Free Republic

Rights: The House Minority Leader says self-insurance is no protection against the government's contraceptive mandate, while California's junior senator says people have a right to be insured but no right to practice their faith. Lost in the phony "compromise" on the Health and Human Services mandate on religious institutions being forced to pay for contraceptive services was the fact that many such institutions are self-insured. So making insurance companies pay instead is a distinction without a difference. Sometimes these religious institutions are their own insurance company. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who once complained that her fellow Catholics had this...

February 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Sisters of Life, a group of Catholic nuns who take a sacred vow to “protect and enhance the sacredness of human life,” say they don’t fall under the narrow religious exemption under the Obama administration’s new insurance mandate, meaning the rule would force them to break their promises to God. “This mandate will gravely violate the individual and collective religious liberties of the Sisters of Life and millions of others by forcing us to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception against our conscience,” said the sisters in a statement Thursday. The religious...

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday morning that the government should require self-insured religious institutions, such as the Catholic church in Washington, D.C., to directly pay for contraception and abortifacients. Pelosi talked about the importance of women's health, and then said, "Yes, I think that all institutions who cover, who give, health insurance should cover the full range of health insurance issues for women."

What a great topic of conversation for this years Valentines Day...thanks Obama! Also, last year for this occasion I created some candy hearts for liberals. You can check those out here here

February 14, 2012 (PriestsforLife.org) - Many have asked me whether I think that the President’s announced “accommodation” regarding the HHS mandate for health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization is acceptable. Absolutely not. As many Catholics and non-Catholics point out, the principal problem is that the mandate is still in place. The President’s February 10 announcement changed none of that. What remains is that all employers — not just religious ones — have to provide health insurance for their employees, and all health insurance plans have to cover abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization. It’s a fiction to say...

February 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Opponents of the Obama Administration’s birth control mandate are rallying behind another White House petition that rejects the President’s recent revision and calls for a complete rescinding of the rule. A previous petition to abolish the rule, created in late January, had accused the Administration of attempting “to represent ‘transcendental truth’ on matters of conscience,” by forcing all employers, including Catholics and members of other pro-life denominations, to cover birth control and abortion-inducing drugs on their employee’s health plans. “That in itself is unprecedented, which is also why it is unconstitutional,” the petition charged. The...

Evangelical activists’ concern over rising Catholic census numbers was one factor in the cocktail of Victorian moralism and anxiety about sexuality that motivated states and the federal government to ban the dissemination of information about birth control and the sale of contraception devices, and to stiffen anti-abortion laws in the late 19th century. The laws were partly intended to prevent white Protestant women from shirking their duty as mothers of the fittest race. But ethnic prejudice fueled the other side of the birth control debate, too. Liberals in the eugenics movement applauded the potential of modern birth control and sterilization...

SANTA PAULA, California, February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a strongly-worded letter addressed to California’s two U.S. senators, Thomas Aquinas College President Michael McLean expressed “strong disapproval” over Obama’s mandate that would require the school’s employee health plan to include coverage for sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception. “Voluntary sterilization, abortion, and artificial contraception are all directly contrary to Catholic teaching and cannot, in any way, be supported by individual Catholics or Catholic institutions desiring to live in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church,” McLean stated in the letter. Thomas Aquinas College, located in southern California, is a prominent Catholic...

Joining other ultra-liberals like Tosh.O’s star Daniel Tosh, is the Huffington Post’s Gavin Schulman. Apparently, making light of abortion and viewing it as comedy is now the cool thing to do. This morning, I was appalled to find an article defending abortion on Huff Post’s comedy page. Cause yeah, people, abortion really is comedy central. Mr. Schulman’s favorite line in his oh-so-funny article appears to be “who cares?” Who cares about abortion? It’s not a big deal. I mean, come on, Americans…stop giving a rip about anyone else’s baby besides your own! Those babies who are starving to death in...

KIRKWOOD, Missouri, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Missouri Lutheran Synod added his voice to the growing chorus of religious leaders from across denominational lines who are objecting to the HHS mandate requiring employers to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. “The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception,” wrote Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, in a statement issued February 3rd. “Increasingly we are suffering overzealous...

