The Right Wing's Idea of "Freedom"

[paft.livejournal.com]

From Statepress:

Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or acne treatment.


‘I believe we live in America. We don’t live in the Soviet Union,’ Lesko said. ‘So, government should not be telling the organizations or mom and pop employers to do something against their moral beliefs.’

Jezebel points out that Arizona is an “at will” state. This means that bosses in Arizona will be able to fire women for being depraved enough to take birth control pills to prevent pregnancy.

As we all know, what made the Soviet Union infamous were not the gulags, its treatment of dissidents, and the rigid control over the press, but the fact that women could take pills for the purpose of contraception without fear of losing their jobs over it.

Yes, here it is -- the right wing's idea of "freedom" is a society where a woman has to ask her boss' permission to use oral contraceptives.

Does anyone else find this more than a little weird?

Crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

Comments

[paft.livejournal.com]

bdj: it's not going to go anywhere.

Why not?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

There's no significant push or desire for this sort of legislation, and the only reason it's receiving any attention at all is because it's feeding the media-driven narrative in play currently.

[paft.livejournal.com]

bdj: There's no significant push or desire for this sort of legislation, and the only reason it's receiving any attention at all is because it's feeding the media-driven narrative in play currently.

You've not noticed a concerted attack from the Republicans on birth control, in particular oral contraceptives?

[dwer.livejournal.com]

he thinks that panel with all the men was about religious freedom.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Not think, but know.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

in that blessedly singular BDJ way.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Reality and a significant segment of the voting public differ, but tilt away.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Reality agrees with me. The "significant segment of the voting public" might not, but it wouldn't be the first time.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Not at all, no. I've seen a media-generated and left-wing-generated (but I repeat myself) concoction based around the concept that the right wing is supposedly anti-contraception, but no real actual concerted attack by the right or Republicans.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Yes, right, not concerted in the sense of a symphony with a common conductor, but if all the musicians one side of a hall are playing the same music, conductor aside, it's sure still going to look and act like a concert.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Indeed. That orchestra is sitting off to the left, and the media is printing the programs.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Pfft, media: an arm of the state who's function is to convince the masses there are significant differences between various of its chosen owners' reps - so yes, left, right, center, you got that right, the show must go on and on.

[paft.livejournal.com]

LOL! Riiight, Jeff. All those legislative attacks on contraception, etc. from the Republican Party are a liberal Democratic plot.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

What legislative attacks, specifically?

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

> There's no significant push or desire for this sort of legislation

I think there is, and there will be more. There is a concerted effort among some religious conservatives to unify anti-abortion sentiment and anti-contraceptive sentiment, and we've already seen how much abortion restricting legislation (at the state level) has gone forward under pressure from the state legislatures post 2010.




(source of above Graphic... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/2012-another-record-year-for-abortion-restrictions/2011/12/29/gIQAw5tKxR_blog.html )

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Birth control isn't abortion.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

That depends upon whom you ask. The sufficiently religious differentiate the two only as extremes of the same phenomenon.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

So, around 20 people then.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It is according to the Catholic Church. But their view only counts when you say it does. Not when it actually says it in bold, explicit terms for everyone with intellectual maturity and honesty to know that words stated in public baldly mean what they mean.

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

The Church considers all of these sins, but not all of them are considered abortion. The morning after pill is considered an abortifacient, but others like condoms and diaphragms are considered run of the mill contraception.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Despite the alternate reality you are trying to construct, a large portion of the party that shares your ideology is socially conservative and does in fact rally behind anti-abortion legislation.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Anti-abortion isn't anti-contraception. You're moving the goalposts.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

And yet we see here they are related very closely. Lets watch what happens!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

What will happen is continued attempts to restrict or lessen abortion with no actual impact on contraception.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, because social conservatives are too cowardly and childish to ever take the responsibility for what they say or do, but unlike kids can't be taught a lesson they will never, ever learn and prefer hiding behind conspiracy theories to actually bothering to learn.