Free Republic

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/wh-marks-mothers-day-celebrating-free-birth-control_722143.html The White House is marking Mother's Day, which is this Sunday, by celebrating free birth control provided by Obamacare. The White House made the declaration in a tweet today from their official Twitter account. "Thanks to the #ACA, 1 in 3 women under 65 gained access to preventive care—like birth control—with no out-of-pocket costs. #HappyMothersDay," the unsigned tweet reads.

The White House is marking Mother's Day, which is this Sunday, by celebrating free birth control provided by Obamacare. The White House made the declaration in a tweet today from their official Twitter account.

Where are today’s rebels?  Where is the counterculture? Ear-budded hipsters, with their sheep-like devotion to Apple products and the Obama administration, sit in on the April 20 “Day of Pot” in Denver, content and satisfied with their free birth control and legalized maryjane.  Meanwhile SWAT teams descend on Watertown, Massachusetts, trampling Fourth Amendment rights in search of a “person of interest”– while a Saudi National is quietly sent back to his homeland.These hipsters champion the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado while the war on Big Tobacco rages on.  Since 1997 the FDA inherited control over the $365.5 billion global...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has reaffirmed the Vatican's criticism of a body that represents U.S. nuns which the Church said was tainted by "radical" feminism, dashing hopes he might take a softer stand with the sisters. Francis's predecessor, Benedict, decreed that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group that represents more than 80 percent of the 57,000 Catholic nuns in the United States, must change its ways, a ruling which the Vatican said on Monday still applied. Last year, a Vatican report said the LCWR had "serious doctrinal problems" and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with...

Appearing on Monday's NBC Today as part of the Today's Professionals panel discussion, the network's chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman urged the Catholic Church to abandon its opposition to contraception: "Here's one thing I really would implore the Catholic Church to do on a global issue.... poverty without birth control begets more poverty....So this is a chance to take the humility and the poverty and say now we're really going to talk about this in a civilized way and move it forward." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Advertising executive Donny Deutsch chimed in: "Well...

Are childrens’ car seats driving down the fertility rate in America?Jonathan V. Last sees car seats as part of a “huge constellation of factors in modern life” that “nudge” people toward having fewer children, he said during an interview about his book, What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster.Last said car seats effectively create a small “tax on people who want to have more than two kids” by making it harder to fit three kids into a normal sedan, which encourages parents to buy a larger car. This penalty may not dissuade people who already want...

Under pressure from religious and conservative groups, the Obama administration has offered another compromise on the issue of birth control coverage within the Affordable Care Act. While exempting churches and some religiously affiliated institutions, such as hospitals and universities, from supplying the coverage, the new proposal calls for their employees to receive stand-alone private insurance policies providing birth control coverage at no cost. Insurance companies will foot the bill, but only the naive can possibly think the cost won't find its way back to the institution in the form of higher health premiums. Numerous lawsuits filed against this and...

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday set the stage for a massive showdown between the federal government of the United States and American Christians who believe the government has no right to force them to act against their faith by mandating that they buy, provide or facilitate health-care coverage that includes sterilizations, contraception, or abortion-inducing drugs. HHS released a new proposed regulation under the Obamacare law that the department presented as an accommodation to religious “organizations” that object to providing sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their health care plans. However, the proposal does not...

Religious nonprofits and secular for-profit businesses have filed more than 40 lawsuits, claiming the mandate violates their religious beliefs. WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday proposed a work-around for religious nonprofits that object to providing health insurance that covers birth control. The government's new regulation attempts to create a barrier between religious groups and contraception coverage, through insurers or a third party, that would still give women free access to contraception. It wasn't immediately clear whether religious leaders would accept the new approach, or whether it would stem the tide of lawsuits by Roman Catholic charities and other faith-affiliated...

President Obama’s mandate that most private companies provide health insurance plans that include free contraceptives has met with considerable headwinds in the legal system, where nine of the 14 federal courts to rule so far have sided with employers who say the mandate violates their beliefs and infringes on their religious liberties. While the broad scope of the president’s health law survived Supreme Court scrutiny last year, the challenges to the contraception mandate remain a major legal hurdle for the Obama administration, and the deep skepticism shown by a number of judges makes it likely the high court will be...

