There is No War on Women’s Health

I have a rebuttal to this piece...why is Viagra covered by insurance, hmm? The only "benefit" it has isn't exactly lifesaving, to say the least. Yet contraceptives are not? This isn't a "Liberal" issue...it is an issue of fairness. Today's conservatives are rather hypocritical anyway. They preach "family values" they themselves don't really practice, they huff and puff when they can't force other people to pray at events, but attack other faiths, that are not "their own". Insurance is just another page they want to rip out and forget, but the fact is in the end, everyone pays. How else to explain that in standard of living and care, compared to other industrialized nations, we come in dead last?

The United States people subsidise all religions through tax exempt status, so if a religion would like to not follow rules of our country, they should give up their tax exempt status, then they can be truly free, because I for one am sick of subsidising them.

I also disagree that the rule is unconstitutional, if an insurance company (whether self nsured company or not) has a prescription drug plan they have to provide access to birth control.
This is about equality, the very thing our constitution was written to protect.

The actual text of the first ammendment is Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

First: The President is not CONGRESS, so an executive order does not violate this ammendment. The first ammendment specifically states CONGRESS shall, no other ammendment in the bill of rights specifically starts with Congress shall.

Second Congress has violated this many times, for example Rastafarians use marijuana in their religious ceremonies, but it was outlawed. Prohibition was another time, this time the Volsadt Act specifically exempted wine for communion.

Third the constitution was envisioned as a living document, which means it will be interpreted by each generation. When the constitution was written no one could have envisioned the technologies and medicines that would be developed, which means it is up to us to determine the meaning of the 1st ammendment.

Fourth Religion is engagged in insurance business, not Religion when denying prescription coverage Insurance companies are regulated.

Fifth the 1st ammendment can be interpreted many ways, The interpretation I like is the one that I think the founding fathers envisioned, which was to protect the individuals rights, not the Church's.

JD maybe you were a policeman or a worked in a ambulance or you were just a good samaritan??? OK I'm an idiot and you have all the wisdom for your age ---and I’m sure that was a horrible thing you saw with lots of blood and gore, but what you're telling us is, that it is more convenient and cleaner now that we can abort in the hospital... but guess what -- we’ve already murdered more babies in the US than what the Nazi’s managed to kill in all of Europe---so JD bottom line ---what you’re really saying is that now we don’t have to confront the blood and guts of abortion in the back alley because now it’s made clean and antiseptic and convenient! Hmmmmmmm! Maybe women should stay away from people like you too!!!

There has been over 1000 bills in state and federal legislatures in the past year concerning women health care needs. What would you call it? How bout the legislators go after the men for a while and give us women a break. I can think of many things concerning the male, sperm personhood, child support, patrimony, crime for impregnating a woman if you are not married, ban on insurance coverage of Viagra, hate speech by men, violence by men to the public, road rage, rape, sexual child abuse, sexualization of the female and children in tv and movies, music videos. Men create all these things don't they for the most part. Sure there are already laws against some of this but let's go back in and strengthen and amend the laws in existence.

It is amazing to me how many times some group claims their "Religious Freedom" is under attack because they are not allowed to force their religion on others. Nobody mandated that Catholics USE contraceptives. What the rules say is that they cannot force their religion on those who are involved in their secular endeavors. Having the insurance they offer cover the cost of contraception is no more forcing them to pay for contraception than any employee buying contraception out of their own wages is forcing them to pay for it. Actually, with the compromise, since the insurance company is paying, it is even less of an issue. When an employee is forced to pay for contraception out of pocket, that is money that originally came from the church. With the insurance companies picking up the tab, there is no church money going towards it.

No, the issue is an institution taking public money and then expecting to be exempt from the rules that public businesses abide by.

The Court's first opportunity to rule on the validity of governmental financial assistance to a religiously affiliated institution occurred in 1899, the assistance being a federal grant for the construction of a hospital owned and operated by a Roman Catholic order. The Court viewed the hospital as a secular institution so chartered by Congress and not as a religious or sectarian body, thus avoiding the constitutional issue.

"Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches."
-- Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Roman Catholic philosopher

Also, the church has no problem with making viagra available through it's insurance, just not contraception and birth control for women. I guess that's alright though after all jesus did say "go forth and have sex until you're 100 for fun and not for reproductive purposes, but don't you dare think about birth control".....I swear, it's gotta be in the bible somewhere, right religious people? I'm pretty sure most of these people think it's ok to pick and choose which religious teachings to follow and which ones to ignore....yeah, that's what jesus and god had in mind I'm sure.

And the catholic church is run by who? Men, how does it always come back to men saying what women can and cannot do.

I find it most interesting that no women (as far as I can tell) seem to be supporting this position. And, to those who argue this is not an attack on women's rights, how is that? If women under any other employer have access to free contraceptives, their right to equal treatment under U.S. law is affected (i.e.--under attack). Don't try to throw out a smoke screen. This is about the continued pursuit of theocratic rule in America. The Virginia and Pennsylvania "mandatory ultrasound" law is exactly the same thing. I seriously doubt that anyone supports these measures, if they've no religious bias in the first place.

since this is about women's health: hormonal contraception changes your body in ways that are not always good. men just take it for granted that their wives are taking oral contraceptives, when in fact it can be difficult or even harmful for them. why aren't the anti baby pills FOR MEN more popular and accessible.

"Liberal Democrats like to frame opposition to the contraception mandate as against women's rights. The assertion, however, is far from true. " I believe the conservatives were the first one to make such an assertion, instead they said that Liberals were waging war against Christians and Catholics.

Religious people love to say that anything done that the church doesn't agree with is imposing their views on religion, meanwhile when it's religion imposing it's views on everyone else they see no problem with it....blatant hypocrisy. Sometimes I wonder if religious types have even ever read the teachings of jesus christ, since their actions far from reflect what he envisioned for us.

Don't tell me there isn't a war on women's health when Rick Santorum says that prenatal exams encourage abortion. And the Catholic organizations who are supposedly "under attack" receive literally BILLIONS of dollars from the government while not being taxed at all for the money they bring in through donations. I wish the government would attack ME that way!

The extent of an employer's involvement in an employee's health care should be to provide adequate health insurance as part of their compensation and then STAY OUT OF IT. The GOP can't have it both ways, that any sort or national or public Insurance plan is "socialism," to deride it as "Obamacare," then turn around and say that employers ALSO get to decide what will and won't be covered.

This "war on religion" is nothing but rhetorical bullcorn to exploited as a wedge issue in an election year, something to use to convince voters to support politicians against their own interests. Not being able to IMPOSE your religious beliefs on others is NOT oppression! If someone were FORCING people to use birth control you'd have a point, but that isn't the case at all. And it's worth noting that these religious ideologues who oppose birth control also oppose programs to take care of children after they're born. They claim to love fetuses but one it's a baby it's "tough $#!T."

End their tax exemption!

The author specifically says the government might as well bail out low-income women who want contraceptives. This isn't about low income women. It is about employees of the Catholic church and Catholic businesses, who receive their insurance ( they do pay premiums) through their job. Insurance should cover contraceptives. Not all women take them for birth control. Many woman take them to regulate hormones. And some women it is medically dangerous for them to become pregnant. Common sense.

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-- Stephen Roberts

"Appraise the Lord: Tax church property."
-- bumper sticker

I'm willing to bet that if this was an agenda that discriminated against Asians, this author would be screaming bloody murder. I'm also willing to bet he has no problem with insurance policies covering everything related to men's health, in full.