Health care providers who depend on federal aid to operate may soon be required to certify that they will not discriminate against doctors, nurses, or any other employees who object to administering birth control and abortion services. In turn, the proposed rule by the Department of Health and Human Services would allow any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception. The New York Times also reports "the new requirement is needed to ensure that federal money does not support morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law."
What is the religious reasoning behind this? Some forms of contraception prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's womb. For members of the religious right, that is classified as abortion because a fertilized egg marks the beginning of "the creation life." In fact, the HHS states the following "definitions" for abortion:
What is the religious reasoning behind this? Some forms of contraception prevent implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's womb. For members of the religious right, that is classified as abortion because a fertilized egg marks the beginning of "the creation life." In fact, the HHS states the following "definitions" for abortion:
Abortion: An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There are two commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy begins. Some consider a pregnancy to begin at conception (that is, the fertilization of the egg by the sperm), while others consider it to begin with implantation (when the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus). A 2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that 49% of Americans believe that human life begins at conception. Presumably many who hold this belief think that any action that destroys human life after conception is the termination of a pregnancy, and so would be included in their definition of the term "abortion." Those who believe pregnancy begins at implantation believe the term "abortion" only includes the destruction of a human being after it has implanted in the lining of the uterus.
The proposal by the HHS basically discredits the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade by making the indication that what a woman does with her body is not a private matter, but rather something the government and complete strangers would have control over. Hospital pharmacists would get away with refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control, and doctors would be able to turn away rape victims who seeks emergency contraception. Remember, this is all in the name of religion. Separation of church and state is a myth, and it always has been.
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 12)
31. Clif K hit it right on the head.
To any mentally challenged conservatives who propose drilling as opposed to clean energy sources, I ask two questions.
What is the Bush administrations own estimate of when, and by how much, this will affect the price of gasoline they buy? Can't answer those question, you've got no right to an opinion!
Same type of questions I had in the 70's for nuclear power advocates...name the three biggest US nuclear power accidents, and how close did they come to meltdown?
How about long term plan and the security risk from putting spent nuclear wastes in unarmored pools outside nuke plants?? Can answer? Your opinion is worth nothing...
Since pea brained Reagan (his chief of staff Donald Regan admitted setting his entire schedule with his wife's astrologer) the critical thinking of this country has just gone to hell.
Third world, here we come!! Ohhh...as one of the "liberal elitists" I guess I should'nt care.
Rich
Rich at 11:10AM on Jul 18th 2008
32. Botts, if only we could grow sugar in the midwest. Sadly our water and weather are more suited to corn, which is a poor material for ethanol.
Myself, I want us off fuel for transportation. Period. I want to render the gas station obsolete. I want to see America take the more energy efficient step of going electric. And yes, I am willing to compromise to see it done. I want to see a works project similar to the superhighway transportation act for power distrabution and rail. I want to see more nuclear plants and a solar panal on the roof of every home and a windmill in every back yard and a chicken in every pot! Wait... I think I am channeling FDR. Sorry.
Corn biofuel sends us off in a poor direction. It drives up food costs, both for consumers and ranchers. It gobbles up a profitable export, driving up demand across the world. It provides less power than it takes to produce it.
We can do better.
Somber at 11:08AM on Jul 18th 2008
33. And now... an analogy!
Say you get into a cab, and it is being driven by a muslim man (forgive the stereotype). You chat and mention that you are carrying a bottle of Jack Daniels. He stops the car immediately and demands you get out, because it offends his religious beliefs.
Try this. You go to an interior decorator because you want to change your room. The decorator and you pick out a color. When you go to the paint store, the employee there insists that it is an ugly color. The manager agrees it is an ugly color and they refuse to mix it. They tell you to get your paint the next town over.
Try this. You're getting your house renovated. The electrician demands that you pay him room by room. After he is done and you've paid him quite a bit of money, he refuses to hook your power up to the grid. Why? Because it offends his religious beliefs. However, he can suggest another electrician who will, after re-rewiring your house room by room.
These analogies are examples for what happens when people let their personal belief trump all other professional concern. The first is pretty straight forward. The second is an example of a pharmacy refusing to prescribe birth control pills. The last is an example facing lesbians in a fertility clinic.
