Of course, the big news this week is the Supreme Court trying to decide if a for-profit corporation can demand a "religious exemption" to the ACA mandate to cover birth control. Sandra Fluke lays out the stakes:
Depending on the court’s rulings, the cases’ outcomes could deny millions of women coverage of any or all forms of birth control, limiting women’s ability to control their reproductive health, plan their pregnancies and manage their lives. As I testified, women also need birth control for many other medical reasons, including relief of painful health problems like endometriosis.
But allowing private employers to excuse themselves from health insurance and employment law could go much further than just contraception and reproductive health services. Allowing any private employer to dictate which laws fit inside its religious beliefs could upset the necessary balance of both religious liberty and employee health and safety laws. Depending on the exact ruling, any for-profit corporation could cut off its employees’ insurance coverage for blood transfusions, vaccinations or HIV treatment — all of which some Americans have religious objections to. Any critical health coverage the boss doesn’t agree with could be eliminated.
All that is true. And this "parade of horribles," extending well beyond women's contraceptive access, is probably the most persuasive argument we have with a Supreme Court when men outnumber women two to one. But even if it's "only" about birth control access, that should be enough.
Because your boss shouldn't have the right to impose religious beliefs on you. Not even when they're popular beliefs, like Good Women Don't Have Sex.
And because the canard about your employer "paying for your birth control" should be killed dead. When you get your paycheck in exchange for your labor, it becomes yours and your boss doesn't get to tell you how to use it. Likewise, when you get insurance in exchange for your labor, it becomes yours and your boss doesn't get to tell you how to use it.
And because women, NOT corporations, are people.
The good, the bad and the ugly below the orange Pill container.
Reproductive freedom:
Awesome video: Hey Supreme Court: No Boss in My Bedroom.
Alaska State Senator Pete Kelly wants state-funded pregnancy tests available in the ladies' room in bars. (Because that's totally when you'd check, right, in between drinks?) However, he opposes any state funding for birth control: it's "for people who don't necessarily want to act responsibly."
A bill being considered in Kansas would require doctors to report all miscarriages to the State Health Department. Another bill in Tennessee goes even further: it would make women criminally liable for the outcomes of their pregnancies.
West Virginia's Governor vetoed a bill that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks.
A US appeals court has upheld the Texas abortion restrictions that Wendy Davis famously filibustered. Among other things, the ruling said that making the woman travel 150 miles each way is not an "undue burden." (Because if the judge can afford a car, everyone can afford a car, right?)
Melissa McEwan notes that the whole point of adding these restrictions is to create an undue burden. And she has an awesome idea:
You know how every once in awhile, a politician tries to live for a month on food stamps? (Ex. Cory Booker; Greg Stanton.) I want them to start trying to access abortion in their home states.
Do it with no insurance coverage and no car. Figure out how to get yourself to the clinic, pay for it without that stellar politician's salary, walk past the screaming protesters, and be told you'll have to come back after the waiting period....and the trans-penile ultrasound.
Economics:
Paycheck to Paycheck is a documentary putting a human face on the women living with poverty.
White House Report: Raising the minimum wage would especially help women workers.
Republicans send another female stooge to assure us that the issue of equal pay is just a distraction from "real issues." Digby adds some thoughts on real issues.
Intersectionality:
"Royals" parody mocks how women of color are Typecast.
"I'm not an angry Black woman - but should I be?"
Violence:
Amanda Marcotte on Reeva Steenkamp's last text message to Oscar Pistorius, and the workings of emotional abuse.
Revenge porn website creators Kevin Bollaert and Eric Chason were successfully sued and ordered to pay $385,000 to a woman whose nude picture was posted without her consent while she was underage. Bollaert is still facing criminal charges of extortion and identity theft, as he would routinely post the victims' contact information to encourage harassment, then demand money from them to take the photos down.
Rape culture at Brigham Young University: a serial groper has victimized at least 15 young women on campus, and the online reaction has been to treat it as a joke.
Zerlina Maxwell on examples of rape culture. And Jessica Valenti: "Talking about rape culture isn’t meant to shift focus away from rapists but to paint a fuller picture of how rapists operate and the best ways to stop them."
A first-person piece on facing childhood sexual abuse by a teacher, after 35 years of telling herself it hadn't affected her. (All kinds of trigger warnings, of course.)
Uncategorizable:
Myths and denialism about bisexuality start with the presumption that the only relevant research subjects are men.
Good news:
Supreme Court unanimously upholds law banning gun possession for people with misdemeanor domestic violence convictions.