Blog of Rights
Sarah
Lipton-Lubet

Sarah Lipton-Lubet is a policy counsel in the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, where her work focuses on reproductive freedom and women’s rights. Sarah came to the ACLU from the Center for Reproductive Rights, and previously clerked for the Honorable Richard Paez of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as the Honorable Nancy Gertner of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Sarah earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was Symposium Editor of the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A. summa cum laude from Northwestern University in American Studies.

01/20/2012
Using Religion to Discriminate

Score One for Women's Health! Obama Administration Stands Up For Birth Control

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:39pm

Today, the Obama administration announced that it would keep in place a proposed rule that ensures that new insurance plans include contraception coverage.

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12/01/2011

Who’s Abusing Their Power? House Oversight Committee’s Show-Trial Takes HHS to Task for Helping Trafficking Victims

By Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:28pm

In the upside-down, through-the looking-glass world we often find ourselves in, in our nation’s capital, today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing “investigating” why Catholic organizations only received $650 million in grants from the Department of Health and Human Services over the last three years, instead of $650 million and change. Never mind that under this administration, as Rep. Gerry Connolly noted, Catholic groups have gotten $100 million more than under Bush. What brought on this investigation? A several million dollar grant to provide services for human trafficking victims that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops bid on, but did not receive. The bishops and their political allies are crying discrimination. As Rep. John Tierney noted this morning, I’m sure a lot of people would like to be discriminated against like that.

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05/26/2011

ACLU Opposes "Ignorant Doctors" Amendment

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:01pm

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) which undermines medical education and threatens women's health.

The Foxx amendment bars new medical training grants under the Public Health Service Act from being used for training in abortion care. This ideological prohibition runs counter to the standards set out by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which provides that medical education training should include training in abortion procedures.

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10/25/2012
Birth Control Court Cases

Another Challenge to the Federal Contraception Rule, Another Friend-of-the-Court Brief

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:26pm

There are now over 35 lawsuits challenging a federal rule that requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception without a co-pay.

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08/30/2012
Contraception

Religion Doesn’t Justify Discrimination: ACLU Files Brief in Third Contraception Rule Challenge

By Brigitte Amiri, ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project & Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Michael J. Steinberg, Legal Director, ACLU of Michigan & Sarah Mehta, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan at 12:33pm

Another private company – this one sells lawn and snow removal equipment in Michigan – is challenging the federal rule that requires employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception without a co-pay. As we’ve written before, these cases are meritless and harken back to a time that we should not repeat. For example, in 1966, the Piggie Park restaurant in South Carolina refused to serve African-Americans because integration was against the owners’ religious beliefs. The same argument was used to try to get around equal pay and labor protections. The courts did not allow religion to justify discrimination then, and they should not do so now.  

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03/01/2012
Contraception

Victory! Senate Blocks Dangerous Blunt Amendment

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:42pm

Today, the Senate rejected the notion that your boss can decide that you shouldn't have health insurance for cancer screenings, or make you pay out of your pocket for your daughter's vaccinations. But how did such an extreme proposal like the Blunt amendment make its way to the Senate in the first place?

Two words: birth control. In 2012, almost 50 years after the Supreme Court first protected the right to contraception, and although virtually all women, of every religious background, use birth control at some point in their lives, some in Congress are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to roll back access to contraception.

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02/17/2012
Contraception

Wanted: Women on Birth Control, Not Men on Ham Sandwiches

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Dena Sher, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:17pm

Yesterday's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the new HHS rule that requires insurance plans to include birth control with no co-pay (except for those held by churches or religiously affiliated nonprofits like universities) has caused quite a stir. A few observations:

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02/03/2012
Using Religion to Discriminate

Gerson Gets it Wrong on Contraception

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:44pm

Earlier this week, Michael Gerson’s disregard for the health of women and their families appeared once again on the pages of the Washington Post.

The affront? The administration’s announcement that all new health insurance plans — except those held by churches and other houses of worship — will need to include coverage for birth control because it’s essential preventive health care for women.

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11/21/2011
Contraception

Serving the People or the Bishops?

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:15pm

The politically powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have been on an all-out campaign to force their beliefs on the rest of us.

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11/17/2011

Bishops – It’s Not About You

By Sarah Lipton-Lubet, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:24pm

Slavery. It’s an abomination. And it goes without saying that survivors of modern-day slavery — human trafficking — should be able to access all of the services they need to protect their health and rebuild their lives. That is, unless you’re talking to the powerful political lobbyist, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

They’re raising a ruckus about so-called anti-Catholic bias because they weren’t given a grant by the Department of Health and Human Services for aid to trafficking victims. Why? Because they refuse to allow sub-grantees (the bishops are middlemen here, regranting the money to on-the-ground service providers) to offer access to contraception and abortion to trafficked women. Women who have been raped repeatedly and controlled by their traffickers. Women who urgently need reproductive health care and the power to make their own decisions and retake command of their own lives.

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