One thing is clear as the bickering on contraception continues — the Obama administration is standing up for women's rights in a big way. Unfortunately, that story has been overshadowed by an attempt to redefine the meaning of religious liberty in our country.
This great contraception debate has kept me up at night contemplating my own rights. Did I trade in my ability to make decisions about my own life when I enrolled at a Catholic law school? That was certainly not my intent. I took no oath, made no promises, and signed no document that said my attendance comes with a commitment to the tenets of Catholicism.
In the past several weeks, as a nation, we’ve been hit by an endless barrage of commentary on the new rule requiring insurance companies to cover contraception with no co-pay. Who would have thought that in 2012, contraception — something 98 percent of women use at some point in their lives — could set off such a firestorm?
Last week, the Obama administration offered a solution that we hope calms the embers.
An employee at a religiously affiliated nonprofit writes about the struggle to get her employer to cover contraception prescribed for conditions like polycystic fibrosis and dysmenorrhea.
Laura Murphy of our Washington Legislative Office appeared to discuss the Obama administration’s plan to retain a proposed rule that ensures new insurance plans cover contraception.
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.
By Heather L. Weaver, ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at 4:25pm
A federal judge signed and entered a consent decree and order today in the ACLU’s case challenging widespread and pervasive religious practices in South Carolina’s Chesterfield County School District. The ACLU brought the lawsuit on behalf of a local father, Jonathan Anderson, and his son, who is a student at New Heights Middle School. Both are non-believers. The school district’s unlawful practices promoting religion garnered national attention after a video was posted online documenting a school-day assembly that featured a Christian rapper who calls himself “B-SHOC” (pictured). The assembly also included a sermon delivered by an evangelical youth minister, and students were asked to sign cards pledging themselves to Jesus. Students who did not want to attend the assembly were told that they could instead spend the afternoon in in-school suspension.
Last week, the Obama administration stood for reproductive rights and refused to broaden exemptions to a rule that requires employers to provide health insurance for contraception.
