http://bigstory.ap.org/article/supreme-court-says-employers-religious-objections-can-refuse-pay-contraception WOW, I'm disappointed.
If you can refuse to let employees use their insurance benefits for contraception, why can't you also prohibit them from using their salary to purchase contraception? The implications of this ruling are scary.
I wish I was an employer, so I can say my religion denies blood transfusions and glasses are necessary. Christ will heal your vision! step 4 profit!
Faith healing is widely practiced by Christian Scientists, Pentecostalists, the Church of the First Born, the Followers of Christ, and myriad smaller sects. Many of these believers reject all medical treatment in favor of prayer, anointing with oils, and sometimes exorcisms What if I'm a penecostalist boss . . . can I refuse to offer medical insurance?????
Five men decided women can't get birth control without their bosses' consent. This is not even remotely constitution based. The decision says explicitly that employers who have religious objections to vaccines, blood transfusions, and other medical procedures, cannot bar coverage. Only when ladies fuck can they deny coverage. Only female health care. So the problem is not even putting the boss's religious beliefs over those of employees. Only religious beliefs involving women's reproduction. This is not only a huge defeat for women, it is a huge defeat for religious freedom. The court has said the female employees must be forced to live their lives according to their boss's religious views, not their own. Actually many corporations opposed Hobby Lobby because they were worried about impact on contract law; could a corporate entity void any section of a contract because it conflicted with the owners' religion? However, the court decided narrowly, the imposition of religious dictat only applies to women. So, bullying and assault were free speech last week, corporations have religious beliefs this week. No wonder confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all time low. And that was before this crop of decisions. During his confirmation hearing Roberts said he would not upset settled law. No court in history has overturned as much settled law as the Roberts court, from overturning voting rights, overturning voluntary desegregation, saying corporations can pay women less as long as they hid that fact, abolishing doctors' ability to make medical decisions when patients have life threatening conditions (only if the patients are women), to saying corporations are people with "free speech" rights to unlimited campaign donations and "religious freedom" to deny me my religious freedom.
"Well now that's just silly! That would infringe on the rights of me too! I just hope they never take away my health insurance coverage of viagra!" /s
This not true. Women can get birth control with out anyone's consent. The ruling only says the boss does not have to buy insurance to cover such cost.
Insurance benefits are not the property of the employer - they are compensation for work performed and are the property of the employee. If an employer can dictate how insurance benefits are used, there is no logical reason they cannot dictate what the employee spends their salary on either.
I love your posts, but on this you are quite wrong. Employees can buy whatever insurance they want. They'll have to take whatever salary, insurance, 401K, etc. that their company offers or find a new job.
It's a terrible decision in many ways, but it may come back to bite conservatives in the ass. Not just because it's bad law, but because it actually expands government-paid healthcare. It isn't that women who work at Hobby Lobby will be unable to get contraceptives from their health insurer. It's that the taxpayers, rather than the employer, will pay the portion of their insurance that relates to contraception, same as is done for non-profits who object. barfo
Unfortunately, America is an Oligarchy, so that's a ridiculous lie. It's like saying a starving prisoner can buy himself a 4 course gourmet dinner any time he pleases. If we had effective unions, enforcement of monopoly restrictions, and industry leaders who valued America and Americans, it would work like a charm.
If the USA had a single payer plan, then this wouldn't be an issue, and would be covered. Employers wouldn't have to worry about their free speech being infringed upon. Oh well!
The reaction here is laughable. Hobby Lobby currently provides 16 types of contraception, they only object to forms they feel are akin to abortive. Even NPR reported on this on the drive in today. This has nothing about denying woman's rights or any of the other fifty things that this is being linked to.
