A Bloomberg poll says that 77 percent of Americans side with progressives on the question of contraception and women’s health.
Americans overwhelmingly regard the debate over President Barack Obama’s policy on employer-provided contraceptive coverage as a matter of women’s health, not religious freedom, rejecting Republicans’ rationale for opposing the rule. More than three-quarters say the topic shouldn’t even be a part of the U.S. political debate.
More than six in 10 respondents to a Bloomberg National Poll — including almost 70 percent of women — say the issue involves health care and access to birth control, according to the survey taken March 8-11.
Meanwhile, the yahoos in the Arizona legislature think that employers need to be informed about their employees’ contraception use.
A proposed new law in Arizona would give employers the power to request that women being prescribed birth control pills provide proof that they’re using it for non-sexual reasons. And because Arizona’s an at-will employment state, that means that bosses critical of their female employees’ sex lives could fire them as a result.
This is all about “freedom,” of course.
Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or acne treatment.
“I believe we live in America. We don’t live in the Soviet Union,†Lesko said. “So, government should not be telling the organizations or mom and pop employers to do something against their moral beliefs.â€
Yeah, I’m sure the women of Arizona will be fine with having to get permission slips from their bosses to be on the pill.
Meanwhile, just weeks after the Komen for the Fail debacle, Mittens promises to get rid of Planned Parenthood:
“The test is pretty simple. Is the program so critical, it’s worth borrowing money from china to pay for it? And on that basis of course you get rid of Obamacare, that’s the easy one. Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that. The subsidy for Amtrak, I’d eliminate that. The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities,” he said.
I’d borrow money from China to buy Mittens some integrity. Or maybe even a brain.
It’s just another prong in the repug’s offensive in their War on Women. How can you expect them to conduct a War on Women without their attacking the womb?
Who knows what he really thinks? He looks like a human being, sort of, but gives himself away EVERY time he opens his mouth. He is disgusting.
I suppose, like Rush, they will want videos for proof.
So these imbiciles want women to discuss their sex lives with their bosses? Wouldn’t this be in violation of HIPAA?
Yeah, I’m sure the women of Arizona will be fine with having to get permission slips from their bosses to be on the pill.
Given the recent history of the people( women included) of Arizona’s desire to bring that state into alignment with God’s natural order of hierarchy, I wouldn’t be so sure. I’m surprised they have a state motto,a state flower,a state song, but have yet to adopt a state burka. Then again, does a permission slip from their bosses mean their employer or their male guardian?
Was our need to invade Iraq so critical that it was worth borrowing the money to finance it from China?
This can’t possibly end badly, can it?
No potential for sexual harassment at all!
I can’t possibly see a male boss, upon finding out that a female employee is taking the pill, saying to her, “Ok, sure! You need it for medicinal purposes – RIGHT!
And it’s not that I don’t believe you, but there’s one way to make sure I will, and will vouch for it, if I’m asked. F*ck me! And I’ll believe you!!! After all, what can happen? YOU’RE ON ‘THE PILL!’ This way, you still get your pill for medicinal purposes – and you and I can have ‘some fun!'”
Yeah, HIS idea of “fun!”
And if she does, and doesn’t want to do it whenever he wants, he can fire her. After all, he has proof that she takes “The Pill,” and f*cks around.
And “at will state,” means, at HIS will – the woman’s has nothing to do with it.
Women around the country need to put some bumper-stickers on their cars:
“I Have A Vagina.
Sure, I Fuck.
AND, I VOTE!!!”
And:
“Hint to Republicans,
“Zygote’s and fetuses can’t vote.
WOMEN WILL!”
With the federal contraception mandate in place, I think women in AZ don’t need to worry.
But, we better hope Obama wins. A history of authoritarianism in the US would show that Republicans attack; Democrats defend. Usually WEAKLY. Americans witnessed a thousand new anti-choice laws percolating thru state legislatures since 2010. Some are temporarily in place (awaiting legal challenge, as they all will be). How many PRO-choice laws have gone on the books since– I don’t know– maybe Roe v. Wade? A hundred? A dozen? I don’t know the answer, but I bet it’s at least 100 fold fewer than the number of laws in the wrong direction.
Swami,
You gave me a laugh tonight – State Burkha. Well, the way things are going, I shouldn’t be surprised.
