should anyone have to dicker with an employer over this?
3
As the Saudis move "forward" with women driving, trump moves us closer to 1952 and Happy Days- where Mom stayed home, cleaned house, cooked dinner while awaiting Dad. TV reflected a small segment of our society, and there were no Civil Rights laws. Young girls who got pregnant either has dangerous, illegal abortions or were sent away to have their babies in shame. This was a more beautiful world, according to trump and his 30% of American followers. Well, it's 2017. Going back to 1952 is not the answer. And once again, the self righteous show more concern for the unborn than the living. And all just because trump and his followers want to erase any and all progressive light of the Obama Administration.
12
Birth control isn't a medical issue. It is a social and economic action.
4
...and environmental, but can you see through the greenwash?
3
It is a health issue - http://youngwomenshealth.org/2011/10/18/medical-uses-of-the-birth-contro...
2
Interesting read: FREAKONOMICS by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. In depth analysis, using economics, that Roe vs. Wade had on crime rates. Unwanted pregnancies have long term impacts to our economy.
8
Why would any woman, or man, be beholding to an employer's religious beliefs? Why are we not following the religious rights of all people in this country? Perhaps those who wish to control others with their religious beliefs shouldn't be allowed to provide health care coverage to their employees. Time to get health care out of an employer's hands.
23
So, I hope that the 55 million American women who benefit from this policy remember this at the polls in 2018.
23
They didn't in 2016. I'm not holding my breath.
2
Let's hope that any insurer daring to cover Viagra but not contraception will be subject to painful litigation.
29
The extremist right-wing Christian minority has long sought to impose its moralistic world view upon the rest of us. They have finally maneuvered our government through voter suppression and gerrymandering to a place where they can do so. It is now up to us, the majority of Americans, to put them back in their place. I'm quite sure that they would not like to be subject to the dictates of my religion, although now, it seems, if I have a business, I can force my employees to follow my religious beliefs. How do these twisted, backwards people expect to keep their newly acquired power over others? Let's see, help from the NRA? This is called Christianity. Anybody who says no, that this isn't real Christianity, is living in la la land. This IS Christianity today in the United States. And it has finally succeeded in legislating "morality."
20
And what is the Trump Administration doing to help the countless children in the foster care system, many of whom are black and brown? What about the children who will be born into drug addicted families and poverty because of their mothers' inability to afford birth control or access safe abortions? What about the children who will have zero access to quality education, who will perpetuate the cycle that they were born into? The Republicans are so eager to protect the rights of unborn children, yet once those children are born, they are completely forgotten. This has absolutely nothing to do with religion; they are simply so eager to keep in place the power, race, and class structures that have existed in this country for hundreds of years. I am ashamed of everything that America once again stands for.
23
Mandating that birth control becomes harder for women to acquire has a direct impact on her health, educational opportunities, security, and financial well being in our society. With the impact falling hardest on those who can ill afford the burden on their chances to enjoy the American dream.
This an assault on American women, and the poorest most of all, Another sickening example of our transactional president.
18
Oral contraceptive pills have multiple medical uses. get the President, someone who takes pride in promoting the abuse of women and invades the privacy of undressed teenagers (was that child molestation and abuse? i think so, it is what I would call in medical terms) out of my examining room where I discuss management of multiple conditions with my patients. Mr Pence can step outside as well, especially if he is accompanied by his wife! Did I train for 27 years total to have these guys declare what I or my patients should do? i don't think so. what is your pln to get through me and millions of other health care providers?
15
Agree. And Mr Trump is reported to be taking a prostate medication that treats his hair loss. I presume this treatment is a personal health decision he has made with his physician. If I have deeply held beliefs against this use of prostate medical treatment solely for preventing hair loss (and I presume he is interested in preventing hair loss for reasons of physical appearance), do I have to also pay for it? Do I get to interfere in his personal health decisions and overturn the judgement of his physician because I have sincerely held moral beliefs against his health choice and believe this use of prostate medication is risky (without any training to make that decision, by the way)?
3
Yet another reason for universal healthcare. It's ridiculous that your employer can have such power over your personal life and health.
22
Seriously? The government doesn't hold the power over your purchasing a condom and having it ready anytime you are in the mood. Men or Women!
What happened to the Separation of Church and State? It angers me that the politicians are allowing religious dogma to dictate the rules for the rest of us! Either religion/churches should mind their own business and worship freely, or their tax-free status must be revoked. Religious ideologues are dividing this country!
17
And at the same time, this administration and Congress are cutting back on social support for young children, people in poverty and health insurance for children. Where did Religion get preference over legislation? MY religious freedom (Atheist) is also being violated by enforcing the mores of one religion over another. For those who are really going gung-ho over the First Amendment, you might remember that the forefathers also most emphatically determined that there should be a division between church and state. Believe whatever you want, practice your religion as you choose, but DO NOT push religious beliefs into legislation, something that should be totally secular. If you don't believe in birth control, don't work in a pharmacy. If you don't believe in abortion, don't work in gyn-obgyn. You DO have choices, and the rest of us should also!
11
Trump has already taken a ploy out of his jaded play book to inflame a very contentious issue to divert attention from guns to the rights of Americans and the grief and suffering continues over Las Vegas.
I can't say the words of contempt I feel for this amoral man with no empathy in my comment.
16
Freedom of Religion, is the right to practice your choice of religion, in your personal life.
Bringing your personal choice of religion into the public sphere is not protected by Freedom of Religion.
Example; preaching your religion on the street corner to everyone passing by is protected by Freedom of Speech, not by Freedom of Religion.
Providing services to the public at your public business, or municipal office, is not practicing your personal choice of religion in your personal life. So, withholding those services is not a Freedom of Religion issue.
11
Strange... keeping people poor prevents towers and houses from being built. Perhaps this is good for the environment and diminishing wildlife habitats??... That is unless 421A continues to be a lucrative business.
On economic issues, the vast majority of people lean left. 2/3 of the people want to tax the billionaires to pay for their healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
The Republicans know this, and they know the country is evenly spit on social issues, so they focus on social issues to grow their support.
If the Democrats really wanted to win elections, they would promise the people what 2/3 of them want. Then they would have the votes to win on economics, and by winning elections also win on social issues.
Why do the Democrats spend so much time on issues that divide the country down the middle? I'm not saying these issues aren't important, just that the electoral college won't let you win on them.
Win on economics. Make people's economic lives better, and they will trust you with social issues too.
The left base (which is for the People and Democracy) is twice as large as the right base (which is for the billionaires and political violence), but while the Republicans embrace their base of religious bigots and white supremacists, the Democratic Party rejects its base of activists (fighting corporate dominance, hate politics and global warming, and for true democracy)
Why is it the Republicans can organize more working people to fight for the interests of global billionaires, then the Democrats can organize to fight for their own interests?
3
Can we get some op-eds on this?
1
Obama should never have bullied the Little Sisters of the Poor. Not only did it confirm Republican charges of a 'war on religion', the inevitable rollback- judicial and regulatory- has a much greater impact than a waiver for the Sisters would have. Why do Democrats always overreach?
9
Democrats seek equal rights and protection under the law. This is "overreaching" only to those who want to keep large groups of people down and suffering. There are some people who seem to think that they can succeed or look good only by putting others down or taking more than their share, instead of through their own efforts. Others succeed by working hard and contributing to our society. I'm glad I'm part of the latter group. The former are exemplified by Donald Trump.
9
Why should any employee's healthcare coverage depend on the religious beliefs of someone else? These nuns are free to believe whatever superstition they like, they are not free to use their superstitions to limit the health care coverage of those who work in the same organization.
8
The "people of faith won't be bullied" scam, so artfully maintained by the Republican Party, goes hand-in-hand with their racism/xenophobia scams. Their strategy is always to make their base feel victimized by some "other." Big talking, pro-life Republican Congressman Tim Murphy's outrageous hypocrisy proves that their opposition to abortion is merely a wedge-tool in the Republican toolbox. Be aware that Murphy was forced out of office NOT because of his abortion hypocrisy, but because, once he came into the spotlight, other ethics complaints were coming to light about how he ran his Congressional office. His desire for his paramour's abortion matters not a whit; his other malfeasances were the real problem for a party that is all about appearances only, all the time. And that includes "faith."
8
Indeed. And this manipulation of the faith communities is going to come back to bite the very folks that right now think they are getting government to do their bidding in the religious wars. Eventually, a faith group that is not Christian evangelical is going to assert their right to refuse services/benefits/workplace protection to any woman without being fully enveloped in clothing. They will claim such refusal is supported by the interpretation of Trump and Sessions that religious liberty means your beliefs can be used to restrict the rights of others.
3
The birth control issue is the least important part of this story. The main issue is Sessions ordering the justice department to interpret religious freedom as the freedom to use religion to justify otherwise illegal discrimination.
15
For those who say a woman chooses to engage in "risky" behavior and we don't insurance to facilitate that, nor do we want to pay for their medical care related to such "risky" behavior, what about the medical care related to other risky behaviors people engage in by choice for pleasure? Playing football, skiing, mountain biking, riding a motor cycle, speeding in a car, flying airplanes... and of course, medical help for erectile dysfunction.
13
I hope people don't get distracted by all this and forget our good entrepreneurs who have been laboring long and hard under an oppressive socialist tax regime. High end marginal tax cuts now, high end marginal tax cuts forever! God bless.
3
Ha! But you know satire is dead in the US. Still, thanks for trying. :)
3
Trump doesn't care about this. Trump is against the constitution because it stands in the way of his profits and power. The religious right is also against the constitution, so he has teamed up with them to destroy it. He doesn't care about social issues. He is using them.
6
Aren't you misstating the issue?
"I don't understand how the GOP fails to understand this really simple equation: less birth control=more abortions."
Nobody's saying a woman can't use birth control. The only issue is who pays for it.
Wisely or not, the Supreme Court clearly ruled in Hobby Lobby that an employer owned by someone who has religious objections to abortion can't be required to pay for health insurance that covers what are commonly referred to as "morning after" pills -- medicines that kill a fertilized egg (either directly, or by preventing the egg from attaching to the uterus). Hobby Lobby didn't decide that a woman (or a man) couldn't buy or use "morning after" pills -- just that an employer with religious objections to abortion couldn't be required to provide health insurance that covered them.
This "contraception coverage" issue is very often misstated. It's NOT some people (those opposed to abortion) trying to tell some other people (those favoring abortion) that they must behave the way the first group thinks they should. It's merely the first group saying "We aren't trying to tell you that you can't behave as you like. We're just demanding that we not be required to pay for it."
No question that more birth control means fewer abortions. But that doesn't change the real issue here: "Should someone with religious objections to abortion be required to pay for an abortion of someone else who doesn't have those objections?" That's the issue here.
4
My issue is whether I have to pay taxes for a completely made up version of facts about medical care.
You should believe as you like- American taxpayers should not have to subsidize your tax-free status any longer. Let's change that as well.
8
Following this reasoning, should my insurance premiums go to pay for your transfusion because I have sincerely held religious beliefs against this medical procedure? What if I don't believe in organ transplant and you would not live long without one? Should your health be placed at risk - or your costs be made more expensive - because of my religious beliefs? Would you be ok with me saying, "I am not trying to tell you not to have a blood transfusion; I'm just saying I don't want to pay for it." Although those in favor of restricting women's access to birth control will say they aren't trying to force their morals on others, they are in fact doing something worse: using government to establish religious tests for implementing health benefits.
4
This is all well and good as long as the religion-loving people being catered to in this destructive tinkering with human and civil rights are evangelicals and conservative denominations that have been trained to think of themselves as oppressed because they actually are practicing their religion courtesy of the 1st Amendment and don't have to practice anyone else's. The actions of Trump and Sessions are tantamount to establishing a state religion. And what happens, dear Attorney General Sessions and not so dear Mr Trump, when a government clerk or a charity clinic from a group that is not your Christian evangelical base refuses to write a marriage license/provide health insurance/allow sick leave/provide maternity leave to an employee or member of the public who does not cover her face with a veil because that clerk has sincerely held religious beliefs in women dressing in all-enveloping clothing, as one example. Right now, the officials in the know-nothing Trump administration are living out their dark fantasies and pathological day dreams that they have harbored for decades. Surely, reasonable GOP legislators cannot think this erosion of women's health rights and minority employment rights in the workplace are good for the people of our country...because Trump and Sessions in this case are targeting the health and workplace protections of your very own wives, partners, daughters, and LGBQT children.
5
It is not the role of government to force folk to buy stuff for other folk, especially when the stuff bought violates strongly held belief systems of those doing the buying.
5
Then why am I forced to pay for foreign wars, I only believe the military should defend the U.S. They should not be used to defend the money interests of corporations, but here we are. Why can't all of us that believe this not have our taxes not go to this issue. Because I am a grown up and not a fanatic I pay my taxes and mind my own business. Show me the passage where Jesus is anti-birth control. Oh right there isn't one it's just human male dogma.
11
The Little Sisters of the Poor and other institutions with a religious affiliation are not forcing their religious beliefs on anyone. They do not want to go against their religious principles by being required to pay for contraception which goes against their religion. They do not care if an employee uses birth control but just do want to pay for it. Obamacare was forcing them to pay for a product which should never have been part of health insurance in the first place.
5
Actually this is not true, as usual.
This is about theocracy, as usual.
The Little Sisters believe according to their literature that contraception expels a fertilized egg from the uterus- a lie.
This means anyone can make up anything, get the American taxpayer to pay for it, and interfere with people's actual lives.
Obamacare did NOT make them pay for it- they were excluded.
Please tell the people whose docs prescribe contraception/hormone therapy for endometriosis or cancer treatment that your religious belief is that they should not have access to it.
7
Trump has helped the Little Sisters of the Poor expand their flock. Too bad that he forgives them the responsibility of paying for the increase in entitlements.
1
What's telling in all this is that Republicans and the Trump administration are focused solely on preventing women from getting access to contraception. No one in the GOP has once suggested preventing men from buying condoms. That's because, unfortunately, they're still stuck in a "boy's club" mindset, in which women don't have the right to have sex without consequence, but men have the right to make sure they don't get someone pregnant (or, in Tim Murphy's case, to strongarm them into an abortion when they do).
The GOP knows its base and its misogyny too well. They know the Religious Right has no problems with their sons going out and sleeping with every girl from here to Timbuktu, so long as their daughters keep their legs firmly glued together - and making sure there are as many consequences for women having sex as possible is part of that. If only men can have birth control, they get to dictate when and how sex will happen- and, as part of that, the many sexual predators in the Religious Right will be able to wield it as a weapon against women in their organizations, as the ever-unfurling string of rape accusations in religious organizations shows.
4
This justification of "religious freedom" is total nonsense. Religious freedom is the right to believe, express and practice as YOU believe, not to force those beliefs and practices on others.
No one is stopping the Little Sisters of the Poor from worshipping any way they choose. But if they want to operate a business (non-profit or otherwise,) they need to follow employment rules like everyone else. Giving them power over the health care of their employees is crazy.