Look. Every one has their own personal beliefs. It's what makes us people. But a consequence of living in a free and diverse culture like America means that we are guarenteed to meet people who violate our sense of order. The first Amendment was installed as protection from religious percecution by our government, not as an escape clause for discimination and bigoted opinion. Getting a prescription for BC isn't a religious act. Denying it and then jumping on the first Amendment to justify that action isn't just immature or unprofessional, it's dangerous. I take a form of birth control... because I am sterile. It helps to regulate my hormones and keep me healthy. If my pharmacist decided to not fill my prescription (the manager thinks it's a hoot to sell BC to a lesbian, so few worries) I would be sincerely fucked. The next pharmacy that will accept my insurance is SIXTY MILES from where I live. And that's hopeing that they'll fill it. To get to an actual city I have to go almost a hundred miles. All to stay healthy.
When people inject their own religious bias into the professional dealings then the result is a mess of injustice and a greater difficulty for the people who are simply trying to live their lives. So stop the discrimination.
Somber at 11:28AM on Jul 18th 2008
34. Botts: read the post carefully before responding in an incorrect, foolish manner.
I did not state that Brazil imports oil; I said Brazil, due to its recent development of bio-fuels and discovery of substantial deep water oil reserves, no longer imports oil and is now energy independent.
Learn to read before you respond Botts. You need to understand past and present.
David Pitlock at 11:55AM on Jul 18th 2008
35. During that time, domestic oil production decreased and our reliance on oil imports increased by 20%.
xxx
And oil prices stabilized under the windfall rate, crap sayer, so the law was no longer useful.
And we began to rely more on exports, you say? At the same time, your boy Ronald Reagan cut tax breaks for burgeoning laissez-faire small startup businesses which provided solar collectors to customers who got tax breaks for installation. Gone with Ronnie, and the Small Business Administration was nearly destroyed too. Instead it was just castrated.
You know, crap sayer, if you want a compelling defense, one to stay away from is pleading for mercy from the court because you're an orphan when you were convicted of murdering your parents.
All you did was agree with what I said about Brazil, crap sayer. They have a 30 year-old home grown sugar cane to ETOH business we could not duplicate. However we could match it with a native non-food crop - hemp. The kind that is optimal produces NO thc - it is another species.
At best, this is an interim solution. The real progress is now being done in very small startup businesses that have virtually no chance unless anti monopoly legislation is reinforced and the SBA is again funded.
These are liberal ideas. Without changing how we have been doing things, the country will continue on its downward spiral. We're third world status on health care, infant mortality and longevity, slid to #42 in the world since Reagan and the deviation from lawful government. I say unlawful because Sherman and Clayton have never been repealed, just disobeyed.
You distorted the windfall profits issue so much I quit reading, crap sayer. Whatever else you wrote is impeached in my mind because of your extremism and your attempt to elevate the emotional tenor. The person that does that in my experience is being less than candid and has a sense of this.
A simple short term fix is to close the enron loophole and impose a windfall profits tax again.
I lived through the Carter administration mostly on the road on a schedule, the same for Ford and Reagan and I had no issues with gasoline prices nor availability because of the windfall profits tax.
The only lines I ever experienced were much earlier during the Nixon administration.
Clif Kuplen at 12:10PM on Jul 18th 2008
36. I say if you are against it than no sex and no masturbating period.
xx
what you say is scientifically accurate.
Also, if destroying life is sinful, then every conception is six million times more sinful than not, and every period marks another sin of non conception.
Anyone saying life begins at conception is welcome to try to fertilize a live ovum with dead sperm or vice versa or jam a couple o' dead ones together.
Now THAT would be another kind of 'miracle of life'.
Life is continuous. It probably never ever winked completely out and everything living is descended from whatever took hold first, presumably cyanobacteria or later extremophiles.
There is well known scriptural support for abortion in a number of places, so that bus left too.
It's best for the christians to reconcile their religious beliefs with 21st century science. If their religion is genuine, it will survive it.
