Santorum: Denying women birth control coverage is a First Amendment right

[Galraedia]

Source: Raw Story

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R) on Sunday insisted that President Barack Obama was imposing his beliefs on corporations and preventing them from exercising their “right” to deny women contraception coverage in health care plans.

Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to decide if the corporation Hobby Lobby — which has Christian owners — had its rights violated by a mandate in the Affordable Care Act requiring most health care plans to offer birth control.

In a Sunday interview on CNN, former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) pointed out that he viewed the Vietnam War as “immoral” but had continued to pay his taxes throughout the conflict.

“This is one country, we all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and are agreed to by the court,” Dean said.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/01/santorum-denying-women-birth-control-coverage-is-a-first-amendment-right/

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Santorum then goes on to say:

“And President Obama is saying, ‘No, once you step outside that church, I get to impose my values on you, your religious values don’t matter anymore, it’s my values that I can impose on you."

...

[Thinkingabout]

1. Santorum is trying to impose his beliefs on the rest of the nation. I have been saying

the anti-abortion bunch is into more than preventing abortions. I think they are now going to try to further and deny a woman's right to choose birth control and in reality they are about forced pregnancies. Santorum is a sick bird, it is not his right to impose his beliefs on everyone else.

[Galraedia]

7. They're not pro-life, they're pro-forced birth.

Just look at 'pro-life' Texas, which is extremely anti-choice and has the worst health care in the states. In a nation that only ranks 37th in health care out of all the world's nations, Texas ranks 50th out of all the states. Texas delivers the poorest health care in a nation with the poorest health care of any developed nation. Wtf kind of pro-life is that?

[Rozlee]

20. The US has the highest first-day infant mortality rate in the industrial world.

More babies die in their first 24 hours of life in the US than in any other industrialized country. This is mostly due to our high rate of premature births, which has a lot to do with our large number of teen pregnancies and poor education about prenatal care and poor access to quality medical services among poor women. The states where abstinence-only education is promoted have the highest rates of teen pregnancies. These bible humpers make me sick.

[pangaia]

27. So true.

This and Galraedia 's post just above should be broadcast ALL OVER the US-- in ads, interviews, letters to editors... "Our" "Democratic" politicians sure won't do it.

[JDPriestly]

40. +1,000,000

[madrchsod]

2. i have no doubt the supremes will rule in favor of corporations

[lostincalifornia]

13. Not necessarily. This would open up a major can of worms, and also contradict previous actions. In

addition, the ramifications go far beyond birth control.

[warrant46]

18. The ramifications will go far beyond birth control

How about transfusions? All types of other religious hang ups for health care. Religious interpretations relating to other corporate decisions such as who to hire etc.

But these Fundy Nut Jobs are really capable of anything

[elleng]

34. I agree. Huge ramifications,

and I suspect they'll recognize that, as well as the essential foolishness of the proposition.

I must not 'bet' on this one (as I think I jinx.)

[SheilaT]

3. I'm sorry but the ones trying to impose their values on others

are the ones denying birth control coverage.

For those like Santorum and the owners of Hobby Lobby, etc., no one is forcing them to actually use birth control if it's against their beliefs.

I don't understand how these people don't get it, don't understand who is actually imposing on whom.

[elleng]

35. Right, but they don't care about such niceties, SheilaT,

they're trying to make political points.

[SheilaT]

38. I hate it that you are right.

Plus, as has been pointed out in various posts in this thread they just don't care about the already born.

[RC]

4. Someone needs to tell this idiot that women have Rights too.

And their reproductive Right supersedes his beliefs.

[Happyhippychick]

5. Please refer to Mr. Santorum by his rightful name

Frothy McFeces

[valerief]

6. I vote to not use my taxes for WAR. First Amendment right.

Is that how it works?

[Swede Atlanta]

15. Exactly!!!!

I want to be able to ask the government how much of my taxes go to support the basic military infrastructure (i.e. our men and women in uniform and defensive military equipment including aircraft, ships, etc.) and how much goes to support any military activity outside the U.S. including military aid.

As a matter of conscience I should be able to not have to pay those taxes with which I disagree on deeply religious or moral grounds.

This is a slippery slope my friends......

[elehhhhna]

8. If the ussc decides that the rights of corps supercede the rights of human citizens,

shit's going to get real.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. You mean they haven't already?