Denying contraception to women, while it may be in line with religious views, is really all about enforcing power over them (either men's or the church's.) Stay in the house where you belong having babies, not out in the world building careers and enjoying an equal voice in society.
6
An underlying theme is the poor ability of the US to care for its citizens. The US is excellent at rescuing its citizens such as hurricane disasters, amazing first responders and war, but caring requires carefully thought through policy which is boring and gets little press. It is however the caring that impacts most in peoples lives. Healthcare is a case in point, where the US often comes up with dramatic new medicines and cures which get great press, but distract from the poor US policy reality of limited access and expensive ER treatment for people with eg flu who were not in a position to afford preventive treatment earlier. Infrastructure such as bridge collapses, first responders are great but a funded maintenance policy may be preferred. Denying climate change and building 6 foot above sea level in hurricane prone coasts eg Marco Island Fl, may not be the smartest thing to do, but FEMA will rescue. The regular US massacres - first responders are great at saving a few lives in dramatic situations , but a realistic gun policy saves up to 30k per year. Given the history of trump and his desire for ratings, the current Admins' drama approach to everything, is consistent. Thoughtful caring policy will not be on the agenda. Expect more disasters and chaos as we the people fight it out, winners and losers, hunger game style.
3
Isn't it about time we revisited the wisdom of having employer-sponsored health care? Why does the employer get not just a voice, but a controlling vote, in the employees' family's health care and reproductive choices?
It's time for a government option. If the private sector can compete, let it try.
4
The private sector would be able to provide much more attractive options with the government regulations getting in the way. I shouldn't have to pay for pediatric dental care or sex change coverage.
In that case, I shouldn't have to pay for your cancer treatment. But that's what insurance is all about, spreading the risk and spreading the benefits. And if you pay for someone's birth control, perhaps you won't have to pay for that single mother going on welfare, or paying for her kids' public schooling, or school lunches.
2
I'm working on my ninth decade, and I have seen fantastic changes in the physical environment and much more grudging changes in the inner environment, the cultures, of the world's people. For years, I have felt that the world we have fashioned for ourselves is becoming too complicated for us to deal with rationally. The great slosh of humanity overwhelms, and leaders think mainly about themselves or about minor issues which are readily understandable to the masses of mostly semi-educated people who increasingly fill every nook and cranny. I feel all around me the mostly unappreciated hopelessness of the Hoeman described by Markim, and I fear the totally unfounded presumption of Ozymandias in many of our "leaders.". The "Roll Back" here much discussed represent a defeat of rationality and a deeply flawed vision of how the human race should live collectively. I pity us our probable future.
4
If President Pence made a move like this, I would be outraged, but it would at least be in keeping with his beliefs and character. Trump doing this is nothing but pandering. This is absolutely the tyranny of the minority. Because 35% of voters support him and are pleased by this action, the remaining 66% must live with its consequences. Everything Trump does, he does for the 35%. But, pandering to a minority often backfires, and he should remember that he won't win re-election with only that 35%. Neither will 35% be enough to keep his party in power after 2018.
3
Elections have consequences. That 35% controls the Electoral College so the Democrats had better get to work finding or grooming a candidate with appeal beyond the east and west coasts. The Party is wasting time focusing on dinosaurs (Hillary, Bernie, Nancy, Chuck, etc) and making Trump the butt of jokes instead of focusing on 2018 and 2020.
Sticking just to the employer-paid-contraception issue, am I missing something here?
Wasn't this exactly the issue that got decided in Hobby Lobby?
Very many people didn't like the Hobby Lobby decision -- I get that. But -- like it or not, wise or not -- the Supreme Court clearly ruled that an employer whose owners had religious objections to abortion couldn't be required to pay for health insurance that covered contraceptives that killed fertilized eggs. I don't know whether this order goes beyond the Hobby Lobby holding but, if it doesn't, isn't the order simply saying that an employer can take the position approved in Hobby Lobby without having to file a lawsuit?
Am I missing something here?
3
So, does a Christian Science employer, who has a religious or moral objection to using antibiotics, have the right to exclude their use from his employees' medical insurance coverage? No?
Well then, what distinguishes a "sincerely held religious belief" from a sincerely held superstitious belief?
Answer: Nothing.
Either one, apparently, allows an employer to exclude coverage.
17
Giving substance to fantasy is one of the most effective methods known to make a country ungovernable.
5
"employers and organizations may claim broad exemptions from nondiscrimination laws on the basis of religious objections.".....Since my religion is what ever I say it is, I guess that means employers and organizations can do anything they want; but that is what happens when the Attorney General is a bigot.
14
You know that Trump, the supremely incompetent angry narcissist, will do anything to hold onto his clueless supporters. Anything. A pathological liar with zero empathy who praises himself for doing a great job when in fact he is an über-failure as president.
Ladies, just remember that it's Republicans who have no interest in your well-being and still consider females second-class citizens. You know, that white male privilege thing. Trump is their role model: Grab them, treat them like property and undermine their health care and civil rights.
You can have your revenge in 2018 and 2020 — national, state, local. Vote him and those like him out of office.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
13
This needs explaining, which is not the same as defending or justifying.
This is the politics of identifying with groups. "Do something" for them, even if it does not actually work. It is symbolic, not practical.
We see this with the War on Drugs, in which policies that just make the drug problems worse are pushed by people who want to be seen "against drugs."
This present policy is about being seen on the side of religion and religious freedom. The practicalities are not the point. The urgency felt is to be seen on the "right" side.
If that means they must be on the side or religion against "sexual perversion" then so much the better for them.
8
The first amendment only blocks Congress from interfering with freely exercised religion, practiced voluntarily, not coerced. Congress is denied any power whatsoever to be an agent of people who wish to coerce others to practice their religion.
5
OK, well I have a moral and sincerely held belief that nuclear weapons should never exist and that American wars abroad are against my religious convictions, so I will no longer pay taxes to support those threats and the American slaughter of people in the Middle East.
36
The old saw was two steps forward one step back. With this Trump administration following Obama's administration it has been two steps forward followed by three steps back. And it's not over yet. Unless.............. It's up to the American voters to stop this nonsense and get us back to the 21st Century. Enough Trump already. It hasn't been a year since he was inaugurated and the majority of us are suffering and weary. Religion should be like sex. What you do in the privacy of your own bedroom (or church) is your business. Just don't display it in public. Let's Dump Trump and make America great again.
23
Your Trump saw "math" is generous: the reality seems more like two steps sideways, three steps back.
2
Please tell me what corporate entity practices religion and what it’s personal beliefs are then explain how a legal construct is human with beliefs and feelings
17
Corporations tend to function as amplifiers of the egos of their top executives.
4
Don't the Taliban employ religious freedom arguments for their rule of law.? What's the difference from this Trump Taliban?
32
this isn't just about women's health, although that is important. There is an important, fundamental principal of our countyr at stake here. The religion "liberty" argument is just a cover. This is not about liberty as our founding fathers envisioned it. This is about religious dominionism.
17
The foul agenda the GOP is pursuing to "coax" the brain-dead to vote for it to keep it in power so it can keep the payola coming from its true constituents, the oligarchs; however, the main reason we are in trouble is that boys will be boys, and right now "boys" are in power.
14
Because when you hire me, you hire my uterus too. And I when I am doubled over in pain because I don’t have access to birth control, I’m calling in sick.
31
Check the stats in 12 months - more abandoned infants, increased maternal mortality and injuries/death from self-induced abortions.
15
It would take a little to notice a significant difference but I believe you're correct.
4
Starting with the Hobby Lobby decision, the end of employer based healthcare financing will be dead in the near future! What will happen when a mother receives a 3 AM call that her son has been severely injured in a motorbike accident and is in need of blood transfusion, only to discover that his boss, a Jehovah Witness Zealot has managed to get coverage for any blood related procedures excluded from the company health plan? What about the parents of an autistic child whose employer again is a Scientologist zealot that has excluded any form of mental health treatment from coverage including early aggressive intervention treatment to forestall an adult lifetime of disability and dependency? This could go on and on, including crazy cults that do not believe in childhood vaccination of any form, including measles and rubella! Only with a true single payer financing system, like Medicare, can these potential tragedies be prevented!
25
This is what happens when certain non-thinking attorneys/judges are appointed to the Supreme Court. I am not the most brilliant attorney on the planet, but even I can see the flaws in the (political) "logic" put forth by the likes of Roberts (his dissent in Obergefell was embarrasing; a first-year law student could have out-argued him on that), Thomas, etc.
5
Employee provided healthcare is stupid. It makes no sense. Your health care should have nothing to do with who you work for.
The worst part about it is that the insurance corporations use it to pretend that each employer is its own risk pool.
The risk pool for an insurance giant is all of its policy holders. Their risk is balanced against their total premium payments. But they are allowed to treat each employer as its own pool, so if one person gets sick at a company, they claim that they can raise premiums on the company, because the pool is higher risk. It is a big fat lie.
If they insure a million people at a thousand companies, it doesn't matter if one person at each company gets sick, or everyone at a few companies get sick, their cost is the same.
Universal single payer healthcare should be provided by the government with a private option.
1
Does this mean I'm not forced to accept the radical agenda of the left anymore? If yes, then THANK YOU President Trump.
4
Yes, It's so "radical" to give women control over if and when they have children. if you don't want to use birth control, no one is forcing you to do so. But your religious beliefs should not affect me, or millions of women. The Trump administration will lose this battle.
5
I take it you had an IUD forcibly installed, and then were gay married, and came home to find your house had been auctioned off to Moozlims. My sympathies.
5
How is BC a Left(?) Only Agenda?
What do CONservative Women take for BC, CHANCES?
Sure looks that way with the ones kicking it with that Congressman.
5
Clearly, it is not the smart thing for a modern state to rule over hundreds of millions as if it they were a medieval parish. The USA is not a medieval village where everybody has the same opinion about everything. Trying to impose a way of life will lead to nothing good.
With so many major challenges in the world, it is sad to see the hysteria and obsession of the Catholic church with sexual matters.
12
Lori, I think you are talking about the global billionaires, including Trump.
The only thing they believe in is money, and they manipulate the religious right and white supremacists to increase their power to make more of it.
12
I can't believe more men aren't complaining about this.
Ready to pay child support, I guess.
22
Women have been basically alone through most of their struggle for equality for the past 50 years. (Random numbers of men here and there, and participation in one women's march doesn't really count in a 50-year struggle; nor does giving money to feminist causes and then turning around and sexually harassing women).
American men need to look in the mirror and ask themselves what they have done to help lift women and POC....because if they, the folks who hold the power, had been on our side for the past 50 years, we wouldn't still be fighting these basic fights.
3
I believe we should also be shoring up our child support laws, making it impossible for a man to get out of paying for any unwanted child he helped produce.
3
Men and women of good will go to third world nations to explain the benefits of family planning and use of contraception. Here, we have a political party that cares more about pleasing its shrinking voter base than it does about women’s health and family planning. Now with a President who is also desperate to hang onto his Bible Belt base, we’ve seen our freedoms and self-respect discarded for a political stance that even the GOP knows is driven by votes rather than conscience.
13
After the election in 2016 I predicted to my friends that under Trump we are in for "four years of domestic turmoil and international chaos".
Oh how literal those words were! It has become a routine now: every single day, tune in to the news to see what kind of Trump disruption has occurred in the last 24 hours. Or less.
There is a new book out called "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". In it 27 psychiatrists assess Donald Trump's mental state, and confirm what we already know anecdotally, that he is mentally unstable.
And as is also known, he is a LIAR, he is vulgar, unscrupulous, incompetent, and a lawbreaker.
These are all ample reasons to remove Trump from office, but Republicans are not going to do that because they need him to have some chance of pushing their own punishing, regressive agenda.
I wonder how much Trump chaos we can tolerate. I think violent civil unrest is possible. Maybe it will happen when Trump orders Americans to kill or be killed because he decides to show some foreign nation who's got the power.
12
Freedom of religion used to mean that an individual could apply his or her religious convictions to their own lives. The aggressive notion of freedom of religion promoted by the Trump administration affirms the right of a person in a position of power to impose his or her religious convictions on another over whom he or she has power.
15
just like the Church of England or the Catholic Church, used as levers of political power and selective repression, which I'm pretty sure was what the Founders had in mind.
Jefferson wrote of the wall of separation between church and state. Trump is famous for promoting walls... but somehow this one isn't "beautiful" to him because it doesn't gain him anythig with his base.
4
There is both freedom of religion and freedom of choice. The use of one to deny the other should be unconstitutional. Government has no right to undermine the tenets of one in favor of the other.
12
We talk anout the madness of Mr Paddock. When will Trumps madness become lethal?
12
Is Viagra still covered? I thought so. Sure, they'll use the excuse that older, impotent men might be contributing to more babies if only their "medical condition" is rectified, and therefore it's justified, but let's be honest here - they don't think women should engage in sexual activity just for the pleasure.
11
As a foreigner looking in these decisions place America dangerously close to becoming a fundamentalist state where faith is law and law is faith. Is this really where you want to be?
20
"Religious Freedom" for who and from whom? Churches "cleaving to the marrow" of government and then allowed to say who can/cannot be served or serviced. Marriage of "church and state"..was the primary reason Puritans settled in North America. What is rarely discussed: so called "puritans" persecuted others who were not "puritans" i.e. the Quakers.
11
Gee- also just read that they are rolling back protections for the LGBTQ population...if the Repubs are going to allow our employers to regulate what goes on in our bedrooms, what of the adulterers? Mmm, that's an idea- then we might be rid of plenty of them including our 'president'!
11
Trump The Terrible is proving to be not only the absolute worst president in the history of the United States, but one of the worst human beings it has ever produced...
And I use the term "human being" loosely.
17
Let's get a list of these companies and boycott them. Let's call it exercising our right to religion.
14
If it in health insurance, what disease or injury contraception is helping with?
1
Educate yourself. Contraception is hormone therapy and is used for treating a wide variety of conditions beyond preventing pregnancy. Endometriosis and cancer treatments are just 2 conditions treated with contraceptives. Your employer should not be ignorantly denying any employee medication for any reason.
5
@Kay Johnson,
So the debate is not about access to means of birth control?
Sorry, I must have misread the article and missed the whole point of this fight altogether.
There is no mention in this piece about male contraception, including vasectomy. Can we assume this directive covers contraception for males as well?
13
based on Trump/Sessions/Ryan's logic every form of media treatment for the entire male sexual reproductive system should be banned from treatment/prescriptions because it 'encourages sexual behavior' and that's what they don't want women doing -- sex -- unless it's for their benefit, like all those hypocrite conservatives engaging in extramarital affairs and wanting their mistresses to have abortions.
2
Let's call this what it really is:
another major step in the rigid, rabid, evangelical, right-wing/republican AUTHORITARIAN plan to enforce compulsory pregnancy and mandatory childbirth on women.
