Holy(er than thou) Democrats Support "Pull and Pray" Birth Control 1 MAR12

ALL men love their penises, but not all men think with them. Here's some comments by politicians supporting the Blunt amendment (defeated in the Senate yesterday) giving you a clue where their brains are (and they must be teeny, tiny brains)......
Posted by Daily Agenda

Today, Democratic Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania joined 45 Republicans backing the “pull and pray” method of birth control over more modern, expensive contraception like the Pill.
“Pull and Pray is not as good as Bayer Aspirin, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper,” said Senator Nelson.
“At a time when multi-national corporations are doing so much, it is engorging, uh . . . enraging, that women would want companies to pay for medicine when other methods are available – and free,” said Sen. Casey.
The statements came in the wake of a 51-48 vote over an amendment which would have allowed employers and health insurance companies to save money by refusing basic health coverage to 51% of the population. Democrats and Republicans have locked heads over the issue for weeks.
“I feel really shafted,” said presidential hopeful Sen. Rick Santorum. “I was sure we could nail it.”
“We just couldn’t close the deal,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “But,” he added, “I did get it up on the floor. Not every Senator could’ve gotten it up on the floor”
Amendment sponsor Roy Blunt remarked, “I’m staying firm. No matter how long it takes me, I will get to a happy ending.”

Birth control exemption bill, the ‘Blunt amendment,’ killed in Senate 1MAR12

WOMEN HATER sen roy blunt r MO and his gop / tea-bagger associates (along with three cowardly democrats) were defeated in their latest attack on women's health care, women's rights and health care in general. To conspire as he did to deny health care to anyone, attaching his amendment to a highway transportation bill because it could not stand alone, is evil. But today, thank God, evil was defeated in the Senate! From the Washington Post.....

By N. C. Aizenman and Rosalind Helderman

By a largely party-line vote, the Senate on Thursday blocked a move to exempt virtually any employer with moral objections from the Obama administration’s controversial birth control health coverage rule.
The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway funding bill, was tabled—and therefore effectively killed—by a vote of 51 to 48.
Only one Republican Senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine voted against the measure. Three Democratic senators supported it, Robert Casey (Pa.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), and Ben Nelson (Neb.).
The measure was among the most sweeping of several congressional efforts to broaden the current religious exemption in the birth control rule, which only fully exempts explicitly religious organizations such as churches from its requirement that worker health plans include contraceptive coverage with no out-of-pocket charges.
Under the Blunt amendment, not only would church-affiliated organizations such as Catholic hospitals, universities, schools and charities have been free to opt out of the coverage, any non-religious employer with a moral objection would have qualified.
The amendment would also have allowed such employers to refuse to cover any other preventive procedures required under the administration’s rule if they had a religious or moral objection.
The rule has sparked a national debate about the limits of religious freedom.
Churches have always been exempt from the mandate, but Catholic and other religious leaders had complained that the rule would force church-affiliated institutions to pay for health services that violated their beliefs.
Trying to defuse the controversy, the Obama administration last month amended the rule. Under the revised rule, women who work for such organizations would still be guaranteed contraceptive coverage, but they would obtain it directly from their insurance companies, which would not be allowed to charge additional premiums.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops remains opposed to any compromise on the issue.

President Obama Birth Control Compromise Divides Catholic Leaders 15FEB12

THE Catholic Church male hierarchy, bastion of hypocrisy on quality of life and pedophilia, will continue their campaign against the new insurance requirements on birth control, supported only by those faithful who long for the days of inquisition. From HuffPost......
When President Barack Obama first announced the federal rule requiring most faith-based employers to pay for contraception health coverage, most Roman Catholic groups geared for battle. But prominent progressive Catholics broke with Catholic bishops and Republican lawmakers on the issue Wednesday, saying Obama had won them over when he revised the rules to allow faith-based institutions to opt out of providing the coverage.
Stephen Schneck, director of Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, stood shoulder to shoulder with university President John Garvey against Obama's initial decision, which would have required Catholic schools to provide contraception coverage with no co-pay to employees against its religious teachings. Schneck told reporters on Wednesday that he "worked as hard as [he] could to get the administration to pay attention" to the concerns of the Catholic bishops and expand the religious exemption.
The revised rule Obama announced Friday, which shifts the cost of contraceptive coverage to insurers when the faith-based employer morally objects, has "by and large resolved" his religious liberty concerns, Schneck said.
"The announcement on Friday creates mechanisms to create even greater distance between Catholic institutions and contraception," Schneck said. "I feel completely satisfied." He said he still has some concerns about self-insured religious groups, but believed the Obama administration would find a fair way to resolve that issue.
Schneck said he was "definitely not" speaking on behalf of his employer, Catholic University. "I've discerned to speak differently than my president in that regard," he said.
His boss, the university president, was a vocal opponent of the initial birth control rule. Garvey signed a letter calling Obama's compromise "a cheap accounting trick" and will testify against it at a congressional hearing on religious liberty on Thursday.
Sister Anne Curtis, a spokeswoman for the 3,800-member religious order Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, also broke with her superiors, the Catholic clergy, on the issue. "We were pleased when adjustments were made in the new requirements that would ensure conscience protections for religious institutions such as ourselves," she said.

