Freedom of religion: The liberty of individual conscience

[cbayer]

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/237829-freedom-of-religion-the-liberty-of-individual-conscience

By Jon O'Brien, president, Catholics for Choice - 07/13/12 02:42 PM ET

Wednesday’s vote in the House to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act is not the only path being taken to trample on women's rights.


A new bill from Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) seeks to allow employers to discriminate against their employees in new and far-reaching ways. HR 6097 would mean that any employer that, for a religious or moral reason, refuses to comply with the law requiring insurance coverage of preventive services and medicines, including contraception, with no additional out-of-pocket cost would be exempted from all taxes and penalties. In short, company owners could impose their own religious beliefs on their employees and get away with it.

Black and Sensenbrenner are trying, as some in Congress have tried before, to gain special rules for those wishing to discriminate by creating loop-holes large enough to drive Sunday School buses through instead of acting to protect every individual's right to exercise their beliefs as they see fit regarding healthcare and the health of their families.

This bill comes on the heels of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ineffective campaign to stir Catholics to the defense of the bishops’ notion of religious liberty. The reason the bishops failed is because a sizeable majority of Catholics, according to the Public Religion Research Institute poll, don’t feel their religious freedom is threatened at all.

more at link

[struggle4progress]

1. Some polls

Most OK with birth control at school, poll finds
67 percent support handing out contraceptives, but qualms remain
updated 11/1/2007 10:38:16 AM ET

People decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed. Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many — 62 percent — said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies. "Kids are kids," said Danielle Kessenger, 39, a mother of three young children from Jacksonville, Fla., who supports providing contraceptives to those who request them. "I was a teenager once and parents don't know everything, though we think we do."...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21577133/ns/health-childrens_health/t/most-ok-birth-control-school-poll-finds/

Poll: Majority Of Voters Support Birth-Control Benefit Rule
February 7, 2012
by Frank James

The Obama administration's controversial decision to require religiously affiliated institutions like universities and medical centers to provide workers with health insurance that covers prescription birth control without a co-pay appears to have support from a majority of voters, according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling. The poll, done on behalf of Planned Parenthood, also suggested that Mitt Romney, frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, could pay a price at the polls for taking the position that he would reverse the recent decision by the Health and Human Services Department ...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/02/07/146527962/poll-majority-of-voters-support-obamas-contraception-benefit-rule

Feb 07, 2012
New surveys: Catholics want birth control coverage
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
Updated 2012-02-07 3:58 PM

... A majority (55%) of Americans agree that "employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost." ... Women are significantly more likely than men to agree that employers should be required to provide health care plans that cover contraception ... a majority of voters, including a majority of Catholics, don't believe Catholic hospitals and universities should be exempted from providing the benefit ... Independent voters support this benefit by a 55/36 margin; in fact, a majority of voters in every racial, age and religious category that we track express support ...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2012/02/contraception-catholic-bishops-obama-hhs/1

February 10, 2012
Our polling on the birth control issue

... There is a major disconnect between the leadership of the Catholic Church and rank and file Catholic voters on this issue ...

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/02/our-polling-on-the-birth-control-issue.html

Support Is Found for Birth Control Coverage and Gay Unions
By MARJORIE CONNELLY
Published: February 14, 2012

... the latest New York Times/CBS News poll found most voters support the new federal directive that health insurance plans provide coverage for birth control ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/us/politics/poll-finds-support-for-contraception-policy-and-gay-couples.html

Poll Finds Wide Support for Birth Control Coverage
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 1, 2012

... Over all, 63 percent of Americans said they supported the new federal requirement that private health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control, according to the survey of 1,519 Americans, conducted from Feb. 13 to Feb. 19 for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. While 8 in 10 Democrats said they supported requiring birth control coverage, only 4 in 10 Republicans did. Six in 10 people calling themselves independents voiced approval. Many Americans, in the survey and in independent interviews, expressed impatience with the focus on women’s reproductive issues in an era of economic distress ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/02/us/politics/americans-divided-on-birth-control-coverage-poll-finds.html?_r=1

Republicans Losing on Birth Control as 77% in Poll Spurn Debate
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis - Mar 14, 2012 4:30 AM ET

... More than six in 10 respondents to a Bloomberg National Poll -- including almost 70 percent of women -- say the issue involves health care and access to birth control, according to the survey taken March 8-11 ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-14/republicans-losing-on-birth-control-as-77-in-poll-spurn-debate.html

Poll: Birth control not a top election issue for US voters
Published April 03, 2012

PRINCETON, N.J. – Voters in the US say health care, unemployment, the federal deficit, international issues and gas prices will help influence their decision ahead of the presidential election -- but just one in five thinks birth control policies are an important factor, a Gallup poll out Monday found ...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/03/poll-birth-control-not-top-election-issue-for-us-voters/

[cbayer]

2. Thanks, s4p. Good stuff.

[struggle4progress]

3. They's butt is gonna being drop-kickted into sum nearly-by county