A major step in the effort to force women out of the workplace, out of power, out of competition with rightwing men who just don't have what it takes to compete with women, people of color, non-white-non-straight people who after decades/centuries of struggle had begun to have a small foothold in the system.
And of course, they don't care about supporting women, children, families with policies or with support networks and systems like preventive or ongoing lifelong health care. They only care about power over those who are not part of the privileged elite and they care about reducing the competition back to the right wing good ole boy (and the women who support them) authoritarian-worshiping system where they were never challenged or questioned.
And they especially don't want women of color to be having more 'welfare and anchor babies.' Such is their hypocrisy and hate.
It is also a marker of the last gasps of a dying old, decrepit, fearful men-boys. Unfortunately they will do great damage before they are dead, buried, extinct.
11
You really kind of have to hand it to the Republicans.
They have managed to convince a rather large swath of the nation that women who have sex outside of marriage have no morals, and that depriving them of insurance plans that don’t have birth control co-pays are what they deserve for having the arrogance to believe they don’t have to accept pregnancy as a consequence of having sex.
That depreivation is how the Republican Party is defining religious freedom. As such, its supporters feel confident that they are exempt from the effects of this rollback. The monolith here is the single Black woman; I don’t have to spell out the ugliness that follows.
Given that, do you suppose said supporters will ever have the courage to pull back the curtain and see that this Pandora’s box contains all kinds of medical goodies that some employers will want to refuse to fund under the guise of religious freedom? That those goodies, like diabetes and high blood pressure medication, which treat conditions that affect Republican states more than any other, are expensive and thus ripe for the chopping block?
Can they really be so pliable that they can’t see the forest for the trees, or understand judicial precedence?
5
Google: "How much is the birth control pill without insurance?
Typical costs: For patients not covered by health insurance, birth control pills typically cost $20 to $50 a month."
Very Cheap. And America considers this a "Crisis?"
1
It is not about the cost, it is about the concept of allowing a religious belief to prevail in a public venue. Some religions discriminate against people based on their race, religious discrimination against LGBTs is not uncommon, and my religion is whatever I say it is. It is a crisis when the government declares that religious beliefs are more important than the Constitution.
6
The people who are least able to afford $50 a month are also the least likely to be able to afford a child. Yes, $50 must seem pretty cheap to someone who has no problem paying for basic necessities. But guess what, there are plenty of people who are deciding between feeding themselves and paying for contraception. There are people out there who do things like rely on pull-and-pray or spacing out pills because they don’t have that monthly $50. Do you want those people saddled with more kids?!?
1
Of course the government has the right to force religious institutions to cover contraception. And it's about time the government forces the Catholic Church to have woman as priests.
3
Your comment is way over the top. We are talking here about non-religious institutions; businesses like Hobby Lobby who deal with the general public. What if the guy who runs the Selma lunch counter says it is against his religion to serve African Americans?
4
They want a federal tax exemption for what they spend on health insurance but also want to discriminate against employees who don't share their religious beliefs? They should be able to have one, perhaps, but not both.
15
Freedom of religion is really about freedom of conscience and the freedom not to believe in anything. As in all parts of American life our freedoms enable us to participate or not as we see fit. Removing the contraceptive provisions imposes an unnecessary religious hardship. Religious people are free to not use contraceptives but as an insurance proposition premiums are fungible and the idea that a believer is paying for any particular thing is specious.
13
We should ask everyone in the Trump administration who facilitated this draconian policy rollback about their sex lives. Do they use birth control? See what kind of response we get . . . Yet another unraveling of eight years of progress we enjoyed under the Obama administration.
15
I suppose those nuns want young women to get pregnant so their families will send them away to a convent to have their babies and put them up for adoption, then the nuns can make the young women feel guilty and will indoctrinate them into the 'sisterhood' to become nuns and increase their numbers.
7
There should be a public list of the companies who control an employee's healthcare based on religion so we can boycott these companies.
24
“No American should be forced to violate his or her own conscience in order to abide by the laws and regulations..."
Sounds like a nice sentiment, but unfortunately many Americans' consciences are a bit out of whack, hence the need for laws and regulation. I always understood it to be that you are free to practice your religion as you see fit in this country as long as by doing so you are not doing harm to others. By allowing use of religious beliefs to discriminate based on sexual preference or transgender status clearly does harm to those people discriminated against. How can this possibly be justified?
10
Legal misogyny. It's just mind blowing that so much effort is applied to keeping women under siege. It's a war against women as a class of human beings. JM said it all - a poor woman is denied birth control, then an abortion, and then financial support for the child she was forced to give birth to.
Every day I pass a local hospital at the entrance of which I observe elderly men sitting in lawn chairs holding signs that read 'honk if you're against abortion.' No signage that reads 'I will cover expenses and help you raise an unwanted child.'
Meanwhile vasectomies and little blue pills are covered by insurers.
21
Two more strikes in favor of the establishment of a theocratic state--where only the evangelicals are truly free, holding "religion" as a trump card against anything and everybody they don't like.
11
I wonder if any of those organizations wishing to opt-out of covering birth control will also opt-out of covering drugs for erectile dysfunction, which are also provided under the Affordable Care Act.
12
Although the article says that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act places restrictions on the government's ability to "limit the free exercise of religion," the law refers to a *substantial burden."
I'd be more than willing to contest a Social Security employee's claim that processing my claim for widow's benefits "substantially burden[s] a person’s exercise of religion." It is no burden on your exercise of religion to process papers that are identical to others you process, except for the gender of the person involved.
7
Saudi women have finally been allowed to drive, to move around, to literally navigate their lives. However, here in the US our leadership is moving the other way---toward regulating women's bodies. It is such a sign of narrow, frightened minds.
9
Trump should be done with it and also remove the requirement that insurance plans provide free (to the consumer) flu shots, shingles shots, and other forms of immunization. After all, there are plenty of people who object to vaccinations and immunizations on religious grounds.
Let's defend their freedom to abstain for themselves and their children.
Heck, the world has survived epidemics before.
And who is the government to decide that one religious prohibition should be treated differently from another.
Here, by the way, is some authoritative -- and objective -- information on the matter.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5141457/
3
" Serfdom and should be totally abhorrent to all Americans, liberal or libertarian."
serfdom is abhorrent to libertarians, to liberals not so much so. liberals are always looking to pass legislation to support their social agenda of the day. how about staying out of people lives and letting private individuals make decisions without government. like the Lords in olden days who controlled every aspect of the lives of serfs, Liberals, through government edict, would like to control the rest of us.
1
How much did the pharmaceutical companies promise to donate to #45's re-election campaign and legal bills to get him to do this? Someone needs to investigate.
4
This is terrible; likely unconstitutional, and it hopefully won't be enacted. In the meantime, when is the 50%+ of the country that isn't in support of this backwards administration going to flex our financial muscle? Boycotts, boycotts, boycotts! It is easier than ever (due to the internet, not the law) to identify rightwing donors and their businesses. Every time we open our wallets we should treat it as a vote.
8
I cannot remember how this happened. But employer health insurance should not underwrite contraception for neither women or men.
1
Let's make birth control pills OTC and sold by pharmacies, drugstores, gas stations, in vending machines and online as generics for less than the copay under a health insurance plan. Just like condoms. Walmart can already sell a months supply for $3.99. It's out of the hands of employers then and women have better access than is often now the case. It would also make hormonal therapy for a host of other uses much cheaper as well. Problem solved. This is obviously not what the Little Sisters of Mercy want to happen, but at least they don't have to burden their conscience anymore by having to offer contraception in their health insurance plans.
9
Everything he does is wrong. Every decision is the opposite of the right decision. It's uncanny how consistently and directly wrong he is.
10
To be fully comprehensive in its respect for religious beliefs, the government should remove CONDOMS as a reimbursable item from flexible health savings accounts. No employer should be required to cover any item to which their have opposable religious beliefs; this should also include vaccines, surgery, and blood transfusions. I don't understand the limit to female contraceptive products....
4
How senseless it is to deny civil rights and the freedom of choice.
There is no basis for any argument that civil rights guaranteed by the US
Supreme Court should be allowed to be overruled by any US State.
7
Again ideology Trumps pragmatism. Free contraception means fewer unwanted pregnancies, fewer abortions, fewer children and pregnant women on govt subsidized health care, fewer careers and lives unexpectedly derailed (and rarely for the better). Yet the GOP base prefers the solution that costs us far more and with more heartbreak.
7
So who do they think are going to have more babies if this should come to pass and have the effect that they think they want? The demographics are not likely to be with "their side?" in a generation. Kind of ironic.
2
There is no logic behind claiming a religious freedom that fundamentally (even expressly) limits the freedom of another. Birth control not only prevents unwelcome pregnancies, it also alleviates serious medical issues. Vasectomies, a form of male birth control that has no other medical benefit, is still offered without a single religious objection from employers. Why the double standard?
7
This has absolutely nothing to do with religion. It is the curtain behind which the administration and others are hiding. It is all about clinging to the status quo and fear of losing power. Women have the smarts, the temperament, the vision and the heart to run this country (government and business) and the men -- white men -- see the tsunami of female talent that is approaching and they're scared, pure and simple. They feel their power slipping away and they are trying anything to hold onto it.
29
Hmm, I never attributed fear, haven't spent time considering that, interesting?
I've always attributed to them (mostly) having the ingrained belief they have to control women.
4
Women unable to pay for contraceptives will have less money for an abortion. Illegal abortions bear larger health risks for women. And unwanted children will suffer later on, financially and socially. All of this has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Religious fundamentalism is used against basic civil rights. This kind of propaganda used to be current 70+ years ago in Europe.
19
This isn't about religion or morality, it's about power over, and control of women's bodies. It always has been.
30
I'm waiting for someone to start a new religion and say my God is money. It's against my religion to pay taxes, comply with environmental regulations, safety measures or anything else that reduces my profits.
3
Lori Nelson......Define religion. There is no need for someone to start a new religion. My religion is whatever I say it is.
While the headlines attribute this this policy change to Trump, I doubt that he gives a hoot about health policy and contraception. This has Mike Pence’s fingerprints all over it.
23
US liberals fighting so feverishly about optional pharmaceuticals that unnaturally alter hormones reveals their lack of a consistent or authentic value system. Like giving guns a pass in so many Hollywood movies or being perpetually weak on organised religion, a centre-left majority that wants its Big Pharma so bad looks only as the consuming herd for the centre-right corporations.
Yes, when I went twenty years with a severe case of anemia because of heavy periods, anemia that went unaffected by taking iron pills, I should not have avoided the pill in order to protect my "authentic values." That would be more important than having the energy to take care of children, be there for family and friends, after all.
Listen to me, you anti-birth control zealots: we have more values than you can even begin to imagine. Our values focus on taking care of the people who are here, nurturing the children we have, rather than worshipping the egg or the zygote.
2
Listen up, Republicans. All the children who are conceived because of this decision will be born to Democratic families and will become Democrats when they grow up. Your days are numbered.
15
Think about it, even employee covered contraception under the ACA, male employees should be paying a higher premium; shoot the messenger.
4
Of course the Little Sisters of the Poor are happy! Denying women access to contraception means there will be so many more poor people around.
19
As long as unemployment stays low and gets lower, women should leave those employers who refuse to pay for contraception. The owner can work 24X7 without help until he drops dead at his desk.
8
I see a another trip to the Supreme Court for the Trump administration. Why should someone else's religious beliefs dictate what happens with my body?
16
Political correctness, such gay marriage, had overturned thousands of years of the family as a bedrock of society, which is increasing coming apart at the seams. Political correctness has become the new religion, yes a new religion, and it is time to admit that such rights are not absolute, just as those of traditional religions are not. Political correctness fundamentalists are no different than traditional religious fundamentalists and should not be treated differently. A balance is needed between these different rights, no matter how much the new fanatics whimper, and this should take place across the board, including sexual harassment witch trials.
“Political Correctness,” the very term, flags a blind spot, lack of empathy and imagination, and often an ignorance of reality, an inability to see the reality of racism, sexism etc.
1
And God said, hey, if you people can devise a way to give women a pill that prevents them from getting pregnant until they are ready and willing more power to you.
I think good old God would feel that way about it.
8
It is sickening to find such crudeness and cruelty and discrimination at the heart of Mr. Trump's view of human beings and citizens. Obviously his Viagra driven male sexuality is all that counts, and women are guilty for everything. Mr. Trump is documented as being a male predator. So that women in general are objects of his lust and guilty for any consequences.
To have the iconic male predator of our time as the instrument of sexual puritan disdain for women and women's health is an absurdity and cruelty that neither Kafka nor the Three Stoodges could dream up.
13
Well, here we are, once again, facing another policy decision driven by white male conservatives' perverted obsession with female sexuality. Obviously this makes no sense if society is trying to lower abortion rates. It makes no sense for women who suffer medical conditions that require hormonal intervention. This is not supposed to make sense. It is not a logical policy. It's emotional and political. It's only political because the politicians are appealing to votes of emotional and insecure conservative white males. For some reason, these conservative white males are terrified of women who are having sex for pleasure. I don't even think it's about religion. That's an excuse, this is all about a trend in conservative white male sexual insecurity that is wide spread and deep. What have we done wrong raising our white men to be so terrified of females? What have we done wrong?
12
After reading this, I pondered over a couple I knew years ago who had three children. One was planned, but two more arrived in the next two years in spite of their mother's careful use of birth control pills. Their father left.
The best answer for everyone would be cheap, effective, long-term, easily accessible birth control options for everyone, both men and women. Congress wants that method to be abstinence, at least for women and quite possibly for everyone except themselves, but that's a pipe dream. So. Is Big Pharma up to the challenge? Or will it not be lucrative enough?
8
New Policy. Every individual who opposes birth control, and then continues to oppose abortion, is responsible for adopting and taking sufficient care of every individual that results from this inaccessibility to birth control and abortion. Your choice is then letting someone you've never met take a pill every day, or spending $300,000. I think we'd have a lot more people comfortable with taking a pill.
10
One of the things I love about The New York Times is the quality and thoughtfulness of many of the comments. It is gratifying to know others are concerned about the implications of these choices and can imagine so many more consequences than any one of us might consider. The comments are the icing on the article. Thank you.
11
Every decision Trump makes runs contrary to the best interests of the American people and the future of this country. His moves have one characteristic, "motivated by short term greed" for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. Responsibility for much of this rests with those that promoted and elected him for their own selfish purposes. Sadly there isn't enough backbone in the GOP dominated Congress to impeach Trump so this moronic behavior will continue.
7
The Christian Taliban have control of the country. Be prepared for more of the same. However, the consumer and worker also have a choice. Don't apply for a job at companies that don't provide women's health care and don't shop at them either.
19
I don't have a (Real) Dog in this Fight:
1. I'm not in the NFL.
2. Not a Female.
3. Had meself cut a few years ago.
4. I don't H8 POTUS. I'm just not fond of bullies and not ashamed of it.
5. I don't Love Libruls.
6. I'm not an illegal, Muslim, or Gay.
But I do admit I'm a minority.