The Catholic bishops, traditionally more conservative than nuns on women's health issues, wholly reject the president's accommodation, arguing that self-insured religious employers will still be forced to pay for contraception. They want the mandate rescinded in its entirety, so that even a Catholic person who owns a non-religious business can refuse to cover contraception for his or her employees.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm that protects the interests of religious groups, used the same arguments as Planned Parenthood opponents, saying that "money is fungible." Many religious organizations may still object to paying an insurance company that will provide contraception to its employees for free, even if the employer is not directly paying.
“This is a false ‘compromise’ designed to protect the president’s re-election chances, not to protect the right of conscience,” said Hannah Smith, senior legal counsel for The Becket Fund, in a statement.
Religious conservatives such as Garvey and Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., will gather Thursday for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing not-so-subtly titled, “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” Congressional Republicans, including Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), are pushing measures that would repeal the birth control policy entirely on behalf of religious organizations.
Despite the continued beating Obama is taking from a few religious groups, he has won the support of the one Catholic organization that employs more than 750,000 people and is arguably the most heavily affected by the birth control mandate. The Catholic Health Association, the nation's largest group of nonprofit health systems, considered Obama's accommodation a victory.
"We are pleased and grateful that the religious liberty and conscience protection needs of so many ministries that serve our country were appreciated enough that an early resolution of this issue was accomplished," said Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association. "This difference has at times been uncomfortable, but it has helped our country sort through an issue that has been important throughout the history of our great democracy."

TELL YOUR SENATORS TO VOTE AGAINST THE BLUNT AMENDMENT (IT WILL UNDO THE WHOLE BIRTH CONTROL COVERAGE POLICY) 11FEB12

I am sick of this, and that is just what the repiglicans and tea-baggers are counting on, that we will be so tired of fighting for this that we will just stop. Please click the link and send a message to your Senators and tell them to reject Sen roy blunt's amendment to the transportation bill.

Today, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to contraceptive coverage. But the fight continues. The Senate could vote to overturn the birth-control coverage policy at any moment. If we lose, insurers will get the right to deny you coverage not just for contraception but for any essential health service they deem immoral. Tell your senators to oppose the Blunt amendment! Today, President Obama showed us all that he is firmly committed to protecting women's health. The Obama administration's policy will make sure women of all faiths who work at religiously affiliated hospitals, universities, and service organizations will get contraceptive coverage. It guarantees that women will not encounter any barriers from their bosses or insurance plans in getting birth control without a copay. But anti-contraception politicians are unrelenting in their attacks. Anti-choice Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is using a transportation bill – of all things – to try to undo the entire birth-control coverage policy. In fact, the Blunt amendment is so much worse than what we could have dreamed up. If we lose, insurers and employers will get the right to deny you coverage for any essential health benefit they deem immoral. The U.S. Senate could vote on the Blunt amendment at any time. Help us fight for birth-control coverage for women, wherever they work, by contacting your senators right now. Anti-contraception groups and politicians have launched an all-out war against the new birth-control policy. They have tried to frame their complaints as concern about "religious discrimination." But our opponents' true goal is to allow any boss to be able to deny his employees a health plan that covers birth control. An official with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told USA Today that he's outraged because the new birth-control policy will cover employees at regular businesses. He actually said: "Good Catholic business people… can't in good conscience cooperate with this... If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I'd be covered by the mandate." Go ahead, pick your jaw up off the floor. Now that our opponents have showed their cards, we must make sure the Senate understands what's really at stake. Send a message to your senators right now. If this amendment passes, it would be a disaster for women and men's health on many fronts. It would completely undo the no-cost birth control policy, which will ensure that virtually all women get their prescription birth control covered with no copay. The amendment would also go so far as to allow insurers to deny coverage for any essential health service they deem immoral. Think about the implications. Women and men would be at the whim of their boss for HIV treatment. Single women who wish to have a child might be refused coverage for prenatal care. I know we can win this if we all speak out. Pro-choice Americans prove time and again – like you just did protecting funding for breast-cancer screening at Planned Parenthood – that we won't let politicians play games with our freedom and privacy. You made that victory possible. We must continue to work together and defeat this next attempt to take away women's birth-control coverage. Thank you so much for contacting your senators. Nancy Keenan President, NARAL Pro-Choice America