Wheaton College Cancels Student Health Plan Due To Federal Contraception Requirements
Wheaton College, a Christian school of higher education in Illinois, is refusing to offer its student health plan this year after the Obama administration released new contraceptive accommodations for religious non-profits late last week.
AU Warns Texas Judge That Marriage Roadblocks Are Unconstitutional
Anti-LGBT Activists Ramp Up Rhetoric at Future Conference
'Hobby Lobby' Was Never About Religious Liberty
When the Obama administration's newly updated contraception accommodations came down late last week, anti-choice supporters showed their true colors.
Lawmaker Calls for Impeachment of TN Governor for Following the Law
Texas Religious Group Wastes Precious Oxygen on Vile Anti-LGBT Statements
In a news conference on Tuesday, July 14, Texas religious leaders launched a coalition called REAL MARRIAGE: One Man/One Woman for Life, which will target businesses and and politicians who support the Supreme Court's marriage equality decision. While the group refused to elaborate on their targets, they did waste oxygen on some incredibly vile statements.
Ford Employee Fired For Insulting LGBT Community on Company Website, Claims Religious Liberty Was Violated
Casey at the Bat: Anti-LGBT Kentucky Clerk Will Not Go Away
Thought Casey Davis, the county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, would go away after being ordered by the Kentucky governor to do his job?
In the words of The Princess Bride: get used to disappointment.
Texas County Clerk Resigns Rather Than Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples
Majority of Christian Small Business Owners Oppose Denying Goods or Services Based on Religious Beliefs
Congressman Steve King Proposes Resolution to Condemn Marriage Equality Ruling
Religious Right Looks to Recast Itself in Sympathetic Light
Since the Supreme Court's landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision earlier this summer, the Religious Right has been desperately scrambling for any talking point that would allow them to stay relevant in the national conversation. According to Politico, it looks like they've hit on one:
"A number of religious conservatives told POLITICO that the key to winning...upcoming legislative and legal battles will be employing tactics refined by the same-sex marriage movement that recently defeated them...
New Birth Control Regulations Won’t Stem Religious Right Groups’ Attacks On Reproductive Health Care, Says Americans United
Far-Right Groups Are Determined To Curtail Access To Contraceptives, Church-State Watchdog Says
The Obama Administration today issued the latest in a series of regulations designed to ensure that Americans have access to affordable birth control, but the move isn’t likely to end litigation over the matter, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The new regulations accommodate religious objections advanced by certain closely held for-profit corporations; they also finalize previous accommodations made available to religious non-profit entities, such as religiously affiliated colleges and universities. The new rules go beyond what is required by court decisions, but that’s unlikely to placate bosses who are determined to curtail women’s access to birth control.
“I blame this mess on the Supreme Court,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Although these accommodations preserve women’s access to contraception, the definition of religious freedom adopted by the high court in the Hobby Lobby case has spawned new legal challenges that put American women at risk.”
The Hobby Lobby ruling, issued in 2014, permits certain for-profit businesses to refuse to include contraceptives in employee health-care plans if employers disagree with it on religious grounds. The case concerned a chain of craft stores whose fundamentalist owners insist, incorrectly, that certain types of birth control cause abortion.
“The administration had to respond to this ruling, and today’s regulations are a good-faith effort to protect women,” Lynn said. “Although I hope I’m proven wrong, I fear that the Religious Right and its allies, the Catholic bishops, won’t stop until they have denied access to safe and affordable birth control to as many women as possible.”
Lynn pointed out that the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby was based on a faulty interpretation of a 1993 federal law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). In light of the manner in which the high court misconstrued that law, Lynn said it may be time to fix it and make clear that RFRA was never intended to allow harms to third parties.
“An employee’s decision to obtain and use birth control is a purely private matter,” Lynn said. “It in no way diminishes or even affects the religious freedom of her boss.”
Defending Discrimination: The Religious Right Is Unhappy About Americans United’s New Project To End Religious-Based Refusals
From Americans United's Wall of Separation blog:
"This week, Americans United launched a new initiative, Protect Thy Neighbor (PTN), which is intended to stop religious zealots from using “religious freedom” as an excuse to discriminate against others. Unsurprisingly, those who are intent on discriminating against LGBT persons and others were none too happy about AU’s announcement.
Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins took to one of FRC’s many publications to denounce AU’s work as evidence of Christian “persecution.”
Wanted: An Anti-Gay Rosa Parks. Send Applications to Pat Buchanan.
The New York Times: Marriage License Refusals an "Illegal Defiance"
From The New York Times:
"Not so long ago, of course, government officials invoked religious beliefs to justify all manner of racial segregation and discrimination, including laws banning interracial marriage. The Supreme Court struck down that marriage ban in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia.
It is impossible to imagine any county clerk or judge now claiming a right not to marry an interracial couple based on religious beliefs. And yet, that would be analogous to what these public employees are doing in refusing to serve same-sex couples. The Constitution’s protection of religious freedom simply does not include the right to discriminate against others in the public sphere."
Battling Barriers: Birth Control Access Helps Women, But Religious Right Groups Threaten To Get In The Way
Kentucky Governor Lays Down the Law to County Clerk Who Refuses to Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples
Milwaukee County Sheriff Wants "Revolution" in Face of Marriage Equality Ruling
From Right Wing Watch:
"'The next time in your state the federal government tries to put a church or a bakery or a pizza place out of business because they want to live by their religious conviction,” [David Clarke] said, “when I talk about pitchforks and torches, you need to get down there, surround that business and dare the federal government to come in and close it. That’s the revolution I’m talking about, it has to start in the states.'"