That said (OK, Written):
a. BC is used for more reasons (important ones too, look it up) than just preventing pregnancies.
b. (Here's the best one to me, it really is) Do people know it's a LOT Cheaper on Everyone to Prevent Pregnancies and the Studies (OK, I'm for Science, so hold that against me) show children born in certain situations/environments are much more likely to be "Burdens" on the State.
9
Originally back in 1776 the founding fathers were sincere about Seperation of Church and State. But today religious advocates use frredom of religion to have religious beliefs enter out Political Arena. Just an excuse to discriminate against those who don't have their beliefs. And oh it has to be Christian based religion too. Hypocriates all of them.
9
ex-Judge Roy Moore has stated his belief in the separation of church and state, BUT, he thinks that it means Christianity is the ONLY church permitted.
3
They are outright liars whose oaths are worthless. The first amendment plainly denies Congress the power to treat faith based beliefs as real by respecting them in legislation.
1
I am morally opposed to war. Following Mr. Sessions logic, I don't want my taxes spent on bombing a bunch of people that have never threatened or bothered me so can I stop paying the portion of my taxes that goes to the military?
18
I used to believe I lived in a country with the best form of government in the world, democracy. Sadly, that is no longer the case. This is not a "free" country. The majority of Americans did not vote for this administration and do not agree with actions such as these.
13
So people of faith can't be bullied? How? They control everything. I'm an atheist - do I have right not to be bullied?
The stores are probably now - in October - filling their shelves with Christmas consumer goods. Carols will be played over loud speakers. The President will tell me I have to say "Merry Christmas".
Boy - Christianity is certainly under attack. Towns everywhere are planning to fest their streets with Christmas ornaments - I know all those churches that line the streets are safe - not so much mosques.
Supermarkets are beginning to fill with Christmas turkeys, Hallmark is gearing up for sales of Christmas cards, Christmas parities are being planned and everyone is gearing up for the office Christmas party - the kids for Christmas break.
You can't buy alcohol on Sunday mornings - why not Tuesdays?
Under attack? People who believe in god have always been given the high sign - do you think an atheist has any chance of being elected to anything -while right wing Christians - who don't believe in science - take over the government and ruin the world?
19
One of the great benefits of birth control is that it has limited to five the number of children Trump has.
As his sexual life has been, let's say, licentious, and just protecting the Trump children is a drain on national resources, imagine if contraceptives had not been available to the many many women Trump has slept with?
10
It is remarkable to me that writers who see this rollback as a “free exercise of religion” do not see the implications for precedent that this ruling entails.
Don’t like Sharia law for non-Muslims? Too bad, you may be subject to it. Don’t want to lose your seat on an airplane just because a Hasidic man or woman is seated next to you? Too bad, it might happen. Do you like celebrating holidays? Might not be if you are in company with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Give me time and I’ll give you more examples. Sure, it seems outlandish but it could happen.
After all, original mandate did not force religious organizations to provide anything - there was an easy exemption offered, but still that wasn’t enough. And organizations were not protesting vasectomy coverage - which is only done to prevent pregnancies - while birth control, as many have noted, is used for medical conditions that are unrelated to pregnancy avoidance.
The anti-woman nature of this intervention is not surprising, given everything we have learned about the parties involved, but the unintended consequences of their actions may still come back to haunt them. Stay tuned.
11
When the Trump Administration talks about "Religious Freedom" what they mean is "Christian Religious Freedom".
Are they ready to allow for the beliefs of a member of a Conservative Jewish sect or a Conservative Muslim? Members of those religions may feel it is against their religion to even stand in line at a Social Security office. Or to even show their face in public.
Rules or interpretations of law that favor Christians over all religions is not in keeping with our founding principles, with what it means to be American.
6
We will need to elect a president in 4 years and a Congress that will roll back all the damage.
5
Simply stunning that we are living in 2017 and significant numbers of people say they believe that any form of birth control other than abstinence is a sin! Yet gun violence, poverty, racism doesn't bother them so much. They also revel in forcing women to complete unwanted pregnancies while cheering cuts in food stamps and Medicaid.
12
“Religious freedom is the right to believe and worship as you see fit,” Mr. Katskee said. “It’s never the right to use government to impose costs, burdens or harms on other people. You can’t use the government to make other people pay the price for your religious beliefs or practices.”
This is the most cogent and succinct argument I’ve seen on this. I am a deeply observant Christian, and I believe the above statement without reservation. Other civil liberties groups would do well to take notice of this language since those groups have been i persuasive to broad swaths of the population.
5
I am not aware of any constitutional right to own a business.
If you want to follow the rules of your religion, fine. If you want to violate discrimination laws and impose the rules of your religion on your employees, then don't own a business. Find another way to make a living that is compatible with your beliefs.
After all, if your religion is so dear to you, it should be more important than keeping a business, right?
7
Traditional metaphysics/theology on this topic would assert that humans have souls, possibly, and subject to your favorite explanation of what happens when the physical body dies. Corporations do not. They will never "sit at the right hand of God". Their sole purpose, regardless of how highminded they might like to sound, is for commerce and making money. Do not extend to them the same rights and privileges that human beings are afforded.
3
This a landmark day for religious freedom? For whom? What about employees? Does a business owner have the right to impose his religious beliefs on his employees? Do Republicans regards employees merely as serfs?
Then, on a pragmatic perspective, do Republicans understand the concept of unintended consequences? With less access to contraceptives that work, what is the impact on the rate of legal and illegal abortions, who pays for the maternity care and then child care?
As my grand mother said “beware of the self-righteous!”
4
It's just a chunk of red meat for Trump's reactionary base. So he can claim a win. It's a distraction -- keep your eyes on the money.
5
The Department of Injustice now officially discriminates (in addition to HHS and DOE) against the LGBT community as well as minorities.
Trump bragged about sexual assault. Now he pushes forced births and no contraceptives. This is also a man who claimed it was his Vietnam to avoid STDs, and it sounds like he made women undergo health inspections before his many affairs.
In the meantime, the pro-life party ends CHIP that provides insurance for nine million poor children, and it slashes Medicaid by one trillion dollars, the program that pays for about 60% of births in this country as well as for about 40% for children.
So no contraceptives, no abortions, no insurance for children, and no healthcare for women or for births. What is left? Maternal deaths, forced births, and short lives for children as well as destroyed lives for women.
Religious tyranny is the ultimate oppression. The Trump era has no equal rights, only privilege for wealthy males including to even control bodies or health.
8
At least I won't have to wear a suit to work anymore, we're now living in the Stone Age.
Something is definitely wrong when mostly men are making laws governing women's health care.
Multiple rallies need to happen, and numbers of women need to educate those men who don't get it. Maybe too, cut them off, show no support of any kind and certainly no physical relations until the law turns in their favor.
The men in my family will stand with you.
6
Why should a corporation be forced to pay for contraception in the first place? Health insurance does not pay for aspirin and other medications which are required daily medicine for many people. Are those who find these a necessity protesting about the personal cost to them? Absolutely not. If birth control is so necessary and important for the user, a woman should purchase it with her own money and not require a religious employer to do so. This is called freedom of religion which is still allowed in our country.
2
This argument shouldn't even be happening. In the seventies the city of Richmond contracted to buy BCPs at $0.65 a pack for their clinics. That company was paying another company to sell it under their own name. Everyone made money. Today a pack of pills can cost up to $50 a pack in the U.S.
In Europe the wholesale cost of the pill is less than $2 for three cycles. Even if we double the price for retail, a person could buy a whole year supply for less than $20. That is in contrast to $600 here. Pin worm medicine in 2010 cost about 0.06 a pill. Today, wholesale, it cost over $300 for two pills. In Europe the cost of 1000 is $8 wholesale. We don't even make the pills in this country. The insurance companies don't care. They just pile on something for themselves and pass it along in premiums. What we ought to be furious about is that our governments run by the Democrats and/or the Republicans, have done nothing to keep medicines affordable. Not one person in the White House or congress has put forth over the years even one word or any effort to roll back the costs. We are being led away like blind sheep from the real culprits here, our representatives and the drug companies
5
The Democrats have put up legislation in every Congressional term which would allow Medicare, Medicaid, etc. to bargain for drug prices with the providers. Do NOT claim both parties are equally lax in helping control prices.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/washington/18cnd-medicare.htmlhttp://w...
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/republicans-wont-let-government-neg...
.
3
The article is about what we pay, not medicaid or medicare. Even under Medicare part D the cost are outrageous. We don't even make the components for the pill here in this country. So why does a drug that cost $600 a year here cost less than $20 a year in Europe and South America. It's the same bcp as what we use. Neither the Republicans or your Democrats have reduced the cost. They are the primarily reason medication is so expensive her. All they would have to do is allow us to go outside these boarders and medication costs would plummet.
The party you tout have had plenty of opportunity to do something. They haven't and now we have people in the streets protesting losing insurance payments for the bcp. That shouldn't be happening and if our representatives were thinking about us rather than donations, it wouldn't
1
Do companies have sincerely-held religious beliefs, or doe this apply only to employers who are individuals or partnerships? At the very least, the owners (shareholders) of a company should decide at its AGM if they wish to be a "religious company" or not and, if so, which is to be their established religion. Note that most Christian denominations are not opposed to contraception, but may wish to see adulterous employees sacked.
3
It is possible that insurance companies will have to charge more if they do not cover birth control as I believe the payouts for pregnancy coverage outweigh the cost for birth control. This will be especially true for companies that have a lot of low wage workers who will not have the means to pay for birth control on their own. Then, what about the costs for sick days (pregnancy related vomiting, doctor visits, mandatory time off). Recently abortions have gone down and, as others have mentioned, an increase in abortions is another likely unintended consequence.
Once companies find out that they have to pay more, I suspect they will quietly include birth control in their insurance options.
4
Religious freedom is a right, but also women’s health is a right. Contraception was invented to give us a chance to control population, diminish the birth mortality rate, and to give half of the population a chance to do more than motherhood. If you don’t believe in contraceptions, don’t take them and continue with your life. DO NOT threatened mine because you feel threatened by my opportunities to just have two girls and be able to work. To deny me this right is to keep me in a cycle of poverty, in a cycle of death, because abstinence is a myth and natural contraception does not exist.
31
I hope there will be a website showing companies that will not provide birth control as part of their health care benefits. I certainly will avoid them.
34
Same here.
This really is (mostly) about controlling women and it always has been and it always will be.
5
So it’s bad for religious institutions that contribute to employees health insurance to pay a tiny amount for womens contraception but it’s okay to pay billions for Viagra and other male stimulants, which are reportedly mostly sold to functional men looking to overcome the effects of intoxication. And if you want to combat risky behavior don’t roll back Title IX rules on combatting sexual assault! This is all part of the anti-woman agenda. Handmaid’s Tale indeed.
22
The real question that seems to be avoided is why one person's "religious" views can be used to "trump" those of another. The answer might not be "religion" per se, but one of the power of capital over labour, an issue that both parties wish to avoid.
5
Company insurance policies routinely have exclusions. Some provide fertility treatments, others do not. My company's insurance provider decided they were no longer going to pay for a common asthma medication I used because the manufacturer did not drop prices enough. The substitute was not nearly as effective for me.
Since asthma sufferers are not a voting block, nobody looks out for us. The ACA not only pandered to women, it prevents insurers from having differential pricing for women despite their using more care than men. Life and automobile insurance is still allowed to charge men more.
I also had to chuckle at the stupidity of comparing condoms to female birth control in some comments. Not only are condoms are not covered by insurance, they are usually subject to sales tax. The only non-surgical option for men, that also helps reduce disease transmission, was not included in the ACA legislation.
I guess this is more of the male privilege we're hearing about.
6
Strange that one religion's prohibitions can be enacted into law, while the many religions that have no prohibition on abortion or contraception are bound by the law. Would a business owner who believes that the Catholic Church's doctrines violate his or her religious or atheistic beliefs be legally protected if he refused to sell to Catholics?
7
This is totally outrageous. I'm sure there must be some federal judge who will find a constitutional right to force other people to fund my entertainment, especially when it contradicts the moral beliefs of the people whose pocket my hand is in, grubbing around for change. Yeah, gotta be a right. Gotta be.
3
I have refused to shop at Hobby Lobby since the 2012 Supreme Court decision favoring their refusal to provide insurance coverage for birth control. I want a list of all companies that will do the same. If it is a retail establishment, I will boycott it, too. If it is a publicly traded company, I will make sure we don't own any stock. Hurt them in the wallet.
13
Legislators from states who are promoting these misogynistic and and anti-LBGTQ (and the voters who elect them) need to pay a price for their chronic disenfranchisement of large segments of our society. For starters, Amazon should not even consider Raleigh and Birmingham as potential sites for HQ2.
13
The refisal to provide women's health services is damaging our schools beyond recognition. We have children who have come to kindergarten who are essentially unparented: they get their own meals, put themselves to bed, choose their television programs. Some do not know how to hold a pencil and many lack the skills to cooperate with others.
The absence of women's health services is doing great damage to some of our neighborhoods and schools. Really bad student behavior and inappropriate teacher responses are causing many, many problems. Our school personnel routinely overlook serious assaults because of pressure from the central office. Just to cite one example this fall, a parent called me about an incident at a nearby school: her kindergarten child came home with a black eye. She had received no notification and no staff member would acknowledge seeing it happen. A few days later, the same boy came home to say he had been choked! School's action? Move the assaulting student to another classroom.
This is typical.
9
What Jeff Sessions meant was, "We will not allow people of faith to be prevented from targeting, bullying, and silencing others."
12
Religion should play a part in making policy decisions. Religious freedom is not freedom to discriminate. This twisted logic is only prevalent in the US and other Muslim countries. With world population heading to 8 and then 10 billion people the need to bring our population under control will be the next environmental disaster to deal with after global warming. Also it has been shown that societies that bring their population under control also realize significant economic improvement. Religion is one of the worst institutions ever created by man.
9
This is a test, this is only a test. How long before the people rise and stop this insanity. Every two weeks a new crisis to make the people forget about the last crisis.
9
The Obama administration's directive that employers/insurers had to provide free birth control to women came during the 2012 election. Mitt Romney had closed the gender gap. So the Obama administration came up with the political ploy of giving away free birth control pills.
In fact, it began during a Republican candidate's debate when George Stephanopoulos asked Romney if he was opposed to birth control, and Romney said of course not, and wondered aloud where in the world that question came from. When Sandra Fluke, then a Georgetown University law student emerged on MSNBC and began lamenting that she and her wealthy classmates had to pay for their own birth control, it became apparent that the Obama administration and the liberal media were in collusion to create a campaign issue where none had existed before. It was a political trap for the Republicans.
And it was a blatantly transparent attempt to buy women's votes. And it worked. Obama closed the gender gap and won the election. But at what cost?
