The Hill reports Senator Reid has changed his mind and will bring to a vote the HHS limitation on the religious exemption for employers mandated to provide contraceptive, abortifacient and sterilization coverage:
Republicans are picking a new fight over contraception — and at least some Democrats are happy to let them have it.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he’ll let the Senate vote on a proposal to reverse the White House’s controversial birth-control mandate. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), would let employers opt out of any coverage mandates they find immoral.
Reid blocked a vote on the same amendment last week, before the White House had announced new “accommodations” for religious organizations. Senate Republicans pressed ahead after Obama’s announcement, despite pundits’ warnings that the party could appear to be attacking contraception rather than defending religious liberty.
Gulag Bound says these Senators are sitting on the fence and suggests proponents of the law contact them:
Casey (PA)
Conrad (ND)
Johnson (SD)
Landrieu (LA)
Lieberman (CT)
McCaskill (MO)
Nelson (FL)
Pryor (AR)
Tester (MT)
“despite pundits’ warnings that the party could appear to be attacking contraception rather than defending religious liberty.”
If you fight you *might* lose. If you don’t fight you *will* lose. The choice seems obvious to me and always has been. But then, I’m not smart enough to be in politics.
The blunt fact is that most Americans don’t care enough about contraception to force those with religious objections to pay for it for others. To them, it would be like forcing someone to drink alcohol at a party when they are teetotalers–or forcing them to pay for that alcohol, even if they weren’t going to the party.
Basically, it is worth noting that the Democrats are going to gain something from this, even if the mandate , in the way that the US pledged never to invade Cuba and removed the missiles from Turkey after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even if the mandate goes away, the way the issue will be fought will guarantee that contraception is never again legally threatened as far as basic availability. I personally have no issue with that as a general principle, but I think it might have been achieved at too Machiavellian of a price.
I hope the Catholics who vote Democratic understand that. What they value is not the priority of the Progressive wing, after a certain point. And it is the Progressive wing that is in charge of the left these days. They will use/abuse anybody they need to use/abuse to get what they wish, and they do have something of a laundry list. Personally, I would have a hard time trusting that kind of person, but that’s me.
– because only a couple days ago he was urging everyone settle down and await the regulation so we could know what’s in it, reminiscent of Pelosi.
IMO either he’s counted heads and thinks he’s got the votes to kill the bill or he thinks the bill will pass and get this out of the news without hurting Obama more which backtracking would do.
I don’t think they can spin it for the first, so they have to do the second and say “see, Democrats care about religious liberty too. By the way, we think Obama is just the bomb, on so many things.”
Personal opinion.
Roy Blunt made a mistake and the Senators up for election who vote for this will feel the heat of women as well as most every sane person who thinks this is plain stupid.
So if a person dislikes gays they could say – no HIV for you even though you may not be gay. Or no Birth control for you or no cancer drugs for you if you smoked or your lifestyle choice here. Oh and if you’re obese HAHAHAHA
why not just repeat your lies about how many Catholics want the Administration to be able to force them into self-excommunicating acts?
– having been beaten down again by Bryan and CW over at the other blog.
No one is forcing anyone to commit to any act Clarice. Oh wait there is one group of wackjob religious jesus freaks who are doing that and that is Bob McDonald and the Republicans of VA. They would like to stick a probe up a woman’s vagina if that is the only way they can show her a sonogram of the fetus she wants to abort. A total unnecessary procedure but then anything is fair game when old white men want to control women. Glad you side with the old white men.