Only the funny part is, the liberal point that the decision means private, for-profit companies can now refuse to cover any birth control is actually 100% correct.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower court rulings in favor of businesses that object to covering all 20 methods of government-approved contraception.
Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Inc. and a Pennsylvania furniture maker won their court challenges Monday in which they refused to pay for two emergency contraceptive pills and two intrauterine devices.
Tuesday's orders apply to companies owned by Catholics who oppose all contraception. Cases involving Colorado-based Hercules Industries Inc., Illinois-based Korte & Luitjohan Contractors Inc. and Indiana-based Grote Industries Inc. were awaiting action pending resolution of the Hobby Lobby case.
Do we understand now what's going on? If a "closely-held" business objects to any or all 20 forms of covered contraception under the Affordable Care Act on religious grounds, they no longer have to offer health insurance coverage for any of them. This includes standard birth control methods like the pill.
Sure, that seems like freedom to me, right?
So yes, this decision is very much an attack on women, who now can be denied health insurance coverage because of their boss's religion.
Might want to keep that in mind when you vote in November.
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This is what bugs me about American reporting on I/P issues:
The Palestinians, motivated by sheer ahistorical malice, launch a handful of home made rockets that make a bit of noise but rarely hurt anyone.
The Israelis, filled with righteous indignation, launch a retaliatory strike that kills a few terrorists. Regrettably a few dozen innocent bystanders are caught in the blast, but such are the fortunes of war and at least WE try to minimize collateral damage (unlike those savages).
Peace is established through superior firepower until once again:
The Palestinians, motivated by sheer ahistorical malice.........
I want to scream with frustration, and grind my teeth as I regret the life choices that have left me too poor to mail everyone a copy of Watzlawick's Pragmatics of Human Communication in which the Master discusses this kind of situation at length.
The upshot to this ruling is that employers will stop buying health plans for their employees and instead give them a lump of cash. Then the employees will buy whatever shitty plan they can afford. Problem solved.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to closely-held companies owned by Christian Scientists... or those who refuse to cover Viagra(r).
On a side note: once again, let's thank the folks who cast protest votes for Ralph Nader - without whom, this day would not have been possible.
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