The Obama administration's actions ignited a huge fight over religious liberty. Why should an employer be forced to pick up the cost of someone's birth control; i.e., to pay for their sex life? Beyond that question, how can a president force any private company to give something away for free?
Women are perfectly free to buy birth control pills or any other form of contraception. They just have to pay the prescription co-pay like the rest of us do.
5
How about Viagra and similar things? How about prostate surgery?
1
Bullying 101;
Bullies sometimes have to put those they Bully into a position to be Bullied.
2
This will eventually become a woman's right to wear a Burka anywhere, including her driver's license photo. I know it's not what Republicans intend, but Ronald Reagan didn't intend to establish Gay-Lesbian Student Aliances in rural Utah, yet his actions on behalf of religious folk did just that. Nor did conservatives intend to pass a federal law forcing local communities, such as townships in New Jersey, to approve the building of mosques where the residents didn't want them. Yet they did pass a law that did exactly that.
So don't worry about their encroachment on freedom from religion. It will unexpectedly back fire. Then Republicans will blame the courts instead of their own Constitutional ignorance.
3
This administration’s goal is to harm as many people as possible in as many ways as they can. There is no other explanation. There is no other way to explain the countless heartless policies they have proposed or implemented, as well as the regulations they have rescinded. If we are lucky enough to look back on this period at some point in the future, what will we make of it all?
And the Republicans remain silent.
16
Regardless of one's opinion on the issues involved, this move by Trump demonstrates the foolishness and the danger of presidents having the power to make laws. That is exactly what Obama did and that is exactly what Trump is now doing. The Constitution prescribed that laws should be made by Congress. When presidents have lawmaking power, then we effectively have a periodically elected dictator.
4
Presidents (at least in the recent past) have been very free in enforcing their prerogative through executive order. GWB signed 291. Obama signed 276. And Trump, only 10 months into his presidency, has already signed 49. Undeniably this effects the over all legitimacy of the rule they seek to enforce, as well as, the government more generally. However, what you are seeing Trump doing here is not executive order or formal lawmaking, but a traditional part of how America gives definition to the laws passed on Congress. The ACA is an act of Congress. Part of the Executive branch enforcing these laws is deciding, as they are here, how they are going to go about doing that. This is not a President lawmaking, but rather executive agencies performing statutory interpretation on an already made law. Obviously, this can result in unfavorable distortion just the same as executive orders, though.
1
Undoubtedly the US executive branch is due for significant counterbalancing by the other two branches, especially if no changes toward direct democracy occur such as removing the electoral college - the main barrier to a majority-elected executive branch.
1
But still, if Americans focus so finely on the trees (executive functions of a runaway over-delegated executive branch) and take their eyes off of the forest (the glitchy Electoral College of America), pure democracy will be delayed.
One consistency in Trump’s edicts are that employers can totally control their employees lives. Whether it’s free speech, as in the NFL kneeling dust up, or this ‘religious’ exemption, an employer is entitled to their beliefs and employees are not. It’s Serfdom and should be totally abhorrent to all Americans, liberal or libertarian.
15
If religious organizations want to take the position that they should be entirely free of government interference, then the price for doing so should be to give up the income tax deductibility of their members' so-called charitable donations. Separation of church and state runs in both directions.
15
Trump's decision is an establishment of religion in direct contradiction to the 1st Amendment. The decision specifically says people can cite religious beliefs to discriminate against others. The decision is a Pandora's box that takes our country back to the Middle Ages.
11
I guess those Christian run businesses are abiding by that edict given by Jesus and known as "The Golden Rule" and states: " Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,"
Unfortunately, it was never meant to be applied within the context of someone's desired treatment by another based on THEIR personal or Religious beliefs which would lead them to do" unto others. "
It is of course about people treating each other with decency, respect and kindness...as anyone would have themselves treated by another. It is not about and never was about treating another according to another's specific beliefs or avowed customs.
In fact it's intent is the antithesis of imposing one's will/beliefs or ways upon another person.
6
Ok, if the rule relates to religious rights the easiest solution is to take this problem away from businesses and other organizations and add a simple addition to the Medicaid system where they would be free birth control items for both the male and female side of this issue. Just think, it will cost a lot less not only with the reduced abortion costs but, and what should be a lot more important to the right wingers, less welfare costs down the road.
1
Why bother having laws and rights on matters other than real estate? Why not just let the market forces and the Darwinian jungle determine the shape of society? Nobody can force you to work for or buy from someone who doesn't respect your civil rights. Shun those who discriminate. Anti-discrimination laws only protect the hypocrites from showing their true colors. While I'm a firm supporter of a more pluralistic approach to civil rights, and since democracy is not capable of protecting them, I suggest we all become very careful with who we give our money to and who we work for.
2
Several questions: Will employers with a religious charter or mandate provide health care services for employees who have sexual relations with men, women (or children) they are not married to? Will these employers cover viagra for employees who have sex outside of procreation? Will employers be able to fire employees who commit adultery? Or refuse to hire adulterers? Will employers' religious freedom be limited to "risky sexual behavior" by women or will men's "risky sexual behavior" be targeted as well?
The bottom line seems to be insuring the male prerogative. That's what these "religions" are about, isn't it? How can men compete if women are given an equal chance to succeed?
4
Where are those Republicans who are always talking about our Constitution and what it stands for? Separation of Church and State comes to mind. It appears that when it comes to bedroom issues the Republicans believe government has a right to interfere. But when it comes to taxing the rich or corporations government should not interfere. And certainly the government has no right to interfere with ownership of assault weapons which have become weapons of mass destruction, silencers or enhancements to weapons. And of course the Cabinet members should not be called out and made to reimburse the Treasury for their privat jet travel. There is no end to these men and women's hypocrisy when it comes to their so called beliefs. If people with religious beliefs prevented them from using birth control that is their choice. That does not give them the right to take away my choice nor is it Trump, Sessions or the Congress and Senates right to interfere. What a country we are turning out to be
8
So the employer can now impose their religious beliefs on the workers.
This rule does more harm to the person denied coverage than it does to person administering coverage. Doing paperwork is not as close to someone's being as the actual contraception is. Those that think they should be using their religion to regulate the behavior of others are the ones violating another's religious freedom.
Even corporations which are not human and have no religious beliefs can claim to have them? That is twisted morality. The point of a corporation is to shield a shareholder from the responsibilities of the corporation. If the responsibilities of the corporation don't flow to the shareholder than the rights of the shareholder don't flow to the corporation.
The people that control policy in this country are not making corporations more important than humans for the sake of religion. They are doing it because they own the shares and they want to use corporations to control you. They hide behind the anonymity of the shell "entity" often multiple layers of shell entities, then claim rights for that shell.
It is like giving rights to your car because you ride in it. It is just a piece of machinery, not a human. The rights belong to the human. But we are doing the opposite.
And the reason why red States have more unwanted pregnancies is that they limit contraception and sex education. Stop imposing your disasters on everyone else
7
What protection is included in these non-laws to insure that there is a true religious basis for refusing to cover women's health issues in employer provided insurance? Can I say I am morally opposed to birth control while not actually loving my neighbor as myself?
4
This week in the GOP is about men retaking control of women's reproduction rights, whether it's pro-life Tim Murphy urging his mistress to abort their fetus, or DT denying birth control. Both are based on the notion that there are more important male interests than those of individual women, whether from male hierarchical institutions, or men themselves. Abortion as an issue was only ever a smokescreen.
5
I wonder what kind of birth control Mrs. Paul Ryan, Mrs. Mitch McConnell, and Mrs. Trump use or used to use - how they paid for it, and how they feel about having access cut off.
When power brokers start dictated how others should live - maybe we need to require how they deal with the same situations.
6
Religious entities should exercise their freedom by giving up their tax exemptions rather than coerce taxpayers to underwrite their discriminatory practices.
7
Reports of teen pregnancy rates show drops across all demographics (considered a GOOD thing) and as much as 70% among some subgroups since 2014 when Obama improved accessibility to contraceptives. Trump wants to pull the plug on this, without considering the consequences. To cover the societal costs of unwanted pregnancies we all will be paying out many times more than he is saving. Very sad day for progress.
4
I have a sincere religious belief in not paying taxes, it supports war. Can I stop paying taxes? The answer is no. Our Supreme Court in Hobby Lobby went down this slope, where will it end.
2
The harrowing future envisioned by Margaret Atwood in "The Handmaid's Tale" has arrived.
4
It's amazing; on the left an article about Trump rolling back the birth control mandate for insurance coverage, on the right an article about Harvey Weinstein's predatory behavior towards women - trying to control women's bodies in one way or another. Everybody gets a say in it - except the women. If an actress tries to get a part based on her talent, guess who's standing in her way? If a woman tries to decide when or if to have children, guess who's standing in her way? Yea, we have control of lives.
4
The devil is in the details. As here, Hobby Lobby was always widely reported as having refused to "provide birth control", when, in fact, it wouldn't pay for abortifacients or early abortion-causing drugs, as they are also known. It paid for insurance for all other methods and for all preventive screenings.
Never mentioned is the fact that the Obama Administration mandate forced groups like Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for sterilizations.
For 40 years conscientious objections were protected by the government. It was the Obama Administration's forcing religious objectors to comply that has caused the government to once again step in and protect religious rights.
2
The details is correct. Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters are, in fact, two different situations and philosophies. Either way, when those details are adjudicated by non medical entities, there will always be the outlier, the exception, or the individual case. This is why these things never are resolved to anyone's full satisfaction. (btw, the sterilizations, and they are few, were put in there for women for whom contraceptive pills evoke serious risks of stroke or heart attack or have other serious medical conditions). The ACA is on its deathbed and this whole effort is another attempt to galvanize that outcome. Whether planned or an aside, we will ultimately end up with some form of government option.
Short-sighted, misguided, and stupid but we knew that about the Trump presidency from its inaugural and this just confirms it, again.
7
It isn't that GOP, Trump, or his administration believe that employers shouldn't cover contraceptives, because it is against their religious belief, or are against gun control because of second amendment. They force these stupid things down our throats, because it buys them votes and gets them elected. After all, how many of these hypocrites who are against birth control and abortion, told their girlfriend or ex wife to get an abortion, after they got them pregnant? How dare, they think they have the right to tell women what they can or can't do with their body? Are we going back to Dark ages all over again? If employers' health plan shouldn't cover birth control, should it cover Viagra?
10
There is one type of birth control that the President cna't take away.
Saying "No."
3
White women voted for Trump: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/opinion/white-women-voted-trump-now-w...
3
1) The government has zero business in this.
2) Birth control as part of health insurance is as stupid as car insurance paying for oil changes. Incredibly stupid.
12
Apples and oranges. Health insurance pays for health maintenance. Car insurance pays for collision injury and liability. If there were a car maintenance insurance policy, the first thing it would pay for is regular oil changes.
3
Ordinarily I might agree with this. However, overpopulation is, in my view, the greatest problem our civilization faces. Thus it seems appropriate for our society at to do whatever it can to make population control easy for everyone. Would you rather see a one-child mandate?
George Orwell would have thought carving out birth control from the other medical devices and preventative products used for other human conditions that are insurables is gov't trying to tell women what to do.
In the United States, individual freedom used to be a guiding principle. Now, we are all under the yoke of the religious right. We must live by their beliefs. How Orwellian is that.
2
What is wrong with Republicans?
17
I'm sure the Pope and millions of U.S. Catholic voters (many being Democrats) wouldn't see this move as something wrong.
Mr. Slater, this is one Democrat, brought up Catholic, who thinks this is very, very wrong. We were taught about separation of Church and State when I went to Catholic School. Catholics knew what persecution based on religious beliefs is about. Catholics also knew that their tax exemption 501(c)(3) rather hinged on their keeping their mouths shut when it comes to politics. The nuns waving signs like lunatics have apparently forgotten all about that.
1
I believe these rulings are from Mike Pence, who has been trying to force his unchristian brand of Christianity on the rest of us. I'm sure Trump doesn't give a rats padoobie about birth control, or whether insurance should pay for it.
My sister voted for Trump. Today, I sent her a link to an article about civil rights protections being taken away from LGBT people. I told her that this is her sister they're talking about, and all her gay friends. Her response: I love you and my gay friends. That love does not protect us from these holier than thou sorts who are hypocrites, and are trying to shove their lifestyle down our throats.
At 66 years old, I didn't think I'd have to deal...again, with my civil liberties being threatened.
28
Assuming that coverage for Viagra is being pulled as well, so reduce unwanted pregnancies, right? RIGHT??
44
Another case of fools who vote Republican getting their taste of compassionate conservatism. Especially younger women dumb enough to vote for Trump and the GOP. Yep, get that economy going by voting for the party that hates YOU -
that's a good idea. Guess they didn't figure that losing their rights to contraception was in the cards when they voted to make America great again. Wait till they take away your right to an abortion, in the works shortly, ladies.
Sorry, very little sympathy stop whining and enjoy having your rights stripped away one by one,. Now perhaps you begin to understand the Republican Paradise you voted for.
25
For EVERY female in America, now is the time to stand up and go to the polls and vote in EVERY FORTHCOMING ELECTION, until the bigots among the men in this country are driven from office. VOTE FEMALES! VOTE!
34
Or... it's time for religious institutions to be taxed.
1
What if I wanted to be a missionary. I would certainly religious freedom to make frequent use of the stake, the rack and the garrote, in order to help people realize they need to convert to my own religion. How can I convince them without these special tools. How do you think the Spanish conquistadors converted all of Latin America so suddenly. But all of those liberals won't allow me to use my religious tools with which to get converts. The liberal judges are also ganging up on me Thank goodness, President Trump will take care of it, and do anything else I need, provided I drop a few billions dollars into the bucket behind him.
7
I wish President Trump's mom would have used birth control.
39
When bigotry rules, this is what you get, a return to the Dark Ages. Wallah!
15
These men don't deserve sex. Who knows why women marry them, give them the comfort of their homes and the sweetness of their beds while they're saddling their daughters with unintended pregnancy. Oh wait. Their wives won't suffer; their daughters will get birth control and abortions if need be. It's only poor women and girls who can't afford birth control and who can't afford to drive 300 miles for an abortion who will suffer. Despicable.
29
How quickly would these "religious liberty" advocates change their tune if a Jewish employer refused to offer health care coverage to employees who are injured while driving a car on a Saturday; or a Muslim employer who won't cover certain food allergies?
30
We will not allow people of faith to get pushed around anymore. "People of faith", i.e. Caucasian male monotheists, have done most of the pushing around on this planet. Those they pushed around have been able to push back only recently (in the grand historical context, that is). So "people of faith" is yet another sobriquet for those who've dominated the planet and thus don't know what it means to be pushed around. They only know that being pushed around as they've pushed around others horrifies them. They want to keep their place, basically. Thus instead of constructively embracing a very different future they try to cling to their age-old domination by claiming to be -- of all things -- pushed around -- they actually have the gall to claim to be victims. Funny how these "victims" have an awful lot of power and money and history behind them, but that's Donald Trump's "philosophy" of "governance" right there: play the victim. Because even when he's attacking he's playing the victim, whining about being "pushed around" when he and his ilk are the ones in power. Attack, play the victim, attack. "Populism"? Which populace? It's reactionary, plain and simple. The male Caucasian colonial menace lives on.
