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About a month ago, in one of several culture-war television ads, the Romney campaign went after President Obama over contraception access. After asking which candidate "shares your values," the Republican spot said the contraception issue represents a "war on religion."
We haven't heard too much about this since -- Team Romney continues to experiment with different issues and messages -- but access to birth control remains an important focus.
GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan sees no place for the Obama Administration's contraception mandate.
At a Saturday campaign event in Orlando, Fla., the Associated Press reports that Ryan was asked about whether he would press Vice President and fellow Catholic Joe Biden on his views in relation to the 2012 Democratic Party platform.
Ryan's answer turned straight to the piece of Obamacare providing birth control access. He vowed to remove that requirement for insurance providers, including Catholic hospitals and universities, on "day one."
"It will be gone," Ryan told onlookers at the University of Central Florida. "I can guarantee you that."
Let's not lose sight of the policy on the table. Under federal law, insurance companies must now make preventive care available without copays. It was up to the Obama administration to establish what counts as "preventive care," and officials chose a variety of common-sense policies, including mammograms, HIV screenings, immunizations, and contraception.
No one will be required to have any of these services; they'll simply be available. In terms of finances, the Obama administration exempts churches and other houses of worship from financing care they may find objectionable, and the White House also created a compromise in which religiously-affiliated employers wouldn't have to pay for contraception directly.
And according to Paul Ryan, a Romney administration would be so opposed to expanded contraception access, they'd get rid of it on their very first day in office. (This is the same Paul Ryan who worked with Todd Akin to redefine "rape.")
President Obama recently told supporters, "[W]hen it comes to a woman's right to make her own health care choices, they want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century." Ryan is apparently eager to prove Obama right.
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The GOP really only want the pure 1950's model Lady-Fembot vote. Remember: it's a chump, not a choice!
Stepford wives or nothing.
the contraception issue represents a "war on religion."
-yes, 6th Century "Religion".
(or, 20th Century Red State Religion- 'dang uppity fe-males!)
I find it ironic that the church targets contraception. But not war or the death penalty. My mom was a nun for a short time, educated by the jesuits at a catholic university. And she told me that the sin is not in the providing for the contraception by the institution. The sin is in the using of the contraception by the individual. The religous rights are those of the individual, and can not be applied to an institution. The insitution can not claim violation of religous freedom. So the institutions should be required to provide the coverage, but they may continue to preach to the individual that they should not use it. The choice of using or not using belongs to the individual who must have the freedom of religion to follow their own conscience.
Now if I could only object to paying taxes based on my religious freedom because I do not believe in war......
Jenn, your mom received her religious instruction before the Catholic Church bought into the concept that "Corporations are people, my friend!" maybe with souls?
Yea thou tragically , have been denied the wisdom of the great American solons who have in their manifest wisdom have cried out that "Corporations are not only people , but shy protected people" .
The sin is the church, let's put things in perspective here. With 6.9 billion people using the world's resources I think a little contraception is entirely in order. I believe more and more in freedom from religion, it only seems to produce disease and offer a bizarre pseudo-righteous pulpit while hiding pedophiles in the back. Oops, still stuck on Saturday/Sunday's thread!
Catholic dogma should have no part in national policy. Catholicism is for Catholics, nobody else should have their lifestyle choices and religious decisions decided by somebody elses religion. The Declaration of Independence said no national religion for a reason - so American citizens could have a choice of religions, or chose to have no religion at all. I chose democracy, not theocracy. I will never support the use of religion for political gain by greedy corporatists, right wing extremists, and power hungry men.
We are a nation of laws, and those laws are informed by our religious values and sense of right and wrong. I prefer law to being judged by the always dogmatic and biased decisions of religionists, mere mortals. My relationship with God is between God and me.
Ryan of the 3 kids? Contraception is only for those who can afford it?
Easy on Ryan's sex life. The shortage of offspring is because for all of his adult life he's not only been married but screwing the people of the USA.
Oh no...a remake of The Boys From Brazil...
THE BOYS FROM JANESVILLE...clones of Lyin' Ryan EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!
Save us Sir Olivier...SAVE US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Republicans think God wants more children, not better children. Who cares whether family planning means a child can be wanted and loved and properly cared for? Who cares about what a mother wants? According to the God's political spokesmen, He doesn't.