They can do things you and I can't. Maybe we don't have enough speech in our bank accounts.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Corporations are not human beings, Mr. Santorum

For starters, Mr. Santorum, corporations don't take communion.

Santorum's interpretation of the First Amendment, filtered through the nonsense of corporate personhood and conflating the corporation with its principle shareholders, is one of the most twisted and bizarre applications of corporate personhood once expanded beyond contract law yet.

Of course, five will get you ten that it's not so bizarre or twisted to be embraced by the judicial hacks on the Supreme Court.

[notadmblnd]

19. and as Jon stewart pointed out recently. Where do your religious morals and values end?

Cause you all seem to have no problem doing business with a country that forces abortion on the people you buy your goods from.

[Volaris]

47. I'll take that bet. 6-3 against (at least), with Roberts in the Majority.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. This is not the United Theocracy of America.

This man needs serious help because he is taking out his frustrations for the tragedies in his life, on others. And the rest of the nuts in his party are all reinforcing the wrong way to come to terms with their pasts while the media pumps them all up without consideration for the damage being done by encouraging them.

[MsPithy]

11. Holding Santorum's nose closed, dropping the pills in his mouth and then pouring water down

his throat is the only way to force contraception onto him.

Religious freedom belongs to the individual worker, or it does not exist.

[fujiyama]

14. Regardless of Santorum's crackpot religious views on contraceptives

birth control pills have many, many medical uses and are prescribed for many different reasons. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/11/15/142358413/the-pill-not-just-for-pregnancy-prevention

Santorum should quit playing doctor. He's even worse at it than Senator, a job at which he sucked so badly at, he was fired by his constituents.

[niyad]

16. hey, ricky, why is it okay for YOU and all the other woman-hating thugs to impose YOUR views on US??

nothing in the constitution says that churches get to run everyone else's life, you sanctimonious, hypocritical, ignorant, woman-hating cretin.

[2banon]

17. Basic Civics Course should be a requirement

for individuals to run/hold public office, along with a minimum I.Q. Test, and definitely a basic grasp of the 1st amendment of the Constitution aka 'Bill of Rights' and remaining Amendments. I know he's no longer a Senator (thanks to PA. voters), which is why I don't know why we have to be continuously subjected to his brand of idiocy along with Palen et.al.

I would also add that a basic grasp of Separation between Church and State be clearly understood, why do we have to constantly be harangued by these religious crackpots anyway?

[Vox Moi]

21. The ownership society … they own us.

What else would you expect from a Job Creator?
Don't they deserve a say in how the wages and benefits should be used by their employees?
After all, your job - your food and shelter - is a privilege granted by the Creator.

Ask not what your wages can do for you … ask your boss.

[rocktivity]

22. But there's nothing wrong with imposing your religious values on everybody else?

Rick Santorum: The gift that keeps on spurting!




rocktivity

[The Second Stone]

23. Corporations are not people or citizens and don't have any beliefs

They are artificial constructs legally separate from the people that create and own them. They do not have the rights of the people that created them, such as the right to vote and cannot have implemented policies that violate the law and do not get to pick and choose which laws of employment they want to cover or not. Their arguments are no different than a corporation claiming that their shareholders' religious beliefs require that they not pay overtime or provide any health care.

[oldandhappy]

24. If only men could get pregnant, sigh.

[Thor_MN]

25. Santorum confuses speech with actions

He can say almost anything he wants, which is demonstrated by the idiocy that he spouted today. He is not free to DO anything he wants. He can bitch all he wants to, but he can not take any action he wants.

While his beloved corporations have been given the right to free speech (which is ridiculous, in and of itself) they also are not free to do whatever they want.

[madamesilverspurs]

26. gahhh.........

[mountain grammy]

49. Perfect!!

[Dawson Leery]

28. Someone needs to teach the whore of babylon (Rick Santorum)

about civics.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. Obama made me have an abortion...

seriously, where do they get this shit?

[shenmue]

30. What about the rights of the women?

Why does only Santorum have rights?

[rock]

31. And shooting people in the face with a shotgun

is both a 1st and 2nd amendment right!