31
Wondering what's happening in America.
7
I want to protest before there us nothing left that defines us a civilized. Join me!
16
Just another manifestation of this racist in chief's purge of his predecessor's legacy! Republicans will pay a dear price for sitting back and passively enabling this madman's destruction of our democratic institutions! Trump is a disaster and he's dangerous to not only our country but the entire world!
21
Jim, I hope we live long enough under Trump the Threatner, to get to vote out these hypocrites. But unless the 67% of Americans (including Republicans) who disapprove of him go to the polls and vote we won’t have a recognizable democracy, and it won’t take four years. It is nearly unrecognizable now. Also, almost not functioning: no compromise, no laws; no compromise, no democracy.
3
I think we have to open our scope of understanding. Within the same week that Republicans let the health care of 9 million children expire, they announce a plan to take away birth control; DeVos is breaking down public education; with the new tax laws trillions will be sucked from Medicare and Medicaid so they'll be throwing elders into the street again, and continue robbing the poor to pay the rich to not only create the banksters dream come true, a debtor 3rd world society, but a mass of starving, desperate people who will scramble to feed their starving, uneducated kids for slave wages and be grateful for any scrap of bread. Who did this? Who brought us to this state of dystopia? None other than the entire Republican party. Our entire democracy is under attack.
32
This is all planned by Trump. He wants a baby boom named after him. No more birth control while Trump is in office.
2
As a well-known New York playboy in his day, one who boasted of all the beautiful women and supermodels he cozied up to with all his riches, I wonder how many times Trump and his partners relied on contraceptives and abortions.
23
Religious organizations many of which operate a majority of hospitals have no business dictating what medical insurances cover nor should they be allowed to pry into what an individual, male or female, uses their insurance to cover. This is not about religious freedom but about religious opression. perhaps we should return the BlueLaws when businesses closed on the Sabath. But then we would have to agree what day the Sabath occurs or close businesses on Saturdays as well as Sundays. OH and no alcohol or gambling either.
So Trump and you phony hypocrites just own up to your out right fear and hatred for upity uncontrolable women and we can engage in a Real War of the sexes. Cover Viagra but not birth control....Really!
11
The bottom line is that Republicans with their God Said So fan base want women and children to suffer, especially poor women and children. They then have a pool of people to continue to point to as bad in their attack ads when running for office.
BTW, the feds are still paying for sexual enhancement drugs for men, right?
10
I feel bad for these women and their husbands and boyfriends, who cannot afford to buy condoms on-line at 40 cents a piece, which is one-quarter the price of a cup of coffee.
6
They probably do use condoms. After all, oral contraceptives do not protect against disease. Oral contraceptives are the most reliable way to family plan, and sometimes family plan means, I don't want to get pregnant NOW.
1
Where are all the Catholic democrats? Their silence is deafening.
3
We can blame the existence of Twitter King on Fred and Mary Anne for not practicing birth control.
6
Trump is a failure in Africa, failure in Puerto Rico, and sex obsession is all they can muster? Really GOP? This is your idea of leadership?
11
This again makes me question why white women voted for Trump over Hillary in the election.
5
This makes me question why we have the electoral college. Trump lost the popular vote. To put this on one gender or group is shaming. There were plenty of men who voted for this fool too. And last I checked it takes two to tango and many men aren't always interested in fatherhood, the condom is not reliable enough.
1
My response was not intended on shaming women, it was in response to some women's comments. I am aware that plenty of men voted for Trump. His comments about women though makes me shocked how any woman could vote for him.
These white women were carefully taught (brainwashed) from birth to submit to the rules of patriarchy (including "follow the male leader in the family") and were never able to free themselves from this form of oppression and get a life in which they were on equal footing with their male partner. They were pressured by white men, especially their husbands (who were likely to be the breadwinner), to vote for Trump, and these women saw this as an act of protecting men's interests (economic and otherwise) and therefore their own. It is for this reason that single white women and gay women (who are in charge of their own economic interests and households) were less likely to vote for Trump than married white women.
2
Mr Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise to grab American women by the....you know the rest.
8
The Republican Party may as well be the Taliban or the Religious Police in Iran. They have become the enforcement arm of the Religious Right in our country. The founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.
12
It is becoming increasingly apparent that this world would be a better place if the concept of religion never existed. Think of the horrors committed in the name of one or another religion: the Crusades; the Inquisition; the unending struggle between Sunni and Shi’a; and the Holocaust just to name a few. The denial of civil rights and the right to govern one’s life (or to die as you choose) are once again denied in the holy name religion. The world would be a safer place without religion.
13
One has to wonder how many abortions Trump has paid for over the years(?)
6
Gee... freedom... there's a novel idea.
2
See you in court!
5
Republicans need birth control too. Ask (now ex) Pennsylvania Representative Tim Murphy.
9
Our President, Mr Upside-Down brain. He understands nothing of women's health if he believes the birth control pill is used only for that purpose. Where was birth control when we needed it-the night this nightmare President was conceived?
4
Thank god. Birth contril is not a medical condition and should not be paid for by taxpayers.
3
And I am a pacifist, so should not be paying taxes for the military. I don’t have car, so should not pay taxes for building and maintaining roads. I have no kids, so should not pay school taxes, etc., etc., Got it?
7
Actually birth control is used medically for many medical conditions. I've been a lifelong user for treatment and prevention of migraines associated with menstruation. And I used birth control for my IVF cycle to conceive due to a medical condition. Birth control should always be covered by insurance.
3
But "birth control" is used to help women with PCOS, Endometriosis, and really heavy periods take back control over their lives. It's also used to help people going through IVF align their cycles so that they can go through the process in hopes of having a successful pregnancy.
You would take that control and quality of life away from women?
It's not just used for preventing pregnancies.
2
Oh the horror. Women will have to buy their own birth control.
Good for Trump for telling the arm of "I want stuff for free" to go jump in a lake.
2
Health insurance and prescription drugs are not for free and have never been. People have to pay premiums, copays and deductables, even for employer offered health insurance.
4
I know not many men realize it but they benefit from modern contraceptives too. Few would enjoy being the sole support of large families.
3
It's insurance coverage like any other medication, hardly "free."
1
So if an employer is a Scientologist, can they refuse to cover zoloft, therapy, lithium, any other array of antipsychotic medications.
If my employer is a Jehovas witness, if Iam injures and receive a blood transfusion am i going to have to pay that part of my medical bill?
If my employer is an staunch Hindu, would i not be allowed to get a Bovine heart valve?
If my employer is a Muslim or an Orthodox Jew. will I be forced to pay for any vaccines that contain porcine gelatin?
When one exception is made another one will follow
If you are an employer you provide health care , you provide all health care—not just the parts YOU like.
14
The Repubs. are insane. No one is forcing women to use contraception or abortion. What happened to choice? Are they playing to wacko constituents or what?
4
Because of the immoral and vindictive form of “leadership” excercised by the Republican Party our country is rapidly turning into a completely unrecognizable cesspool.
4
I was originally a Bernie supporter. I then supported Hillary in the general election although she wasn't an ideal candidate for me. But I was terrified of Donald Trump.
I posted here before the election that young women who didn't vote for Hillary - who abstained or voted for Jill Stein - did not understand that if Donald Trump was elected, he was going to try to make abortion illegal. The appointment of racist fool Jeff Sessions as Attorney General confirmed these fears. The appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court seat stolen from Barack Obama again confirmed my fears. If Trump appoints one more justice, Trump is going to try to overturn - or severely limit - Roe v. Wade.
I'm in my 60s. Abortion was illegal to women of my generation when many of us were in college. I clearly remember that. We tried to warn young women last year that the GOP remains determined to undermine women's reproductive freedom - that battle has never ended.
Please believe us now. This is going to get worse. Religious bigot Mike Pence is no more sympathetic to women's rights than moron Trump is. Please believe us next time. We fought hard for women to have these freedoms decades ago - that this administration is snatching back. This tragedy is just beginning.
Never believe that the Republican party is reasonable and on the side of women. It hasn't been before. It obviously isn't now.
15
Cutting back on birth control will lead to more abortions.
5
It’s all fine as long as Mr. Trump and his aging male cronies can get their Viagra, which only costs about 50 times more than birth control. Women’s heath is of no concern for them.
10
If your God's will can be defeated by a tiny pill, you aren't worshipping a very powerful god.
10
I'll bet his wife uses some type of birth control, even if its simply staying away from him.
12
Trump/Sessions are taking us back to the 1950’s. They’re both backward, obnoxious human beings.
6
Split wide open
with a cultural wedge
careened his career
off ambitions ledge
hands cupped,
on his knees
begs for her abortion,
whimpers, 'pretty please?'
reeking of deceit
and sex and greed
he voted against the pill
so godly, so manly,
proudly GOP indeed.
But separate we remain
church and state
horny, hypocrites
have no right
to determine our fate.
5
Why are you entitled to free BC? Buy your own.
2
It's employer provided, so it means any woman accepting it con continue to have financial control over her life.
She is actually paying into an insurance plan, so it's not really free. She can get it without a co-pay, the same way a few antibiotics and diabetes medications are provided as well.
2
Said the man who does not face the risk of a shattered life caused by an unwanted pregnancy.
1
What's next? Chastity belts required to be worn from first day of puberty. There is no benefit for this continual war on women, unless all these looser men feel they are the less superior gender. VOTE THEM OUT!!
7
Shame ! Shame! Shame!
5
Will Viagra be next? What’s the world coming to?
2
Of course not. Old corrupt men NEED that because they can't do it without chemical assistance, so that will be covered in perpetuity
4
When do we start burning witches?
6
Holy mackerel, it's as if we're a tree and this administration is whacking off branches fully ignoring its own rot at the trunk.
4
President Trump, a man without ethics and morals, a criminal, is now the head of the committee in charge of Christian Vise and Virtue for the secular USA.
The GOP has now degenerated to copy Afghan Muslim Taliban, similar to the Sunni Saudis.
Is it how far or how we have fallen? Is that what a modern, literate society does? This is the 21st century some 200 years after the age of Reason. Is the USA for real or just a bad dream?
4
Not only are 45 and enablers robbing us blind, making sure to alienate our allies, poisoning our air and water, ensuring the continuation climate change and cozying up to neo nazis and tyrants who shoot their own citizens on the streets, he has declared war on women and children... no birth control, more unwanted pregnancies, backstreet abortions and denial of health care for children. They are still going to try to deny health care to at least 22 million of us. This administration seems to have declared war on the USA. Can we at least vote them out of office and stop this madness?
5
Once again, Penis Conrol is never the problem.
15
The insecurity of candidate Donald Trump about the popularity of President Barack Obama led Trump to make a series of promises to his base of supporters, designed to appeal to their underlying estrangement from black Americans and to belittle any and all accomplishments of Obama.
The promises made ranged from cancelling the Iran nuclear deal to repealing Obama care to dropping sanctions against Russia to eliminating a multilateral trade agreement with Japan and Southeast Asia countries as a counterweight to China and to removing any restrictions on oil and coal producers.
President Trump is now desperately trying to erase President Obama from history by fulfilling those promises against the advice of experts. Included in the Trump promises is the elimination of abortions and the equating of contraception with abortion – contrary to all logic and science.
Republicans on Capitol Hill know that these promises by Donald Trump are based on lies and ignorance, but they may go along to get along.
9
He is not trying to undo Obama. He is trying to undo the constitution and the role of law.
1
So the FDA needs to remove birth control pills from being a prescription medication and allow it to be sold over-the-counter just like condoms, side by side, along with the morning after pill. If the medication is a necessary medical treatment for the health of the woman it should be covered, not as birth control but as hormonal and medically necessary medication.
9
In some ways Trump could be giving the religious right enough rope to hang themselves. How many qualified people would be willing to work for an organization that did not provide contraceptive coverage.
4
I think, if factored in, maternity leave will cost companies more in terms of money and productivity. Might return to the old days when mostly men worked in offices.
1
That’s the goal! The Republican Party pines for the days when women were forced to stay at home whether they wanted to or not.
1
Easy enough to fix: birth control provided free or reduced price to all Americans, age 18 or older. Let the Walgreens, CVSs, and anyone else, from local pharma to university clinics, be providers of birth control (and the appropriate counseling for use of birth control).
If birth control as an idea offends, well, such offense is largely irrational. Deal with it, and perhaps ponder for a bit why one's own personal beliefs ought not be law of the land.
5
For most employers pregnancy is an extra expense and often means replacement or turnover. None of these would be seen as good things for the workplace. So American business please be selfish and serve your own interests and continue to provide birth control as part of your employee health plan.
2
This regulation will end up costing employers MORE money, because Trump didn't also end the mandate for providing maternity care. Trump's tiny brain doesn't realize this, but women who get pregnant have only 2 choices: Get an abortion or give birth. The result of this regulation: an increase in abortions, and also an increase in employer costs for maternity care payments.
I predict most employers will continue covering contraceptive costs. It is a lot cheaper than the alternative.
This regulation is very contrary to the Republican agenda because it will increase business costs and also increase the number of abortions. The only Republican agenda aspect to this regulation is it is anti-women. This obviously was enough for Trump. Being anti-women is so important to him, he is willing to increase abortions and also increase business costs.
3
Is Trump a pious religious observer? No. He is a shareholder and CEO.
It is exactly the Republican agenda, because it increases control by corporations over humans.
They don't care about religion. That is a ruse and a con. Global billionaires control 75% of all shares, and the more power the corporations have the more power global billionaires have.
Read between the lines and follow the money and the power.
1
Will these same organizations that have strong religious beliefs about birth control be required to divest (pensions plans,etc) from all companies that make birth control such as Bayer, Teva? You bet they won't. They will profit from birth control but not allow their employees to have access to it. Hobby Lobby was invested in these companies at the time of the so-called Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision. LADIES: Get your IUDs placed now.
9
Same old. Same old. Anything to undo any progress made during the last administration that made the lives of average people better. Anything that caters to the demands of businesses who want everything their way. Anything to bring attention to himself for his small number of supporters.
6
That sword cuts two ways. Identify establishments that do not provide birth control coverage and refuse to be a customer, contractor or employee of these firms. What insurance companies would offer such plans? Identify these companies as well and refuse to buy stock in these insurance companies.
Trump and his cadre lost the popular election, turn off their oxygen. Treat them as the social pariahs they deserve.
What we need is a universal marker to identify hidden Trump cohorts and fellow travelers--an app to assist us in our business dealings.
