The White House announced that employee health insurance plans must provide coverage for contraception medications and methods. Republicans and religious fanatics aren’t happy about it.
Republicans and religious companies, like Hobby Lobby, have long fought against requiring company-provided health insurance to provide contraception coverage. Obama’s new mandate reaffirmed a provision in the Affordable Care Act that employers must provide such coverage.
Religious fanatics have already started spewing their nonsense. “The government keeps digging the hole deeper,” said Adèle Auxier Keim, legal counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “There is no reason at all the government needs religious employers to help it distribute these products.” It’s ridiculous that religious types conflate medical and health issues with Biblical ones.
Reproductive rights activists herald the rules, saying that they are a step forward in women’s right to choose. Officials with the Obama administration issued a statement. “Women across the country should have access to preventive services, including contraception,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “At the same time, we recognize the deeply held views on these issues.”
These rules are a big win for women’s reproductive rights as it signifies progress in America. Women should be allowed to choose what they do with their bodies without a group of hard-right religious zealots getting in the way.
