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ThreshingMachine commented on the blog post Religious University Abruptly Drops Birth Control Coverage
Follow her @Terryoneill
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ThreshingMachine commented on the blog post Religious University Abruptly Drops Birth Control Coverage
The left is going to lose the argument as long as it falls for the strawman set up by the right, in which the Administration is portrayed as the bad actor, repressing the freedoms of the church or religious employer; when in fact the White House is correctly acting to protect the freedoms of the individual employee or insured against the imposition of the doctrinal will of the employer.
The only one I see trying to reframe this is Terry O’Neill:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-oneill/crazy-train-headed-off-th_b_1277586.html
“The conservative talking point of the moment is that this fight is about religious liberty. Religious institutions do have important rights in our democracy. But their rights must be weighed against individual women’s rights and against our society’s shared interest in public health. Thus, a religiously affiliated employer’s first amendment rights must be weighed against: women’s constitutional rights to religious freedom (1st Amendment), privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut), and equal protection (14th Amendment); women’s statutory rights against sex discrimination (Title VII) and pregnancy discrimination (Pregnancy Discrimination Act) in the workplace; the increasingly recognized international human right to unfettered access to basic health care (and birth control is obviously basic health care for women); and society’s interest in assuring public health, a key aspect of which is availability of family planning.
“Looks like the scale is weighed heavily in favor of a woman’s right to birth control access. Additionally, religious entities do not have blanket immunity from every law and regulation in the land that conflicts with their tenets, so why should this directive be any different? Oh, that’s right — this one affects women.”
We need more of this.