3
The left fails to see that many intelligent women thoughtfully disagree, and no longer can accommodate politics that enforce sexual "freedom" and "live and let live." We morally object, based on a system of thought that is cohesive and reasonable.
It's not all about your sex life, your sexual preferences, and your desire to have it paid for by employers or taught to young children in public schools. This experiment of freedom is a few decades old, and disastrous to our families and our children. It began in the universities that have become our new churches (their archaic traditions taken from the Catholic Church, by the way) and the left fails to see the zealotry and worship of a system of thought that, in historical terms, is truly untried.
Out of wedlock births and abortion are both down. But not as much in red States, because your backwards policies cause pregnancies and abortions.
The constitution is not based on religion. It specifically says that you cannot use the government to impose your religious beliefs.
Religion is too nebulous, to open to interpretation to be used as a basis for legal argument. Any religious text can and often are used to justify any behavior.
The point of representative government under or condition is to make logical arguments based on facts, not beliefs.
The crusade of three religious right is anti constitution, and Trump who is not religious at all, is using you because he is also anti constitution, but for reasons of shear power.
3
You are entitled to your beliefs, but do not force them on others. Universities teach and conduct science and critical thinking and reasoning, not religion. They are not our new churches. It is poverty, discrimination and lack of good education, including effective sex ed, that is disastrous for families and children. If true and tried religion becomes the law of the land, we’ll soon be back to the Inquisition and witch hunts.
2
Although I disagree with you, I respect your opinion and the thought that went into it.
This effort by republicans seems to reinforce a religious belief that life is sacred and may not be harmed or prevented in any case. I can't think that any woman really wants to believe she can get pregnant and abort her child simply on a whim or a lark. Looking at the Hyde Amendment, written by republican Henry Hyde and endorsed by republican leadership, it permits abortion in certain circumstances...other circumstances where abortion is permitted under law are in the cases of rape, incest and were added by President Clinton. But, then as now, religious belief about women and their child bearing ability and duty, are colored by the fact that power and control of life (selling guns to the Contra's/lying about it to Congress) is really in the hands of men with power, like Hyde.....so....whose decision is it and when? Not really clear here. When women's health is in danger, it is permitted, when women want to prevent pregnancy, it is not supported.....preventing pregnancy and doing so is a private decision between a man and a woman....did someone say that it is not necessary to "breed like rabbits"....yes....responsible parenthood, yes.....let's think about this without the pandering the Trump administration is fostering. Let's think about the children who are starving to death and who need food and water...let's think about how we can become more RESPONSIBLE to each other and to ourselves....let's stop and think.....it is our responsibility to those children we bear.
3
I am so disgusted with our moronic government -this is just one straw to
break my back - there are so many. How dare they tamper with our hard won rights and pull us back to a darker age of ignorance. We must begin to elect people of substance to government - we have a huge breakdown going on and our democracy is failing. Where are the statesmen and women with clear voices and sensible values? There is nothing exceptional about us right now - we've lost our way.
6
The sick sad part is the reason they are doing this now at THIS particular time. It's so obvious it's a little surprising that everyone keeps falling for it. We just had one of the worst massacres in our history...again. The Whitehouse doesn't want to address or discuss it and may do only the bare minimum that the NRA allows if that. They tossed this little gem out to get everyone, especially the left to focused on something no Trump supporters care about. They did this to take focus away from Mueller whose interviewing Steel about his infamous dossier on Trump. This is what they do.
Donald J Trump may be the worst president in U.S. history but he's also a master at avoiding real work by doing something horrible. Please media don't lose your focus on guns. The courts will be busy challenging this latest unconstitutional move by Trump.
4
I was with you until you said the focus should be guns.
Trump is out to destroy the constitution, and make himself permanent president. Half of Republicans are ok with delaying the 2020 election.
He is dismantling our Republic from the inside out. Gun control is important, but saving the rule of law, the constitution, and the institutions that turn democracy into action is the priority.
The majority, even of NRA members, want reasonable gun regulation. But until we return the Republic back to the control of the people, taking it back from the global billionaires who make 90% of all political "donations" and therefore 90% of policy, none of the other things we want can happen.
The Democrats shut down congress to protest guns, but not to keep their supreme court seat. Now Gorsuch week make gun control harder.
Democracy is under direct attack, and had been since before Trump.
Focus on the big picture.
1
Wait? I thought Ivanka Trump was going to be the voice of working women? Did she forget to whisper in her dad's ear on this one? So she's a fraud too? So she's a completely cynical self-serving phony too? What a dissapointment. I'm shocked! I'm hope she doesn't try to move back to NYC and go back to her old life, the citizens of this city aren't going to forget. Better get used to Seamless/Caviar delivery and Netflix, because going out to eat, the movies, just about anywhere isn't going to be a pleasant experience. She may have to move to Alabama.
5
Just as with the Hyde Amendment concerning abortion, a right to use contraceptives is not a right that insurance buy them.
1
Dear American People: This is just a temporary attack on all that we value that we will need to endure for the next few years. Stay stead....fight....RESIST. Each loss just makes us stronger
4
Great. Let's divide the country by religious beliefs. But I want a list of every "religious" company that denies birth control. Because they are "religious," they should receive no government contracts and they should be boycotted by anyone who believes in the separation of church and state. And the instant their behavior shows that they are not religious, this protection should be revoked.
3
The whole thing is hypocrisy. When in my long life has mankind finally banned all war and nukes. I haven't got much longer to wait. I've heard many declare their anticipation of going to heaven. We should first make heaven on earth. Denying a woman the healthcare she needs is just another kind of war - against women.
4
I see the strong hand of Pence in every bit of this.
302
And President Pence is the reason I don't want Trump out of office before or close to the next presidential election. He's bad enough now but he'll be a whole lot worse as president.
2
Hard to believe that in less than a year this Administration – and I use the term very loosely – has set us back decades, if not more.
3
Trump slogan: Make Women Second-Class Citizens Again!
6
So, may pacifists now prohibit the use of their tax dollars by the military?
14
If you don't believe in birth control, don't use it.
If you don't believe in abortions, don't have them.
But do not impose your religious beliefs on the rest of us!
18
No birth control coverage + Viagra coverage = more unwanted pregnancies.
If there are any populations under threat, it is women, LBGT, minorities, and immigrants. White, Republican men are still in power, and are working very hard to subjugate everyone else.
Why do they hate everyone so much?
8
You do know that there are natural remedies for ED other than Viagra? What's the natural form of birth control?
They don't hate everyone else.
They are just indifferent to everything except their own power and wealth.
They look on the rest of us as insects.
2
Impressive courage from a man who fought the STD war in the sixties, bone spurs and all.
5
What ever happened to the doctrine of separation of church and state?
I guess publicly owned/traded companies are in fact people as Mitt once opined, and they too can impose their religious beliefs [or find yet another way to save money on a benefit once called health care] on their employees.
I trust male sexual enhancement pills will also not be covered.
6
I wonder what Murphy would say to this?
1
What we need is freedom FROM religion, especially when the religious wrong and its sanctimonious hypocrites are dictating what is acceptable.
9
Ain't it great, thanks be to the GOP for taking us back to the 1950s. is that what they mean be being conservative-- turn back the clock? What is hilarious considering the past mating behavior of Dear Leader, presumably his ladies friends used plenty of birth control and who knows there may have been some abortions we don't know about. I suppose Mr. Hobby Lobby who is a devout very traditional Catholic may be behind this. He sued under O admin.
6
Don’t cover birth control.
Don’t teach comprehensive sex ed.
Don’t expand Medicaid.
Don’t fund Planned Parenthood.
Slash federal grants to orgs working to decrease teen pregnancy rates.
You have to wonder who is really being 'targeted, bullied and silenced.”
15
Well, if they are allowing themselves to be targeted, bullied and silenced then what can you do?
Would that Margaret Sanger could reverse Trump`s anti-birth control movement! That good woman of almost 100 years ago, is spinning in her grave at Donald Trump`s plan to deny women insurance coverage for contraception and the erosion of civil rights protections for millions of Americans. President Trump and his regressive Republican administration - the triumph of macho superiority and wealth, misogyny personified - cannot yet imagine the horrific toll illegal abortions will once again take of women, the bearers of America`s future generations.
5
Not only illegal abortions but the increase in purchasing contraception over the internet from dubious sources.
These ignorant men open their mouths, stuff comes out, and they have no idea how this is going to work. I've yet to hear anything that comes out of any GOP'ers mouth and dRumpy's mouth that is complete. I'm sick of the 'wait and see' phrase. What that really means is "I've no idea yet but if all you people keep talking and giving me ideas, I can use them and 'pretend' that they were mine:.
2
Can closely-held corporations with atheist owners hire only atheists?
9
The GOP birth control equations
1) Less birth control = more abortions
If the GOP takes away abortion rights the equation changes
2) Less birth control = more people on welfare or homeless
The American society under GOP government will take a spiral downward fall !
7
I´m wondering how many employers will turn religious...
8
So what to do if I can't get birth control and if I get pregnant, can't get an abortion? Abstinence clearly doesn't work - just ask Tim Murphy, John Edwards, Scott DesJarlais.
7
Yeah, that $10 a month for bc really throws your monthly budget out of whack, right?
Please. Stop already.
3
I bet Tim Murphy wishes his mistress had employer-sponsored contraception. Who voted for these guys? Hello, college-educated women? Look your daughters in the eyes and explain your vote to them.
6
Can one imagine if their was a Muslim President who did this? Complete outrage! So people who enjoy their jobs working for non-profits, that have a religious component, quit their jobs? This is a direct attack on women. Birth Control has always existed, just like abortions, and the GOP government won't be able to stop this. I am confident that the lawsuits will win. To impose someone's religious beliefs on another person is unconstitutional, this will not win. This will alter the look of the country faster...more brown a lot quicker. They will regret this and why do I have to pay for their male enhancements. Wives need to have a no sex strike because of this mess.
5
So, LGBTQ and women who have sex without having children are the ones expected to turn the other cheek. . .
6
Without ANY insurance coverage at all, the cost of a 30-day supply of birth control at Wal-mart is $3.99. Why is this even an issue??
6
Other forms of contraception cost a lot more than $4 a month.
Contraceptive pills are also prescribed for other uses than birth control.
1
It’s an “issue??” because your numbers are wrong:
http://health.costhelper.com/birth-control-pills.html.
Read the whole thing.
It’s also an issue because it allows employers to legally hide behind dubious claims of religious objection so as to ensure a higher profit at the expense of women’s health. It also opens the door for employers to not have to purchase insurance plans that cover chemotherapy or mastectomies or other expensive procedures.
Does anyone really need that to be pointed out? Seriously?
2
That link is 5 years old. That being said, I just looked at walmart.com and they offer nine different 28 day prescriptions for $9.00 I stand corrected.
Will our society allow this administration to get away with promoting oppression and injustice, and for how long?
7
Birth control and civil rights have harmed more people than guns. Right.
Every day of this administration is a step backwards.Dark ages, here we come.
Actually, we're already there.
2
Disgusting. Plain and simple. This administration is fueled by cruelty, vindictiveness, misogyny, and bigotry. One can only hope that they will pay with their souls and 2018 or 2020 will bring some hope to women, children, and the LGBTQ community.
5
Fair is fair! If there is no assistance for women to have birth control,taxpayers should not have to pay for Viagra!
2
What’s the administration’s problem with us? Why can’t they just let us be and stop attacking us for one darn moment? I’m trying to live here, but clearly, Trump would rather have all of us either in military uniforms or red dresses and white winged hats. What are we even supposed to do now? Weather out the Cheeto in Chief’s reign? Take to the streets, hold signs, and yell until our lungs give out? Jump off a bridge now before it gets even worse? It seems Trump and his cronies would rather like us all to take the last option.
5
Here's a scenario. Trump made a deal with Putin that in exchange for destroying the US Trump would be made a baguzillionaire in Russia, he would be able to play golf on the course Putin will build within the walls of the Kremlin, he will be encouraged to grab the privates of every woman in the entire nation, he will be provided with a clear plastic hat so that his hair can be seen but never mussed by the wind and, he will be provided with a pure gold house with his very own golden golf cart and nude female driver.
7
This is nothing more complicated than the dismantling of the ACA. The,GOP can't get it together to repeal & replace so they will pick the ACA apart but by bit. Bonus: throw a huge bone to evangelicals as part of the Trump 2020 campaign. Next: Roe.
6
If you are not a Catholic you can be fired from holding a position in the Catholic Church. I believe this will be used by Catholic institutions and facilities and colleges. If you are in a Catholic Hospital you can be sent home if you have a miscarriage and you can carry out that procedure all by yourself or with others. I wonder how many people are told they would be sent home from a Catholic Hospital if they had a miscarriage. Yeah I believe they were going to a Catholic Hospital to have a baby.
2
This is Trump's revenge for the Woman's March. It's not about anything more. The man ALWAYS gets even.
7
Yet more evidence od Trump's disrespect for women.
Men play, women pay, and pay, and pay ...
7
The decision will lead to more abortions, sexually transmitted disease, and children on welfare. Our government will not be confused with a think tank.
7
If the administration were truly concerned of this issue, they would use taxpayer funds to pay for birth control so that employers that chose to discriminate against the legitimate health needs of their employees would not be harmed. That they failed to avail themselves of this obvious solution means that the Trump administration are a bunch of flaming hypocrites.
4
I don't believe there is an administration anymore, just a old boys club with a lot of towel thwacking going on.
1
To Diane Black and all who think her words ring true I say this:
End the persecution of ordinary Americans who for years have been seeking only the freedom to live in accordance with their TRUE SELF, free from government interference.
If you want freedom to express your faith, so be it, but you cannot have that at the expense of someone else's freedom. That, my dear Diane, is hypocrisy and I doubt very much your beloved faith teaches you to preach it.
4
“Religious freedom is the right to believe and worship as you see fit,” Mr. Katskee said. “It’s never the right to use government to impose costs, burdens or harms on other people. You can’t use the government to make other people pay the price for your religious beliefs or practices.”
This should be in the first paragraph. This is government imposing costs or burdens on other people. It is wrong and will be shot down in court.
4
Trump doesn't care about birth control. He did this because Obama issued the mandate. Plus, he has no soul.
7
Under Trump and the republicans religion has become a massive vehicle for a level of hypocrisy beyond the imagination. Religion? What about feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick ... ? This current version of 'a la carte' morality makes me vomit. Rest assured; in the next life, there is a special place for those who, tho able to help, choose to turn their back on suffering. Enjoy your fancy homes and cars and clothes. For now.
2
But just as long as they don’t touch the gun laws, everything’s cool right?
2
Hmm, I suppose this means a Southern Baptist restaurant owner will be able to refuse to serve atheists, or perhaps even Methodists.
1
Next:
state-funded "Christian" charter schools remove science from their curricula.
6
.......they do not understand?
If God is our father....a father's love is unconditional ....cann't they see....that "guidance on religious freedom that critics said could erode civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people"...is not what God would do....it is pure bigotry.........it is mean......