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Obama’s defense of his deceptive rephrasing of the birth control mandate on Friday - suggesting that insurers can provide the drugs for free because fewer children means less overall health costs - lays the groundwork for a future abortion mandate, the National Right to Life Committee has warned. In order to assuage outrage from Catholic groups, President Obama on Friday afternoon essentially claimed that religious employers wouldn’t really pay for the birth control their employees receive in health care plans because insurers would chalk up the drugs as balancing out the potential costs...

What Obama just said on Friday afternoon was extremely confusing. But once you get to the truth of it, it’s also extremely frightening. The president was facing down a conundrum: trying to assuage religious groups appalled at being forced to cover birth control under an impending federal mandate, while making it clear to his base that he wouldn’t back away one bit from the “core principle” (his words) of giving women free birth control pills. The best way to achieve this goal is to find a funny way to reword what you already said. So the way he rephrased was...

The conventional wisdom of the 2012 election was that it would be a race over economics: how to revive the economy, how to reduce unemployment and how to get the deficit under control. The last week has undermined that assumption. The election may be about the culture war instead. Consider the events of the last week or so.

Journalism: When the abortion giant's funding was in jeopardy, the media provided 24/7 coverage with a decidedly liberal slant. When the feds assaulted First Amendment religious freedom, you could hear the crickets chirp. Secular progressive bias in the media was never more evident than in the past few weeks with the difference in coverage of two major news stories — the temporary cutoff of funds from the Susan G. Komen Foundation to Planned Parenthood and the ultimatum from the Obama administration that the Catholic Church and its institutions had a year to find a way to violate their consciences and...

One of Barack Obama's great attractions as a presidential candidate was his sensitivity to the feelings and intellectual concerns of religious believers. That is why it is so remarkable that he utterly botched the admittedly difficult question of how contraceptive services should be treated under the new health care law.

President Barack Obama has not yet decided whether to go forward with a proposed regulation under the health care law he signed last year that would force Catholic individuals and institutions to act against the teachings of the Catholic church. In August, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius proposed a regulation--that would take affect next fall--that would require all health care plans to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including abortifacients. The proposed regulation includes a very narrow religious exemption that does not cover individual Catholics, or Catholic universities, hospitals or charitable institutions.

Every October, sure as the leaves fall from the trees, pink ribbons and products blossom virtually everywhere you go. Breast Cancer Awareness Month has all the hallmarks of an effective public health campaign; people going about their regular routines can’t help but notice all the pink and — especially while shopping — be encouraged to contribute to the cause. During a friendly gathering last year, an acquaintance of mine wondered aloud why football players on the TV in the background were wearing pink on their uniforms. The answer soon came. Awareness had been raised. Everyone in the room voiced approval;...

The ObamaCare bill has resulted in an explosion of ambiguity and arbitrary rulings, mainly focused at first on temporary waivers for some insurers and employers on requirements for meeting the threshold of payouts to premiums. The Department of Health and Human Services stopped issuing waivers under pressure from Congress to explain their methodology, but a new ruling by Kathleen Sebelius will likely prompt even more protests. The Obama administration ordered insurers to cover prescription contraceptives and a range of other “women’s wellness� services and products without co-pays: Health insurance plans must cover birth control as preventive care for women, with...

WASHINGTON – Millions of women stand to gain free access to a broad menu of birth control methods, thanks to a recommendation issued Tuesday by health experts advising the government. An Institute of Medicine panel recommended that the government require health insurance companies to cover birth control for women as preventive care, without copayments. Contraception — along with such care as diabetes tests during pregnancy and screening for the virus that causes cervical cancer — was one of eight recommended preventive services for women. "Unintended pregnancies carry health consequences for the mother — psychological, emotional and physical — and also...

Why are Republicans waging war on contraception? It's not the first time the question has been asked, and it won't be the last. Truth be told, Republicans aren't engaging in battle on that front -- but the phrase gets close to a legitimate fight. Congress, for its part, held an unprecedented vote in the House in February to end funding of Planned Parenthood. It's not a permanent or final vote; it was attached to a short-term move to keep the government funded. The debate in Congress was given momentum by the Live Action investigatory videos, which raised significant questions about...

