The U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, saying a corporation with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage to its female employees, gives people who believe in an unproven entity – God and a “book” called the Bible (another unproven), power over their women employees very real health options.
Wrong. It’s like fantasy fiction vs. non-fiction.
But as always, god believers arrogantly claim exceptionalism, profess superior morals and demand favoritism.
For the past 40 years the religious right has been worming its way into political power, fighting what they call a war, their “jihad” on secular humanism. All you gotta do is gaze on over to the Middle East to see what this type of rabid religious power leads to. Which is why the Founding Fathers forbade the establishment of any official church or creed. You can’t run a government on fairy dust.
God is unproven. There is no consensus even among believers, and that causes divisions that breed intolerance, hatred, discrimination between the denomination/sects and non-believers, which regresses to local violence/infighting, then escalates to wars. Our wall of separation of church and state is probably keeping the peace here.
The HL decision inflicts damage upon that wall firstly because, according to the IRS, more than 90 percent of all businesses in the U.S. fit the definition of “closely held,” employing 52 percent of the American workforce and second, because it sets a precedent for further erosion.
Little by little these religious fanatics are insinuating their definition of what pregnancy is, and therefore what abortion is. They either do not believe in or accept science. Scary.
Of the nine justices six are Roman Catholic, three are Jewish. It’s time to enact term limits and include agnostic atheists on the court.
There are a ton of some very real risks to a woman during and after pregnancy. Too many to list!
According to the CDC, pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. have steadily increased from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987 to a high of 17.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2009. So the final decision to have, to not have or to postpone till a better, healthier time for the woman has to always remain with the woman.
All options should be on the table – for all women, always.
Our Constitution, by the way, does not prohibit sex discrimination against women. It does not afford women the same formal protections as racial minorities.
This is the 91st year the ERA has not passed. Here in Oregon on Nov. 4 you will have the opportunity to vote “yes” for women’s equality in our Oregon Constitution. Please do so.
Until you pro-lifers all become conscientious objectors, refuse to work in any job or take part in any activity that has death as a goal, give up your guns, give up your meat, give up all your toxic chemicals/pesticides that kill … please shut up. Compared to the Jaina dharma of India, you’re an embarrassment.
Fact: Sixty-five percent who have abortions list themselves as Christians.
Fact: None of the mandated contraceptive devices to which the Greens/HL object are “abortion-inducing.” The science is not with HL at all. It’s all about conception vs implantation.
Fact: Throughout history, whenever abortion has been made illegal women have gone underground to get them, risking death. So what, you say? It’s God’s will? Just deserts?
Fact: Sixty-seven percent of pregnancies in the U.S. (2011) resulted in live births and 18 percent in induced abortions.
Fact: Eighty-nine percent of abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Fact: Over population. I don’t care how many people you say you can stack up in Texas. More humans means less of everything else.
Fact: Resource depletion/contamination. It’s happening.
Fact: Global warming. It’s happening.
Fact: United States subsidizes religion – to the tune of about $71 billion every year.
Christianity’s focus on the afterlife causes many of its followers to dismiss the planet and man’s laws, which dovetails perfectly with the GOP, Tea Party and Libertarians’ anti-environment, pro-corporate, greed-is-good, government-is-bad agenda.
Christians don’t have a long-term stake in this planet and the GOP/corporations will destroy it in a heartbeat for a buck. A match made in heaven.
Who needs lobbyists when we the people can e-mail (Tweet, phone, write) our congressmen ourselves? The religious lobby spends about $350 million per year buying influence.
If you believe that children are God-given and shouldn’t be impeded, then why not your cancer?
Repeal the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Diane Daiute
Sweet Home