Here’s an open line. We’ll be back later if possible with an update on evening activities of the Arkansas legislature. In the meanwhile:
* TELL THE TRUTH, RUTH! Here’s an extract of the best lines from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s blistering dissent in the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (five Catholic men in the majority) that a corporation need not provide contraceptive coverage if its owners have religious objections. A couple of examples:
Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community.
And
It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month’s full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage.
And
Would the exemption…extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]…Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today’s decision.
As she also said, the court has created a “minefield.”
* TELL THE TRUTH, HILLARY! HIllary Clinton calls the Hobby Lobby ruling “deeply disturbing.”
* TELL THE TRUTH, MARK! Here’s Mark Pryor’s statement on the anti-contraception ruling, cheered immediately by his opponent Tom Cotton.
“As a person of faith, I understand the deeply held religious views of those who brought this suit forward. At the same time I cannot support Congressman Cotton’s irresponsible plan to return to the days when women paid more than men for basic health care services and folks were denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, nor do I agree that we should kick more than 220,000 working Arkansans off of their private insurance plans.
“Unlike Congressman Cotton, I believe that every adult and child should have access to quality, affordable care, and that health care decisions should be made by families and doctors, not insurance industry bureaucrats.”
Cotton’s irresponsible record?
He has sponsored a bill to declare that constitutional rights take effect at the moment of fertilization. Forget no insurance coverage for a morning after pill for rape victims. Tom Cotton would outlaw it and potentially regular birth control pills, too, according to doctors. Even Mississippi voters defeated a law to accomplish this after learning about the devastating invasion of the doctor-woman relationship and other broad-ranging impact, including on people seeking in vitro fertilization.l