1) Guns for making all those poor innocent criminals break the law. 2) The old, dead white guys who founded America and their ridiculous, outdated Constitution that doesn't mention global warming or limits on soda size even once. 3) Nosy voters who ask questions like, "What kind of change?" and "Forward to where?" 4) Adorable little kids who want to run lemonade stands...WITHOUT A PERMIT! 5) The fact that Sarah Palin is the single best feminist role model in a generation while the Left's #1 feminist role model, Hillary Clinton, built her whole career around marrying the right guy. 6)...

Squee! As Twitchy reported, binders full of moochers stopped hoarding birth control when the nefarious pill-stealer Romney lost the election. Now, they are empowering themselves by groveling at the feet of their birth control sugar daddy master.

We had this in headlines a couple of days ago, but many probably missed it over the holidays. It's enough of a departure from other recent decisions that it's worth posting here, and I have a feeling we could use a little good news on a bad day. The devoutly Catholic founder of Domino's filed this lawsuit on behalf of an office park he owns in Michigan, not Domino's Pizza, but the suit is one of more than 40 brought against the federal government to prevent religious owners of secular businesses from being forced to violate their religious beliefs under...

Detroit - A federal judge has ruled a property management company owned by the founder of Domino´s Pizza doesn ´t have to immediately implement mandatory contraception coverage in the health care law. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff ruled Sunday in favor of Tom Monaghan and his Domino´s Farms Corp.,near Ann Arbor. Monaghan,a devout Roman Catholic,says contraception isn´t health care but a "gravely immoral" practice. Zatkoff granted Monaghan´s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order until a final decision is made in the case.

At American pharmacies, a woman can get the controversial morning-after pill without a prescription but not the basic daily pill for issues ranging from birth control to painful periods. One conservative Republican says it’s time to put contraception over the counter, in accordance with recent guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, eliminating the mandate that has angered religious employers and taking the wind out of the Democrats’ sails on “birth-control politics.” As a Roman Catholic, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal understands why groups have filed suit against the Obama administration’s mandate to provide birth control without co-payment. “As...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) called for the over-the-counter sale of birth control pills in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday, saying that the federal government had no business restricting access to the medication. “Democrats have wrongly accused Republicans of being against birth control and against allowing people to use it. That's hogwash. But Republicans do want to protect those who have religious beliefs that are opposed to contraception,” Jindal wrote. …

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is Catholic, indicated on Friday that she supports forcing St. Mary’s Medical Center, the oldest continuously operating hospital in her San Francisco-based congressional district, to provide health plans to its workers that cover sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge even though the Catholic faith says this Catholic hospital may not do so because these things are intrinsically immoral. “We are committed to furthering the healing ministry of Jesus,” says the hospital's mission statement. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius—who, like Pelosi, is Catholic—issued the sterilization-contraception-abortifacient mandate as a regulation under...

Every so often, I share breakthrough stories about advances in “human rights” around the world. In France, it is against the law to say your husband is under-endowed or that your wife is fat. Across Europe, a satellite dish is now a human right. In Finland, broadband access is a basic right. There’s now an entitlement for free soccer broadcasts in Europe. In Italy, you have the right to…um…your testicles. Now, in honor of Sandra Fluke, the United Nations has decided that contraception is a human right. Not just a human right, a universal human right. The New York Times...

The United Nation’s Population Fund has issued an annual report describing access to birth control and contraception as a “universal human right” for “women and adolescents.” The is the first time the UN agency has labeled birth control a right, although the report is not legally binding on any nations and does not affect or alter the laws of any country in any way. Still, the declaration is a concern for pro-life advocates, who are worried it is the first step towards the United Nations attempting to make abortion an international right. In its report, the UNFPA also indicated it...

Kenyan mother names twins Barack Obama and Mitt Romney - Millicent Owuor, 20, shows off her newborn twins named after U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and GOP challenger A young Kenyan mother has named her newborn twin sons after the U.S. president-elect and his defeated Republican challenger. Millicent Owuor, 20, gave birth to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Wednesday at the Siaya District Hospital in southwest Kenya, according to the Standard. Owuor told the Kenyan news outlet her sons' names will always remind her of the election in the United States. The hospital is near the village of Kogelo,...

