GOP Religious Zealots Anti-Abortion and Anti-Birth Control: WTF Make Up Your Mind

Quoted by John Dean in “Conservatives Without Conscience” (2006)

Then Sen. Goldwater (R-AZ) lost big in 1964 in an historical “landslide” to LBJ – he only got 52 electoral votes in just 6 states, but boy was he right in that quote as evidenced by the following in this post – enjoy:

The Trump administration announced that effective immediately, the birth control mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will no longer be in effect.

Under the ACA (Obamacare) some 62 million American women have been able to access birth control without a co-pay under their insurance plans.

The new rule from the Trump administration undoes that part of the preventive care requirement of the ACA, which requires that all insurance plans guarantee birth control with no co-pay.

Simply stated: If a religiously affiliated employer had a religious objection to birth control, the Affordable Care Act ensured that employees’ birth control was covered through other means. 

The new Trump administration rule not only eliminates that coverage protection for employees, but allows any employer — not just those that are religiously affiliated — to deny employees coverage for birth control if they say they have a religious or moral objection.

This long-rumored religious and moral exemption is expected to energize Trump’s base and infuriate his opponents.

Advocates such as the National Women’s Law Center announced immediate plans to attempt to block the new rule in court.

Basically any employer can now say: “I have a religious or moral objection to birth control and I don’t want it in my health plan for my employees.”

BTW: This is not completely separate from clerks like in KY who said they don’t want to issue same-sex marriage licenses since it goes against their religious belief.

According to the AP the Trump administration has estimated that 200 employers who have already voiced objections to the Obama-era policy would qualify for the expanded opt-out, and that 120,000 women would be affected. It is unclear how major religiously affiliated employers, such as Catholic hospitals and universities, will respond as they did in the past.

I conclude with this extract from this neat article here in part (with my editing to fit the blog):

Planned Parenthood (whom the GOP hates) has estimated it prevents more than 620,000 unintended pregnancies each year, and thus prevents some 220,000 abortions. 

So, logically, why wouldn’t the anti-abortion crowd support this increase in contraception, and thus subsequent prevention of any abortions? That is a reasonable question, isn’t it?

Sadly, this rationale is that many if not most of GOP’s far right perceive most forms of contraception as: “an equivalent to abortion.

Thus by their logic (which is really illogical), Planned Parenthood isn’t “preventing” abortions – it is just doing them another way – that is via the Pill, IUDs, etc. instead of drug-induced or surgical abortions.

So, if someone is of the mindset that a fertilized ovum is the equivalent of a person or human being or “a baby”, then it becomes outrageous to allow the prescription of a product that will “kill” that egg and thus kill the “human being” ergo, they are killing a “baby.”

Those same zealots want to stop organizations like PP which provide women access to such medications, or even to public schools which educate our children about such alternatives – hence their staunch opposition to even comprehensive sex education – how pathetic is all that? A lot I’d have to say.

So, where will all this insane madness and illogical GOP thinking end? Probably after they destroy the planet in the name of goodness or worse “for their party’s sake.”

The Bottom Line (even if that’s possible to have a bottom line): Okay to use freedom of religion to block someone else’s rights to their freedoms and claim “God’s work” as your right – be damned with other people’s right...!!!

Whew boy.

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