SCOTUS

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

     Yesterday SCOTUS made a decision that set what I believe to be a very dangerous president. The fact that a company was deemed to be able to have religious beliefs is frightening and outrageous, but to then determine that those religious beliefs can be imposed on their employees is beyond understanding. 

     I have heard the argument on social media that it doesn't really matter because employees can still get  16 out of 20 kinds of contraception. It does matter. It matters for the employees whose healthcare needs are best served by using one of the banned forms of birth control. It matters because it is a blatant assertion by the court that corporations are people and women are somehow less. 

     Healthcare should be between a woman and her doctor. When employees or anyone else can dictate your personal choices, there is a problem, a big one. There are several more court cases coming up that also seek to to restrict or altogether ban covering birth control. 

      I don' understand the celebration of this decision by some, specifically by women. The only thing that occurs to me is that these women buy into the patriarchal religious teaching common with some sects of Christianity. It's a downward spiral of taking away rights that were so hard won. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was quoted as saying "The court has ventured into a minefield." I agree with her.

     What's more the information that the court was presented to make the decision was flawed. The Plan B, ella and other emergency contraceptives prevent conception from occurring. I have heard many supporters of the decision claiming that emergency contraception pills are the same as abortion pills. That's not the truth and they knew it when they said it. the abortion pill, UR-486,mifeprex (mifepristone) is in no way the same thing. It is almost understandable that uninformed people blindly following their pastor, conservative republican, or opinionated friends might buy into believing what they are hearing over science. 

     The Justices were presented claims that these forms of contraception were virtually abortions. This is not forgivable. They did not do their due diligence in finding out the facts before the ruling. Or maybe they did and don't care. The decision was made by the male members of the SCOTUS while the women members opposed the ruling. 

     One last question that I have is could Justice Scalia have really been able to make a fair and impartial decision when his wife is a pro-life advocate and a crises pregnancy counselor for the anti-abortion group Nurturing Network.