The Pill Turns 50: Medicine That Makes You SickROBERT F. CONKLING, M.D.Recently three major health stories appeared in the Washington press in less than two weeks that were an occasion to pause and reflect. Recently three major health stories appeared in the Washington press in less than two weeks that were an occasion to pause and reflect.First, the Potomac Conservancy made headlines about the contamination of rivers and drinking water in major metropolitan areas, including Washington DC. Contaminants include not only bacteria, industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides but also potentially endocrine-active pharmaceuticals, such anti-depressants, contraceptive sex hormones, antibiotics and...

"It is proper for the noblest hearts to discover the most urgent need of their epoch and to consecrate themselves to it." --Father Lacordaire, a famous French priest quoted by Father Euteneuer in the introduction of his book Demonic Abortion "Sidewalk counselor: 'You can't go to heaven unrepentant, George; you are going to Hell.' Abortionist George Tiller: 'Abortion is worth going to Hell for.'" --from Demonic Abortion (pg. 82) Commenting on the above quote by Lacordaire, the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, former [my emphasis] president of Human Life International, perfectly sums up the purpose of both his powerful "little...

In a break with his traditional teaching, Pope Benedict XVI has said the use of condoms is acceptable "in certain cases", in an extended interview to be published this week. After holding firm during his papacy to the Vatican's blanket ban on the use of contraceptives, Benedict's surprise comments will shock conservatives in the Catholic church while finding favour with senior Vatican figures who are pushing for a new line on the issue as HIV ravages Africa. The comments were made in a book-length interview with a German journalist, Peter Seewald. In the case of a male prostitute, says Benedict,...

A teenager has given birth to triplets in Berlin after a medicine for cold treatments caused her contraceptive pill to fail. The 17-year-old, identified only as 'Jennifer B', she is the youngest woman recorded in modern times in Germany successfully giving birth to three children. She was taking the pill earlier this year when she went to the doctor suffering from a severe cold. He prescribed her antibiotics, medication which nullified the effects of her contraceptives.

U.S. Journalists 'Celebrate' a Carcinogen's Birthday / British Scientists Shill for the Pill by Karen Malec, President, Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer * Karen Malec is a frequent contributor to RFFM.org. Malec is the Founder and President of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. A free press and the dissemination of accurate information are among the elements needed for the continuation of a democratic republic. A free people must be educated and have access to truthful information in order to make decisions about the issues of the day, choose worthy candidates for office, participate in the legislative process and promote the common...

Dr. Chris Kahlenborn is the lead author of the Mayo Clinic Proceeding’s article cited below. Kahlenborn testified before the FDA in June of 2000 regarding the link between oral contraceptives and breast cancer. May 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the birth control pill in the United States. Newspapers and magazines around the country ran stories on this, mostly extolling the social and medical benefits of the pill. This theme was bolstered by a recent communiqué from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which noted: “The pill remains one of the...

Raquel Welch has blamed the Pill for the decline of the institution of marriage. The Hollywood actress said the widespread use of oral contraceptives had led to a breakdown in sexual morality and fuelled the growth of rampant promiscuity among the young. Miss Welch, 69, said the situation has grown so grave that 'these days nobody seems able to keep it in their pants or honour a commitment' While she argued that it carried some benefits, she said the enduring legacy of the Pill has been social anarchy. Miss Welch has been a sex symbol since she sprang to...

Isn't it interesting that as the United States of America approaches the 50th anniversary of this nation's most popular recreational drug, the birth control pill, special interest media is ginning up the presses — or in this case, the web sites — with all sorts of ideas for the next 50 years. A sampling of what America's birth control worshippers are saying may give one pause to rethink. For example, on May 3, the Los Angeles Biomedical Research institute (LA BioMed) announced "that it has received $1.5 million in grant funding to study a contraceptive for men that uses a...

