Birth Control

Here's your logic: block the sidewalks, bus in scores of children, bellow at passersby through a bullhorn, and assault clinic escorts...and then complain about the "tension and violence" associated with the clinic. That's the noise clamoring out of the anti-choice movement of Huntsville, Alabama, as the zoning board heard their last-ditch effort to keep North Alabama's lone women's clinic from opening a new location.

More than half of privately insured women are getting free birth control under President Barack Obama's health law, a major coverage shift that's likely to advance. This week the Supreme Court allowed some employers with religious scruples to opt out, but most companies appear to be going in the opposite direction.

As one attendee described today's public hearing, it was "7 white guys, 1 black woman, and 1 white female secretary" in session to discuss laws that impact the women of Alabama. And the guys decided that they know better than the gals and their doctors how to handle the female reproductive system. Committee votes for HB490, HB493, and HB494 were all 7-1.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Woods birth control cases, the most significant religious-freedom cases in at least a generation. The central issue is whether or not companies whose owners have deep-seated religious objections to some forms of contraception should be required to provide birth control benefits to employees. A ruling isn’t expected until the end of June, so there’s plenty of time to do some background reading.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, citing the Constitution's 'religious freedom' clause, joined 20 other state prosecutors opposing the birth-control mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Religious zealotry trumps good policy, it seems.

Sandra Fluke, who in testimony before Congress called for birth control to be included in the health care bill (and slut-shamed by Rush Limbaugh for it), decided to run for an open California state senate seat, rather than attempt to get the Democratic nod for the soon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat of outgoing Henry Waxman.

Back in 2005, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee signed a law mandating Arkansas insurance plans provide contraception coverage, including church-affiliated organizations such as hospitals and universities.

Health care workers take note: Alabama wants you to know that your conscience doesn't matter - unless someone else's uterus is involved. Then, legislators are totally on your side and vow to protect your delicate sensibilities.

Those of us who were around in 2010 when Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) nearly derailed the Affordable Care Act with his ill-informed demagoguery about abortion largely thought President Obama put the abortion scare-mongering to bed by signing