Puhlease, you know the "pro-life, family values" crowd only cherishes "life in the womb", once it's born, it better pull itself up by those bootstraps!
They care about "life" in the womb, they just don't care about the quality of life in the womb. If they did, more women would have help with pre-natal care. "Life" at conception is supremely important to people who need God to regard their own lives as supremely important. If life can have layers of value, then their own lives might not be 100% guaranteed in Heaven. People blindly defend these misconceptions because they're afraid for themselves, not out of respect for God's wishes.
"For Republicans, life begins at conception and ends at birth."
Barney Frank
Comedian Bill Hicks had a theory:
"If you're so pro-life and you're so pro-child...then adopt one that's already here that's very unwanted and very alone...and needs someone to take care of it and get it out of a horrible situation."
R.I.P goatboy!!!
Republicans by and large have been declaring their privileged relationship with the "almighty" in plain , plainer , plainest language for some little time now . It is a great conversation stopper at Republican Parties and other non political events .
I have to admit that the Obama Administration screwed this up. They could have simply required that all insurance programs make contraceptive access optional for covered individuals at exactly the difference in cost to the insurer.
This is evil, because it plays right into the "I won't pay for your shenanigans" mentality. The Right has no excuse, and best of all: even churches etc. have no gripe. Despite the fact that those individuals who take the contraceptive option actually get a rebate on premiums.
Sorry, but that "optional" thing is part of the problem! Besides, I don't hear insurance companies or religuluous institutions decrying paying for Viagra/Levitra/Cialis so the hypocritical faux argument against "religuluous liberty" is null & void.
ZR, read carefully: contraception is a money-saver for insurers. By all means let the employers (e.g. Georgetown U) pay extra to not offer contraception -- which the insured can collect as they revert to the lower-cost plan with contraception.
Even women who have no interest in actually using contraception won't turn down the savings if it's offered to them. Hey, I wouldn't -- and I'm not only past 60 but male to boot!
no issue gets me angry faster than this one. freedom of religion to have christianity's tenets shoved down my throat. disgusting.
With the reputation of the teapubs, be glad it's only their christianity being shoved down your throat.
Opposition to contraception is not exactly a Christian tenet. You're taking the opposition's self-portrait too much at face value. Catholics and right-wing Protestants oppose contraception, but they don't define the whole of Christianity. They're not even the majority. More significantly, nearly all women have used contraception at some point in their lives, including nearly all Catholic women, so it's debatable how much of a tenet the anti-contraception position really is when hardly anyone who matters is actually following it.
So, MM, are you saying it's purely a politically motivated construct? Shocking!
I know, isn't it, though!?
(Actually, what's shocking is that there is anyone who actually believes it's a religious issue.)
I suppose those mother's who could not afford contraception who find themselves expecting can just go to the emergency room for prenatal care and child birth.
This so-called "war on religion" is exactly that. The right is waging war to instill their Christian fanaticism on the rest of us!
How exactly is allowing someone else access to contraceptive an attack on your religious freedom? When religious extremists talk about religious freedom, they usually mean their freedom to force their views onto others.
Amen....AMEN.
This is another reason why the Muslim community does not like Americans, they are trying to control the rights of women.(snarl)
These "moral" issues serve two purposes; they appeal to the religious conservative faction of the party and they provide cover for economic policies. But I would hope Ryan and Biden discuss contraception as an issue and we will see what happens with public opinion. Biden should make Ryan put his position before the public if Ryan does not bring it up. We know that women constitute 53% of voters and I can safely predict that Ryan will be very unpopular after the debate.
Sandra Fluke pointed out that there are other health benefits to hormonal contraceptives. (Remember, when Rushbo called her a slut, Romney said "Those weren't the words I would have used." Profile in Courage.) But I digress. One of these is mitigation of painful and even harmful menstrual cycles. So a la Frank Luntz, how about a little wordsmithing. I know it's not politically correct, but how about
"Period control"
or even better
"Curse control"
I'm confused...didn't anyone who is a Republican actually take Biology? Obviously Sex Ed wasn't allowed where they home schooled, but if they are so incensed about abortion, what is their objection to contraception? Don't they know where babies come from?
Or are they just delusional about Sex in general? Or actually procreation?
But then anyone that wants to make a 'person' out of zygote and/or a corporation... what can I say?