Tag: birth control mandate
Obamacare — The Greatest Pro-Life Victory Ever

Obamacare — The Greatest Pro-Life Victory Ever

A new report finds that between 2008 and 2011, the abortion rate hit its lowest point since 1973, when Roe v. Wade declared access to the procedure a Constitutional right.

The rate fell 13 percent to 16.9 per 1,000 women in 2011, down from its peak of 29.3 per 1,000 in 1981.

While conservatives want to claim credit for the decline with onerous restrictions on a woman’s right to choose, the availability of contraception and family planning deserve most of the credit, according to the Guttmacher Institute’s Rachel Jones, the lead author of the study.

“The decline in abortions coincided with a steep national drop in overall pregnancy and birth rates,” she said in a statement. “Contraceptive use improved during this period, as more women and couples were using highly effective, long-acting reversible contraceptive methods, such as the IUD. Moreover, the recent recession led many women and couples to want to avoid or delay pregnancy and childbearing.”

Use of contraceptives has become near-universal and more common among married women than single.

Obamacare’s birth control mandate obligates all insurers to cover contraception without a co-pay, as it does all preventive care. Before the law 28 states already had such mandates in place and 85 percent of large firms offered coverage as part of their plans. Since August 1 of last year, that coverage is now standard for women no matter where they live or how they acquire health insurance.

A Washington University study released last year showed that providing birth control at no cost reduced the rate of abortions by 62 to 78 percent compared to the national rate. Meanwhile, the right’s strategy of reducing abortions by requiring sonograms has had no effect on a large majority of women, according to a new study in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Instead of encouraging the pro-life benefits of Obamacare, conservatives continue to try to minimize them. Republicans want to give employers the ability to opt out of the mandate, asserting falsely that some of the birth control options available induce abortion.

By opposing the mandate, the right reveals that its goal has always been to reduce women’s options, not unintended pregnancies. Obamacare will reduce thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of abortions and could reduce even more if the Republican-led states that rejected Medicaid expansion would agree to provide subsidized care to approximately 4 million Americans.

Instead, so-called “pro-lifers” enable politicians who deny health insurance to those who need it most, threatening the lives of thousands. If only they were as pro-life as Obamacare is.

Photo: Will O’Neill via Flickr

Republicans Have One Sandra Fluke Joke — And They Use It Over And Over Again

Republicans Have One Sandra Fluke Joke — And They Use It Over And Over Again

Sandra Fluke — who became a household name when Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” for testifying on the importance of the birth control coverage mandate — has filed papers to seek the House seat that will be vacated by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).

Since even Limbaugh had to apologize, conservatives moved on to another offensive attack to continue what Democrats refer to as the “War on Women:” insisting that she simply doesn’t want to pay for her own birth control — or anything. LOL.

Amanda Marcotte explained why this argument is bunk back in 2012:

This requirement simply means that all insurance plans paid for or earned by a woman have this coverage, as part of an array of preventive care services also to be covered without a copay. Some misrepresented her position, either claiming she wants the “government” to pay or “her boss,” even though the policy references benefits already earned and passed over to the employee–meaning that one’s boss is no more buying your birth control for you if you use your insurance to pay for it than if your boss is buying it for you if you use your paycheck to pay for it.

But now that Fluke is flagrantly flaunting her undauntedness by considering a political career, Republicans are back, making the same joke, over and over.

 

 

 

Some Republicans are intent on proving that they learned nothing in 2012 — when President Obama beat Mitt Romney with single women by a margin of 2 to 1 — and Sandra Fluke’s candidacy may give them the chance to do it over and over.

Do you have an example of a Republican making this lame joke? Post it in the comments.

Photo: ElizabethForMA via Flickr