Clif Kuplen at 12:19PM on Jul 18th 2008
37. This whole tribe of Young Turds, whether Cenk, Ana or whomever must spend DAYS scraping the barrel bottom for some anti-conservative "scoop." The ruling doesn't "obstruct a patient's access to birth control nor the killing of their babies," it just doesn't FORCE a health care provider to administer a drug or procedure they consider moarlly wrong. If somebody wants to kill their baby, there are TONS of providers who will do it for them. All they have to do is go next door. It's called free choice.
U R Kiddin Mee at 12:23PM on Jul 18th 2008
38. #26 Botts says: "Almost every single car now in Brazil is a flex fuel car. All gas stations sell ethanol. They have essentially elimanted gasoline for cars."
Uhh dumb, dumb...ethanol is a filler/expander of GASOLINE. It is not an alternative fuel by itself. The limits of drivability are about 12-15% ethanol mixed in with GASOLINE. You should do your research before you get all pompous, then sound like you're talking out of your arse.
Lizard at 12:27PM on Jul 18th 2008
39. You and I both know primary and secondary public school systems in this country are run by big liberals, like yourself and even bigger, tyrannical, left-wing teachers unions, like the NEA, who are opposed to school choice and every
other form of educational competition which might disrupt their cozy little educational monopoly.
Nice try, big guy.
xxx
Do you have the names of any of these big liberals you blame?
I disagree that the teachers' union is left wing. Also if you think it is, what is your solution? Do you want more legislation to regulate them? Would this be at taxpayers' expense too?
You'd have to define left wing, set apart why you're not left wing and go from there. I'm not at all interested in dittohead language since there's plenty of argument that the republican party is far to the left of the democratic party.
That's right, that's what I said and I've posted why many times over.
How do these unnamed Big Liberals have more accountability than our elected government officials? Also why, since they existed under a very right wing congress and exec and judicial branch. Are you saying these Big Liberals are more powerful than an all republican government?
Hold on here, is this some kind of Conspiracy Theory??
since it may have resulted in anthrax attacks, you need to factor in no child left behind and funding cuts because ketchup is a vegetable, and the sudden flowering of standardized testing from a multimillion dollar business to a multibillion dollar business while funding was cut to NCLB and only the mandates remained.
But as always the conservative is the blamer.
Nothing that happened to the citizenry under corporatization and abandonment of constitutional obligation is in any way to blame on the perpetrators. Nope, that was the nearest liberal.
It is definitely time for a new act. I think you've killed vaudeville once again.
We already know you can play the hell out of a full orchestration of Don't Blame Me, but your boy is also pretty convincing on Portrait Of A Fool.
You guys might want to stick to bluegrass instrumentals and Max Reger marches, with a bit o' gilbert and sullivan here and there. We won't think you're gay, honest.
Clif Kuplen at 12:42PM on Jul 18th 2008
40. "since it may have resulted in anthrax attacks, you need to factor in no child left behind..."
This is my all time favorite nutjob consipiracy theory. Thanks for trotting it out of the stable, Clif.
Please elaborate for the uninitiated, will yah?
bob at 1:12PM on Jul 18th 2008
41. LOONS-LOONS LOONS--LEFTWING LOONS--IS THIS THE OFFICIAL GEO SOROS WEBSITE?
harry at 1:20PM on Jul 18th 2008
42. The title of your blog ruins your credibility from the start. Surely you're not stupid enough to think that everyone thinks like you.
brakshere at 1:24PM on Jul 18th 2008
43. Certain algaes have been shown to be among
the best sources of bio-diesel and ethanol.
www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4213775.h...
BOB JOHNSON at 1:24PM on Jul 18th 2008
44. Turk, why do you guys associate anything associated with the sanctity of human life as "religious"? Explain your reasoning on human rights once and for all and enlighten the rest of us to what you mean when YOU use the term. If the right to life itself isn't a human right, then what is?
Heath Griner at 1:39PM on Jul 18th 2008
45. #37Lizard, the people driving 230 mph Indy cars
and 6,000 HP alchohol Rails and Funny Cars would
tend to disagree with you.
BOB JOHNSON at 1:44PM on Jul 18th 2008