This last Sunday before Election Day finds Catholics across the nation, and beyond, uniting in both prayer and advocacy to protect freedom of religion as provided in the Constitution. Interestingly, the emphasis on Catholic values and teachings, as a result of the recent defense of freedom of religion, may also end up strengthening religious faith among Catholics in general. Since the announcement of what is now familiarly termed, “the HHS mandate,” Catholics and Christians of other denominations have denounced the ObamaCare provision that demands that most employers, including those associated with churches, grant free contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs...

When President Obama started talking about “shovel-ready jobs,� who knew he was talking about the shovels needed to dig a hole deep enough to lower the bar to a level his campaign could clear. As if his campaign of “Romnesia,� Big Bird and “binders� wasn’t desperate enough, the stench of desperation was turned up to 11 yesterday. To Democrats it seems women are nothing more than hyper-fertile vaginas on a constant quest for sex, contraception and abortions. What else has the president’s campaign addressed? No appeals to women on jobs, even as they suffer an obscenely high unemployment rate. Despite...

Students who appear to be middle schoolers witnessed a teacher blowing up a condom like a balloon as a part of a sex ed lesson in a health class somewhere, quite possibly in Canada. A video of the incident was posted on YouTube by a user October 21, 2012. The user listed her country as Canada but offered no hometown, and no clue about the identity of the school where this took place. SEE IT HERE. But it’s an odd occurrence, to say the least. At the risk of sounding like prudes, we have to ask if it’s appropriate for...

Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concludes. The findings were eagerly anticipated and come as a bitterly contested Obama administration policy is poised to offer similar coverage. The project tracked more than 9,000 women in St. Louis, many of them poor or uninsured. They were given their choice of a range of contraceptive methods at no cost — from birth control pills to goof-proof options like the IUD or a matchstick-sized implant.

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, you just might be a liberal if... 1) You get extremely upset about the idea of the government coming into our bedrooms unless it's to give everyone free birth control. 2) You believe that people who hold the exact same position on gay marriage that Barack Obama did last year are horrible bigots who are unfit to hold office. 3) You think that Mitt Romney, who has raked leaves for old people, helped a dying child with his will, and paid for college educations for kids who became quadriplegics in a car wreck, is less...

Girls Age 14 Can Get Birth Control At New York City Schools New York City school and health officials are stepping on parental rights by going beyond condom giveaways and giving girls as young as age 14 “morning-after pills” and other chemical contraceptives at school without telling their parents, leaders of traditional values groups said Monday. Their reactions were sparked by news that nurses in 13 public high schools are dispensing Plan B emergency contraception and other products to sexually active students who ask for it. “We’re incensed at the arrogance of this administration. The state is constantly telling parents,...

Should schools be allowed to distribute birth control without informing and getting permission from parents? Don't know -- Teen pregnancy is a problem, but is this a school issue? Yes -- Kids need to know they can access birth control without fear. No -- This is a parent's responsibility, not a 'nanny state's.'

EXCLUSIVE The Department of Education is giving morning-after pills and other birth-control drugs to students at 13 high schools, The Post has learned. School nurse offices stocked with the contraceptives can dispense “Plan B” emergency contraception and other oral or injectable birth control to girls without telling their parents — unless parents opt out after getting a school informational letter about the new program. CATCH — Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health — is part of a citywide attack against the epidemic of teen pregnancy, which spurs many girls — most of them poor — to drop out of school. Helayne...

Scientists may be one step closer to a birth control pill for men. A drug dubbed JQ1 swiftly stunted sperm production in male mice, a new study found. And like the female birth control pill, its fertility-fighting effects on were completely reversible. "We have only observed full recovery of fertility in treated males," the researchers from Baylor College of Medicine wrote in their study, published today in the journal Cell. "We envision that our discoveries can be completely translated to men, providing a novel and efficacious strategy for a male contraceptive." …

Breitbart Tv video.