When we get into the General Election, remind me to propose a debate question for the moderator.
“Governor Romeny, In light of your promise to defund Planned Parenthood (insert dollar amount), and the National Endowment for the Arts (insert dollar amount) because you don’t want borrow the money from China, would you also do away with subsidies for oil companies which cost the taxpayer (insert dollar amount)?”
Maybe I’m an insufferable caveman for saying this, but isn’t hormone control what the pill is all about? So if asked, couldn’t women say, ” Oh, no. It’s not for sex, it’s just ‘hormone control’.”? I don’t think employers, of all people, have any business sticking their noses into employees’ personal lives, but I’m just askin’…
As for Mitt…See Mitt. See Mitt pander. See Mitt swat at all the conservative bugaboos that GOP pols have been swatting at for years. Do these people consider what life would be like for folks who use these services, if they suddenly went away? (Answer: NO.) My daughter uses Planned Parenthood’s health services because we lost our insurance, and if we ever get it back, we can keep her on it for five more years, thanks to Obamacare. I don’t live in the Northeast, but I understand alot of folks use the Acela trains up there. They might be a bit miffed if Amtrak had to cut its schedule or eliminate trains mightn’t they? The NEA and NEH have been targeted for years for a few controversial grants, regardless of the number of tremendous projects they have supported. And on, and on…
Lee — my understanding is that the bill would give employers access to actual medical records, or else the woman would have to provide a doctor’s note or something as proof she is not using the pill as a contraceptive.
“Was our need to invade Iraq so critical that it was worth borrowing the money to finance it from China”
Swami didn’t you hear Mitt today, we only borrow from the China for abortions and food stamps, high gas prices, and big government. Why those wars we pay for with American tax receipts and religious exemptions, trips to the french countryside, training for postmortem baptismal. Get your shit together. Lets have a war.
I never dreamed Iggy Pop would turn into the voice against the war on women. But here he is, some 32 years hence. Get up and get out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_fWTj_BL3M
I’m glad for that,Lynne..Thank you.
maha,
So, repealing HIPAA will be one of the first things on the Republican’s list – probably right ahead of ACA, with defunding NEA far, far, behind.
Haven’t you heard? Religious authoritarianism is the new liberty!
stratplayer,
Yeah, Santorum keeps trying to tell us that ‘God gives us our rights – not government!’
Well, looking back over the past, oh, 10,000 or so years, God certainly took long enough!
And then, he used a series of rather strange vehicles to make sure we got what he had to give:
The early attempts at democracy by the Ancient Greeks in Athens
The republican form of government in Ancient Rome
The Magna Carta
The Declaration of Independence
The US Constitution
Lincoln and the US Union Army during the Civil War
And LBJ and the US House and Senate in the mid 60’s
Nope, no government there!
Thanks GOD for our rights!
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh…
my understanding is that the bill would give employers access to actual medical records
If indeed that’s how the bill would work, Iosue is absolutely right– it’ll be yet another AZ law in direct conflict with a federal law (HIPAA).
On the surface, obviously, we’ve been seeing an attack on women and our right to a private life. Underneath it all I see another phase in the ongoing attack on employee rights. Employers will once again have limitless power over the people who work for them, and in some of the most offensive, intimate ways imaginable, will be able to force employees to practice the employer’s religion.
And with the current makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of this crap stands.
Joan,
Maybe Roberts and the other Catholics on the SCOTUS will, like Santorum, wait to hear what specifics Pope Rat-faced-zinger want them to follow.
maha-Thanks for clearing that up for me. So, as the other commenters have said, HIPPA will have to go. Great…
Doesn’t fascism have something to do with business/government alignment to run a country as an economic/legal entity with religion as a disciplinary enforcement mechanism to maintain conformity as morality? I seem to recall something along those lines. Also, flags and Bibles.
“In the name of religious freedom” from people who disdain, hate, all religions but their christian religion makes me throw-up.
Equally, to force American women to conform to, to live according to, the beliefs of the present Roman pope and/or the Billy Graham kid, makes me throw-up.
(T. Jefferson, by now, is not just turning over in his grave, he’s spinning in his grave.)
Lack of practice with gender neutral pronouns, which is unfortunate when you are documenting LIVE sex and cannot go back and do a retake with the correct pronouns.