Apparently liberals think women across the country are too stupid to figure out how to procure birth control on their own without it being another freebie from the government. How about setting aside a little extra in your FSA (generics run around $10/month), or if it's that important to you, find another employer who will pay for your birth control. It's a free country.
The irony is, when used as birth control, the intended purpose is to stop the body from working how it is supposed to. The exact opposite of why doctors prescribe drugs. And I know birth control is used for other things, which would still be covered under any insurance plan.
1
No.
What we think is that someone who refuses to acknowledge the positive effect the birth control mandate has had on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of abortions is stupid.
Every man/woman for him/herself has never been effective social policy. Give people incentives, and society always benefits, whether it's for insuring the use of birth control or insuring that people vote.
5
Iowa, which grabs more from the federal till than what it contributes, whining that women are on the take for government freebies.
Hysterical.
4
“we will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore.”
By people of faith I assume he means devout Christians, because the last time I checked, he was targeting and bullying Muslims.
7
“We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore.” Actually I think Trump meant to say, White Christians. I have yet to see any data on the number of NFL players who don’t worship the Flag due to their Christian beliefs, yet it was solely packaged as disrespect to our Nation and hailed unpatriotic, purposely bullying Black players. I have yet to hear the administration speak out against the violence and bullying of American Muslims. I have yet to see the embrace of my beloved scriptures found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John executed in tweets. When I see a rally, I don’t see Love only self adulation, when I see a rally, I don’t see forgiveness only “lock her up!” When I listen to Conservative news all I hear is how bad the Black man was in office negating the beautiful story of the Good Samaritan irrespective of skin or status. Religious freedom hogwash. I think they mean Republican freedom and forget my beloved scriptures say, “God is no respect of persons.” I discarded my last book written by a Pastor and while some of his teachings will remain in my heart always, his support of this ungodly, administration will never be understood. He knows the power belongs to God, he knows that he who the Son sets free is free indeed, yet he applauds this foolishness. The good news is the Bible told us this stuff would happen so I refuse to faint. It’s funny that Obama was the antichrist, but now Trump is an advocate for religious freedom.....puhleeeese.
4
I guess women are supposed to abstain but it's ok for men to have sex. With whom?
5
Where is Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump? After all wasn't she in charge of "women's issues"?
286
"she in charge of "women's issues"?"
Ivanka has made it clear that there are women and there are 'women'.
Just like for her father there are Americans and there are 'Americans'.
Besides, she is rich, so it doesn't affect her, and being rich gives her the option of moving to an enlightened country if need be.
1
She is simply the bizarre victim of her daddy's strange affection for her.
2
She is checking in with her rabbi to see if she can take birth control.
1
This isn’t protection for religious freedom. It’s a bill of rights for bigotry.
12
Time for Congress to act.
Heartless -no contraception, no healthcare for those born.
No relationship between the growing human population and globalwarning.
Time for many a conversation.. BUT mostly time for women to start calling the shots.
8
The First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion. That exercise is not limited to the interior of a church. We don't force people who believe Thou Shalt Not Kill to be infantry soldiers.
Women who want their employer to pay for their birth control are free to change jobs.
Save the Bill of Rights.
1
First of all, there is no draft any longer, so the fact is that no one is forced to be in the military. And please, you’re going to argue that no Christian (i.e., someone who by definition believes “sincerely” in the Ten Commandments) would ever fight - and kill - for his country? No, don’t even go there.
Allowing people to cherry pick certain religious beliefs to rationalize their prejudices, while ignoring other so called religious beliefs, would create legal mayhem. Prejudice is not a constitutional right.
2
The employer doesn't pay for the birth control. The insurance company does.
It's far cheaper for them than paying for pregnancies and births.
Health care is a right, and birth control is part of it.
Reliugious freedeom is the freedom to worship an imaginary god. It is not freedom to use religion as an excuse to deny rights to others.
1
If a company makes business decisions based on their deeply held religious beliefs, does that mean, if I have one of those company's credit cards, I can ignore the interest charges because they violate my deeply held religious beliefs against Usery.
7
So if somebody works for a business owned by Mormons...does that mean the health Insurance Policy they provide Employees no longer cover any treatment that involves Blood Transfusions?
As it is against their beliefs to give or receive blood, I guess anybody who works for a Mormon Business had better hope they will ever need just about any Surgery covered...
Freedom of Belief does NOT nor should ever mean the imposition of another's beliefs upon another which is exactly what is happening with birth control supplied in an Employer Health Plan for Employees.
It is a Health Plan for the Employee and not an instrument or extension of the Employers Religious Beliefs and never should be.
5
I do want to avoid wallowing in trump's swamp and stay on higher ground but I also would like to see some of the sordid history the man must have left in his wake before his latest fembot uncovered, a la Murphy, just to bring some non-fake reality into the diatribe. Huge 'paywall' to get past I'm sure. Hello - Anonymous - are you there?
Stopped shopping at Hobby Lobby for their sliminess and will keep on avoiding these fellow swamp dwellers as much as possible.
3
From a males prospective, I feel that is solely the woman choice to use birth control. Birth control gives a woman control of their bodies and somewhat tags along to the first amendment. Any laws that differ this right is completely unjust. As a man its easier for me to buy a condom and a gun than to buy contraception for my wife in the state of Tennessee. I can find a condom right next to the candy aisle. A woman's contraception is behind bulletproof glass, need a letter from her doctor, and two forms of ID. It shows our priorities in this country is out of whack.
5
Please please can we call for a vote of No Confidence.
2
Y'all want this problem fixed?
Let's use rich democratic donor money to hep relocate liberal coastal dwellers to swing states.
Heck, with all that money getting spent on elections it shouldn't be too hard to relocate 80,000 or so voters.
People who live in an enlightened environment would have no desire to relocate to a swamp of ignorance, superstition, and bigotry.
2
Every day it's more despicable hypocritical moves by Donald Trump. I don't think I have ever hated anyone like I hate him. Any business that goes along with this misogynist decision I plan to boycott.
6
Stupid policy...both birth control and abortion are needed and should not be doled out either by government mandate or by corporations. I would think they would be happy, speaking of companies, if people wish to use birth control, so they do not take off all the time they usually hold against women! Totally stupid policy decisions as usual from the right.
3
I'm glad to know that we have have "religious freedom" in this country. I'm Jewish. Since Christianity is against my sincerely held religious beliefs, can I discriminate against Christians?
7
More than a simple backlash, this is an UltraLash. Who knew there were so many small-minded frightened people looking for Big Brother to tell them how to live? No matter what, they are not the majority, and this too shall pass.
6
What I don’t understand is which religious freedoms we respect. What if I have a profound and deeply held belief that pot opens our souls to God? And my Christian belief leads me to believe that bread becomes the flesh of Jesus when consumed with peyote?
3
The most outrageous element of this pandering to so-called "religious objection" among Christians is that at its heart the religion actually discourages Christians from objecting to people or their actions on any basis--from belittling, ignoring, shaming, and discriminating against them. Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-3) It is entirely un-Christian to behave as if there is a valid excuse for "religious objection" to anyone else's perceived "sin."
5
These backward theocrats can't legislate reproductive freedom out of women's lives. There will always be a way to move forward. No real turning back the clock, even if the Spanish Inquisition gets involved. Another last gasp.
4
When you voted Republican, You elected those with narrowest of minds, They only think of their own hides, How can I get re-elected! Democracy will not be had until there are Term Limits for Politicians!
1
We already have term limits. If you don't like a politician vote he or she out!
1
The religious right and all faiths that want to stick their nose in politics have used voting blackmail to inject religion into our State of affairs.. It says clearly in the constitution there shall be no attempt at creating a church state. We are free to worship anyway we please. We are not free to blackmail politicians to inflict our religious beliefs upon others.. Do I have this right? These folks have risen to the level of science deniers and attacking other practices to address humanity. Do they not become an enemy to say the "Originalists" on the Supreme Court? You know the guys who believe the constitution as written is the whole word. They have defended the right to choose. Yet those who attack our constitution with holy robes on get invited to lunch in Capital houses where no one seems to want to tell them the truth.. That what they want, although extremely important to them.. They just cannot go against the words of the constitution. Otherwise they could be considered traitors. Especially since they are attempting to manipulate the vote by getting their followers to reconsider their vote. Well it may not be money and hard to prosecute but I'd say that is blackmail and should be considered a crime. Sounds naïve doesn't it ? Yeah pretty stupid. Maybe I don't know how the world works... Or maybe I do know how it should work because my god isn't a strong armed self serving holyman of the type the Christian Jesus expelled from the temple steps.
2
Where's the religious voice on the left on this?
2
It's curious how religions...all religions, manage to cause so much pain and do so much harm. I resent every dollar of my tax money that goes to any religion...here or abroad.
9
Hope these provisions would also be welcome and adopted by other Christian majority countries, especially those with acute manpower shortages. Is it not strange that while Christians still continue to be the largest religious group in the world, there is not even a single Christian country? In contrast, Muslims, the second largest group, have more than 50 Islamic countries(OIC). Then there is neither a Hindu nor a Buddhist country any where in the world? Any answers???
How does "religious liberty" give people the right to discriminate against others? Why are "people of faith" so against others that choose to use birth control? If you are against birth control, then don't practice it.
Birth control is family planning and I don't know anyone that doesn't plan on having the number of children they can support.
This administration is intent on turning back the clock and making sure that women stay "barefoot and pregnant."
3
So who didn't see this coming?
Middle America voted for this, and Trump is giving it to them. Gorsuch, these rulings, the whole catastrophe.
Except for the middle America that cast those extra 3 million votes for Mrs. Clinton. Or whose voting places were not hacked by GOP operatives and the KGB . . . . Funny how Trump's margins of "victory" were so oddly the same in certain states.
How a red-faced old roue can make decisions on birth control --.
3
So men get coverage for Viagra, but women must pay for contraception? CHIP has lapsed so 9 million children no longer will receive health insurance. Maternity expenses also are on the chopping block. The people in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands apparently don't need food or potable water. And all of this is to support a pro-life policy? Silly me. I thought that food, water and health care were essential to life, which is guaranteed by the Constitution along with liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I guess that is only for the rich, white men who so desperately need tax relief.
4
Employers should no more be forced to pay for contraception than they should be forced to pay for abortions.
1
Health insurance for an employee is part of that employee's benefit package. Most employees pay a portion of the premium.
It's none of the employer's business how that coverage is used.
Your argument is false anyway. The real purpose of this action is to pander to the GOP's evangelical base, a segment of the population that is misogynist and patriarchal.
It's a cynical action meant to garner votes.
1
What I want to know is when are they going to clue the Fundie females in?
This also applies to poor, RELIGIOUS women, too, who have to work.
Unless they have 15 children as my grandmother did, then they have been using something - and will continue to do so.
1
The Americsn people voted for the Repubs and Trump and they should enjoy the consequences.
The American people voted against Trump by three million votes.
The reactionary Electoral College put Trump in office.
2
No, they voted for Hillary Clinton, but the Electoral College decided otherwise.
1
This maladministration is moving the country backwards and seeks to destroy what progress has been made over the last 50 years. Remember that at election time. Show up and vote all the facilitators (Republicans) out at every level, local, state, and federal. All 2017, 2018, and 2020 elections are important. Register and show up and vote.
3
I hope this is the last straw for Millennials and they will actively move towards putting a stake through the heartless heart of the party of Stupid before their freedoms and prosperity are hindered for ever. What has this government done for you? Goldman Sacks and private equity has bought up all of the starter foreclosed housing inventory. Corporate profit over people lead states to never restored state contributions to college education after the great recession. Borrowing rates for education exceed the rates for 10 year treasuries, and home loans. Medical costs are high because Congress has done nothing to control input costs. They have burden every aspect of your 20-35 life. When are you going to push back? Do your mothers and grandmothers have to show you the way! This government is making it hard to be young and old.
2
This is one thing that can always be counted on: no one ever compromises when it comes to women's issues. It truly shows our place in the U.S.A.
2
If software programs like Waze can track traffic conditions on any road, surely some clever software genius can make an app that warns women what doctors and healthcare practices will discriminate against them, and help them avoid going there. It's not much of a solution to these Neanderthal vote-grabbing inhuman tactics, but it might help. Same for businesses. If you discriminate on the basis of whatever, which is really what this is about, people will know you for it and won't do business with you. Just wait for "non-discrimination" requirements to be added to purchasing contracts. The large majority of this country that supports LGBT people has tools, let's use them.
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"The contraceptive coverage mandate, issued by the Obama administration under the Affordable Care Act..."
"The rules issued on Friday prompted more lawsuits and threats of lawsuits."
editor's note: the contraceptive coverage mandate, issued by the obama administration _and passed by congress_ under the affordable care act...
i believe that many members of congress, in addition to mr. ryan and ms. black, will have opinions on this matter, at least in private, and that some might be willing to legally counter the actions of the department of HHS. why not quote a few more members, if they are willing to speak on record?
...
'[ms. gupta] also called the new contraception policy “a direct attack on women’s rights.”'
because of the possibility of child support payments and payments for children in general, access to birth control is also an issue of liberty and equality for men as well--and men are 1/2 of the population, and more than 1/2 of the workforce. limiting liberty and equality is a direct attack on men's rights too.
And who possesses the sincerity-o-meter, to gauge which beliefs are sincerely held enough?
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Word by word. Brick by brick. Thought by thought. Donald Trump and his owners are dismantling our government right under our very noses. As we all stand by helplessly and simply watch. Does anybody wonder why? Does anybody care? Why are Democrats so silent, and why do they not even raise objections? There is something very strange going on..............
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Cruelty gratis, one of crooked lying Trump's favorite pastimes, in removing coverage for birth control pills, alleging religious freedom from government? What is really needed is secular freedom FROM religion, not the other way around. Do we really need to face unwanted pregnancies, with the potential for abortions, just because of the smallish, petty withdrawal of coverage. Misogyny all over again. Shameful.
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At least they're consistent.
To stop abortions, stop providing birth control.
To stop gun violence, sell more guns.
To solve income inequality, give tax breaks to the rich.
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Favoring any one religion, sect, Creed or philosophy is not "religious freedom."
It is "religious oppression."
This runs counter to one of the most basic American ideas.
THIS is what opens the door for Sharia Law, though it looks like we'll get the Christian version first.
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The inhumanity of these people is frightening.
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In response to...."“No American should be forced to violate his or her own conscience in order to abide by the laws and regulations governing our health care system,"........there should always be separation between church and state......the state provides all to have freedom of choice.....not to protect a religious view.......
I hope that all the women who voted for Donald Trump never need to get birth control through their employer or their sisters never need to get birth control through their employers or their daughters or their mothers or their friends never need to get birth control from their employers…
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How does one measure a "Sincerely" held religious belief? I am also wondering if the "I am a Christian-First" Attorney General has included Lepers on his list of untouchables?
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