[ZRT2209]

32. The American Taliban wants their Handmaid's Tale world

[pansypoo53219]

33. PRO-FETUS. the woman nor the child matters. or PRO-BIRTH.

[olegramps]

36. Santorum is nothing more than a shill for the Catholic bishops.

The religious crackpots can not grasp the fact that the right to practice their ridiculous beliefs only exist because of the Founding Fathers' determination to separate religion from politics. The very freedom that they enjoy the are determined to deny to anyone who doesn't adhere to their nitwit beliefs completely standing the Constitution's on its head that was written with the intent to allow total freedom in this area. A real threat is when Catholic hospitals buy up all the hospitals in an area and then impose their condemnation of abortion, contraception and sterilization on those who don't share their ridiculous beliefs and which are not even accepted by the vast majority of their own membership.

[SoapBox]

37. Oh shut the fuck up.

Ricky, you are a sicko perv, always worried about a woman's crotch and whether you can fully dominate what she does with her "equipment"...worry about your own "junk" and shut up.

[ThoughtCriminal]

39. I take it that laws prohibiting human sacrifice

would also infringe on a religion that supported that?

As long as the sacrifice is conducted inside the church?

[obxhead]

41. However, it is completely reasonable for the religious to FORCE their

beliefs on everyone else.

Why won't a single M$M pundit shoot this BS message down?

[marble falls]

42. I hope this kind of crapola becomes talking points in the next two elections. I wish he would run.

[Arkana]

43. No, Ricky, you've got that backwards. We don't have to tolerate

your intolerance.

[hrmjustin]

44. Santorum is still getting press? Why?

[struggle4progress]

45. He crashed and burned in 2006. His 2012 presidential campaign collapsed in April 2012.

He's going nowhere fast

[Volaris]

46. omfg....

FOR-PROFIT CORPORATIONS CAN'T HAVE RELIGIOUS VALUES. THEIR OVERRIDING VALUE SYSTEM IS PROFIT AT ALL COSTS, LEGALLY. NOTHING ELSE APPLIES. THE END.

This is the new (old) line of attack, President Obama as anti-Christian. By the time this Term is over, they'll hate John Roberts, too. It will be fun to watch them call him a Dirty Liberal Activist Judge.
Again, my prediction for this is 6-3 against, (AT LEAST), with Roberts in the Majority.

Derpy is REALLY going to hate it when the Infallability argument comes home to bite him in the ass.

[davidpdx]

48. The truth is we are a secular nation, not a Christian nation

Republicans have continued to insist that our system of government was based on Christian values. Our founding fathers were looking to escape the religious tyranny of England when the US was created.

Those that claim we are a Christian nation should look at Proverbs 6:16-19:

There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

[mountain grammy]

50. Bullshit.. this is about hatred for Obama and nothing else.

The "Christian" owners of Hobby Lobby hate (and I mean HATE) the President and this is their toddler tantrum against someone they hate. It's a waste of time and money, but what does that matter when they can "get" the President they hate.
Once again, I'll vote with my wallet and avoid these stores. My shopping and dining options continue to shrink, but, truthfully, they have nothing to offer me.

[raging moderate]

51. The feudal society of the antebellum South persists in its errors.

Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2013, 03:08 PM - Edit history (1)

This is the worldview of the feudal Lords of the ancient times, all around the world: the paternalistic idea that MIGHT MAKES RIGHT, and that the people who have amassed the greatest power actually OWN the people who work for them and have the right to use that power to DICTATE the tiniest details of the lives of those people.

[karynnj]

52. Howard Dean's answer is perfect

I also think that the Republicans are going too far on this. Unlike on abortion, there is a very big supermajority who do see birth control as a reasonable thing to do.

Pope Francis may have been thinking of Santorum when he said that the church was church is too “obsessed” with abortion, gay marriage and contraception. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/11/16/2943221/rise-progressive-catholicism-pope-francis-polling-worlds-catholics/

[GladRagDahl]

53. Not literally denying birth control coverage

It's a question of semantics here. The question is whether an employer can be compelled by the government to provide contraceptive services and abortion coverage. Employers aren't required to provide any coverage but when they do, as a perk to employees, I don't like the idea that the government is requiring them to provide these particular specifics.

The law of unintended consequences seems pretty obvious to me on this one. IF Hobby Lobby loses, they are simply going to drop insurance for their employees who will then have to provide their own on the government exchange.

[Drale]

54. If this is true

shooting Ricky-boy in the face is also my first amendment right to? Cause I'll take him up on that one.