Boomer demographics and postponement of marriage on account of student debt and poor finances are two of the key reasons that I long-ago stated the housing recovery would be slow for a decade. Declining birthrates now show that is indeed what is happening. First, please consider a short snip from my July 25 post "Actual" New Home Sales First 6 Months of 2012 vs. Prior Years; Reflections on the Housing Recovery Reflections on the Housing Recovery Even with today's reported decline, new home sales have likely bottomed on an annual, cumulative-total basis. However, don't expect much in terms of recovery.Debt...

I am rethinking Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial birth control. Well, actually not rethinking since I cannot remember ever thinking about it much at all, ever, except dismissively. So best to say, I am considering it seriously for the first time. I actually sat down to read it. This, I admit, is a bit unusual for a Lutheran pastor, or for any Protestant, pastor or not. The subject of preventing unwanted pregnancy artificially or of being open to any pregnancy at any time cannot be located on any spiritual GPS we use. Among Roman Catholic teachings,...

When Jihad Came to America by Andrew C. McCarthy On May 2 and 3, 1990, the U.S. embassy in Cairo alerted its counterpart in Khartoum that Egypt’s “leading radical,” Omar Abdel Rahman, was on his way to Sudan. Warning that his ultimate plan might be to seek exile in the United States, the Cairo embassy asked its colleagues to pass along any information they might learn about his activities on Sudanese soil. What did U.S. officials already know about Abdel Rahman in 1990? As the 9/11 Commission would later determine, they knew that he had been arrested repeatedly in Egypt...

Listing the reasons why Americans should vote for him, President Barack Obama told an audience at a high school in New Hampshire on Monday that failure to subsidize abortions and contraception is the same as “restricting access” to those services. “In this election, on every single challenge that we face, you’ve got the final say,” Obama told the crowd at Oyster River High School in Durham, N.H. “You can decide that instead of restricting access to birth control or defunding Planned Parenthood, we should make sure that in this country, women control their own health care choices. That’s up to...

Demonstrators gathered on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon decried the Obama administration's policy to require private health insurance plans to cover contraception as a violation of religious freedom. The rally was affiliated with more than 100 other demonstrations under the same name taking place across the country. The issue has united multiple faiths, with evangelical, Orthodox Jewish, Roman Catholic and Mormon leaders recently forming networks in every state dedicated to promoting religious liberty, starting with their opposition to the mandate. Last year, an advisory panel from the Institute of Medicine, which advises the federal government, recommended including birth control on the...

Man Who Fathered 30 Kids Says He Needs A Break—On Child Support [Pic of Father in URL] By Pueng Vongs And you thought Octomom had her hands full—a Tennessee man who has fathered 30 children is asking the courts for a break on child support. Desmond Hatchett, 33, of Knoxville has children with 11 different women, reports WREG-TV. The state already takes half his paycheck and divides it up, which doesn't amount to much when Hatchett is making only minimum wage. Some of the moms receive as little as $1.49 a month. The oldest child is 14 years old. Hatchett...

May 17, 2012 (Zenit.org) – In 1960, the combined oral contraceptive pill was first approved for use in the United States. Seven years later, “the Pill” was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, illustrating its enormous societal impact[1]. Roughly two generations later, statistics from the United Nations show that, within more developed nations worldwide, just under 16% of “partnered” women use contraceptive pills, a number which does not include usage among single women[2]. However, even as the popularity of oral contraceptives remains high, the drugs themselves have been evolving in response to further discoveries about the human reproductive system,...

Contraceptives and the Environment What the Pill Is Doing to Our Water Supply By Rebecca Oas, PhDWASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 16, 2012 (Zenit.org).- In 1960, the combined oral contraceptive pill was first approved for use in the United States.  Seven years later, “the Pill” was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, illustrating its enormous societal impact[1]. Roughly two generations later, statistics from the United Nations show that, within more developed nations worldwide, just under 16% of “partnered” women use contraceptive pills, a number which does not include usage among single women[2].However, even as the popularity of oral contraceptives remains high,...

