Probably the biggest turn we ever made was when the women got the right to vote.

[MadImmortalMan]

Nobody is forcing anyone to work for a particular employer. Seems to me if the employer has some bigoted rules in the benefits they would have a more difficult time finding the best people.

[garbon]

Nobody is forcing anyone to work for a particular employer. Seems to me if the employer has some bigoted rules in the benefits they would have a more difficult time finding the best people.

I'm not sure how relevant that is in an economy where many people are grateful for the jobs they can get.

[derspiess]

Meri: both Target and Walmart offer a month supply of berf control pills for $9.  No insurance required

[merithyn]

Nobody is forcing anyone to work for a particular employer. Seems to me if the employer has some bigoted rules in the benefits they would have a more difficult time finding the best people.

I'm not sure how relevant that is in an economy where many people are grateful for the jobs they can get.

Thank you.

[merithyn]

Meri: both Target and Walmart offer a month supply of berf control pills for $9.  No insurance required

You know that not all pills are made the same, right? That the $9 pill may not be the one that best suits a woman's medical concerns?

[Neil]

'Necessary medications'?  That there is some overblown rhetoric.

Oh?

Other reasons to take the pill

Exactly.  Overblown rhetoric.

They don't call it 'period-relief pill'.  No, it's the 'birth-control pill', or more popularly the 'whore pill'.

[Scipio]

It's a good thing that women have no concerns beyond their lady parts.

I wonder why I would be disenfranchised by a party that feels that half the population shouldn't get the same healthcare as the other half. Especially when the entire premise is religious fervor from those who believe that women belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with their mouths taped shut.

Now that's a bunch of crap.  My entire premise is that people who can't afford to have kids without government assistance ab initio shouldn't have children.  I'm for birth control, and all that.  I am especially for having the poors forcibly fed birth control, since they can't count to 28, or wear condoms.

[Razgovory]

Not really.  If you think that using birth control is contrary to the tenets of your faith, wouldn't you find it problematic to be forced to dispense it? And aren't these same people also against abortion? See: Mississippi

Well, if you believe life begins at conception then one of those is murder and the other isn't.

You're simplifying it too much. Catholics not only believe that life begins at conception. They also believe that any form of birth control goes against the biblical imperative to "Go forth and multiply."

Talk about simplifying.

[merithyn]

It's a good thing that women have no concerns beyond their lady parts.

I wonder why I would be disenfranchised by a party that feels that half the population shouldn't get the same healthcare as the other half. Especially when the entire premise is religious fervor from those who believe that women belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with their mouths taped shut.

Now that's a bunch of crap.  My entire premise is that people who can't afford to have kids without government assistance ab initio shouldn't have children.  I'm for birth control, and all that.  I am especially for having the poors forcibly fed birth control, since they can't count to 28, or wear condoms.

Agreed on all counts (except the counting thing, since I only know a handful of women on a true 28-day cycle). Tell your leader who's trying to take that option out of the equation for women who work for religious groups.

[katmai]

Pretty interesting take from a libertarian. @ scips

[Razgovory]

It's a good thing that women have no concerns beyond their lady parts.

I wonder why I would be disenfranchised by a party that feels that half the population shouldn't get the same healthcare as the other half. Especially when the entire premise is religious fervor from those who believe that women belong barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with their mouths taped shut.

Now that's a bunch of crap.  My entire premise is that people who can't afford to have kids without government assistance ab initio shouldn't have children.  I'm for birth control, and all that.  I am especially for having the poors forcibly fed birth control, since they can't count to 28, or wear condoms.

Libertarians are such lovely people.  I can't imagine why the people didn't elect you judge.

[garbon]

Libertarians are such lovely people.  I can't imagine why the people didn't elect you judge.

[Neil]

Agreed on all counts (except the counting thing, since I only know a handful of women on a true 28-day cycle). Tell your leader who's trying to take that option out of the equation for women who work for religious groups.

Birth control is a good.  Even religious groups pay their employees with money, which can be exchanged for not only goods, but also services.

You should feel ashamed of yourself, what with all the spinning.

[dps]

Arguments about health care insurance aside, I think Meri is still missing the point that the Tea Party movement is basically about fiscally responsible government, not social issues.  Tea Party adovocates, as such, really don't really care one way or another whether or not employers, including Catholic institutions, have to include birth control in the health care plans they provide for their employees, so Tea Party influence within the Republican Party is irrelevant to that discussion.  The influence of the "religious right", though, is a different story.

Even if you agree with Meri's position on health care, I think it's unfair to characterize women who disagree with it as "stupid".  First, in order to agree with her, you have to agree with the proposition that the concerns of some women about having affordable access to contraceptives should trump the rights of employers to practice their religious beliefs.  It seems to me that there's a fine line here between the free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.  I wouldn't characterize people who fall on either side of the argument as "stupid".  Second, it seems to me that even a woman who comes down on the same side of that argument as Meri does could still reasonably decide to vote Republican because she agrees with the Republicans more than the Democrats on other issues, and isn't a single-issue voter.

Additionally, I have a philosophical problem with considering birth control strictly a woman's issue.  A big part of the reason that we have so many unplanned pregnancies is that way too many men don't consider birth control something that they should worry about, and characterizing access to birth control as a woman's issue would tend to just reinforce that attitude.

[dps]

Meri: both Target and Walmart offer a month supply of berf control pills for $9.  No insurance required

You know that not all pills are made the same, right? That the $9 pill may not be the one that best suits a woman's medical concerns?

So?  The generic cholesterol medicine that my health insurance would pay for back when I was carrying health insurance wasn't necessarily the best cholesterol medicine for me, either.