The blind Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest on April 22 and may be under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, was initially detained for exposing the massive abuse of Chinese women under China’s one-child policy. His documentation of forced sterilizations and abortions landed him in jail for four years, followed by a year and a half of house arrest. His daring escape has now triggered renewed attacks on organizations engaged in helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants. Since April 28, the Family Planning Commission of Susong County in China’s Anhui province has been...

An injectable form of birth control doubles breast cancer risk among young women, according to a new study. The study examined younger women, ages 20 to 44, and confirmed a link between depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) - the main ingredient in the contraceptive sold under the brand name Depo-Provera - and breast cancer risk.

The Left is crowing about a recent University of Michigan study which shows that women who practice birth control early in life will end up making more money later on in life. Liberals cite this study as evidence that they must stop the non-existent Republican war on women. Of course, in doing so they make one thing perfectly clear: That they view children as nothing more than an opportunity cost. For starters, I could have saved them a lot of time and money and told them a long time ago that kids cost money. But they're worth it. And that's...

CNSNews.com) – Thirty-year-old Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, who told a House Steering and Policy Committee hearing convened by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi last month that contraception can cost a student $3,000 during law school, told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that she did not know that the Target store 3 miles from the Georgetown Law campus sells a month's supply of birth control pills for just $9. Target advertises the $9-per-month birth control pills on its website, and CNSNews.com confirmed and reconfirmed that the $9 pills were in fact available at the Target near Georgetown Law. “Without insurance coverage, contraception...

I'm taking a prescription med for arthritis called Methotrexate. Has anyone heard of it or is taking it? From what I read is also used as an abortifacient,which shocked the heck out of me.

I was recently having a drink and cigar in the office of a good friend who runs one of the conservative movement’s most powerful advocacy groups. I’m not going to name him because this problem is not unique to his group – nor, in fact, is it unique at all. My friend showed me his group’s latest video. It needed a little work, but overall it was excellent. The only problem is no one who matters is ever going to see it. It will be polished a bit, put on the Internet and sent to donors. And that’s about all...

I don't get to post too often because I am usually at work. But in regards to the recent outrage on providing birth control, I just wanted to provide a shortcut to our FR mavericks who are doing such an excellent job of defending an agency/office/company's right to refuse to pay for medical or health-related services for which that entity holds moral of religious objections. My agency is required to review contracts, rates, and elements of state healthcare programs against the following regulations: 1932(b)(3)(B)(i) 42 CFR 438.102(a)(2) SMD letter 2/20/98 1932 is a section of the Social Security Act. The...

I know I posted this earlier, Friday I think. But this is, imo anyway, important. It is important that we let the Left know that we take seriously our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, our right to exist and live within our conscience. If you are unfamiliar with what specifically I am talking about, please listen to the ten min interview with Colorado state Senator Tim Neville, that my posting links to. Know also, that Senator Rollie Heath postponed the hearing concerning this Senate Memorial. A memorial has no force of law behind it, yet Heath killed it...

The announcement came a day after Gov. Rick Perry said the state will use state money to continue the program, which covers birth control and basic health screenings for about 130,000 women. He did not provide details. "Sebelius also said direct federal funding for Planned Parenthood is under consideration. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who accompanied Sebelius on the tour, said the federal government could bypass the state altogether. "We're going to be looking at this on the legislative side," he said."

SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight is Sandra Fluke , the woman Congressman Darrell Issa rejected as a witness today. Ms. Fluke is a law student at Georgetown University . Great to have you with us tonight, Sandra . Now, I understand that you already planned your testimony. You were going to cite examples of people who could have benefited from President Obama ‘s mandate for birth control coverage. Share with us what you would have told that committee today. SANDRA FLUKE, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW STUDENT: That is what I was there to speak to the committee about. That's why I was...

March 7, 2012 (LiveActionNews.org) - I worry about my health a lot. Not because I’m unhealthy, but because I’m a hypochondriac. I don’t imagine symptoms, but when I do have symptoms, I became immediately and irrevocably convinced that they are cancer. Thanks, WebMD! Most recently, back in October, I found a tiny red welt on my right breast. WebMD told me that I almost definitely had inflammatory breast cancer–a particularly aggressive strain. I called my boyfriend in the middle of the night and made him talk to me until the sun came up, so scared I was shaking all over....