Judging by the laudatory articles on the birth control pill popping up all over the Web in recent days, one might conclude that the pill was in fact the greatest invention since sliced multigrain bread. One such article, written by professor and author Elaine Tyler May, appears in The Washington Post. May writes: Today, we celebrate both motherhood and the pill. It is Mother's Day, and it is the 50th anniversary of the day the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would approve the pill — though the dream of an oral contraceptive is much older. The birth control...

MAUSTON, Wis. (AP) -- Mike Taake has taught sex education for 30 years, and he says he knows what doesn't work: just telling kids to wait. The Mauston High School health teacher has used abstinence-only and comprehensive curriculums, and he said students need all the information they can get about sex to make the best choices. But teaching them about contraceptives could land him and other teachers in court...

Talk about odd bedfellows. An unlikely group of lawmakers and organizations has come together to pitch a bill this session to change sex education in Utah. It's a bill that has a Republican senator, a Democratic representative, the Planned Parenthood Action Council (PPAC) and the state PTA working together. "It's just turned into the most amazing process where people are working together on both sides of the aisle to make sure we're doing whatever we can to make sure our kids have information to keep them safe," said Melissa Bird, executive director of PPAC. Now, state law allows educators to...

President Obama’s crusade to enact health-care reform legislation is nearing its climactic battle in the US Senate. How should Catholic Americans look upon this legislative struggle? The US bishops have consistently voiced their support for health-care reform, while insisting that the legislation must include some language ensuring against public support for abortion. In the House of Representatives their lobbying had its desired effect, and the “Stupak Amendment” gave the bishops a bill they could support. In the Senate a pro-life amendment was rejected. Still the US bishops’ conference has clung to the bare hope that some acceptable language might be...

Contraception is almost five times cheaper than conventional green technologies as a means of combating climate change, according to new research commissioned by the Optimum Population Trust.

Families with more than 10 children are becoming the norm among a group of traditionalist US Christians. The so-called Quiverfull families believe they are carrying out God's work, and providing a new generation of moral leaders. The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott went to Illinois to meet some of them. The way Psalm 127 talks about children has an almost military sound. It describes them as "an inheritance, and arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior," adding, "happy is he whose quiver is full of them". Many Quiverfull families do indeed sense looming battles for Christians, and often...

For those who haven’t followed it, there’s a battle shaping up over religious liberty at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C. At issue is the college’s ability to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage in its health insurance plan. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Charlotte, N.C., ruled that Belmont Abbey discriminated against female employees by refusing to cover prescription contraceptives. “As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church,” said the college’s president, William Thierfelder, at the time. In March,...

(edit)Scientists say the hormones in the oral contraceptive suppress a female's interest in masculine men  - and make boyish men more attractive.   Dr Alexandra Alvergne, of the University of Sheffield, says the Pill could also be altering the way women pick mates - and could have long term implications for society.  'There are many obvious benefits of the Pill for women, but there is also the possibility that the Pill has psychological side effects that we are only just discovering,' she said.  'We need further studies to find out what these are.'  (edit)  Scientists have long known that a...

Estrogen – from artificial contraception pills, consumed daily by tens of millions of women – is making its way through sewage treatment plants and severely pollutes our waterways with chilling consequences. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reacted to an August report that emissions from coal-fired power plants have led to widespread mercury pollution in our rivers and streams by saying: "this science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution, restore our nation's waterways, and protect the public from potential health dangers." Who, after all, wants toxic levels of mercury in our rivers? But mercury is not...

" chemist who led to the invention of the birth control pill says he regrets the demographic catastrophe that has resulted from people using the contraceptive device to separate reproduction from sexuality, reports Baptist Press. Carl Djerassi, the 85-year-old Austrian chemist who was one of three whose formulation of synthetic hormones paved the way for the pill, wrote an opinion piece in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard lamenting the way the pill has been used. Austria's population now includes more people over age 65 than under 15, and Djerassi said the country soon will face an "impossible situation" as the...

The oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin are the top-selling pharmaceutical line for Bayer HealthCare, largely as a result of marketing that presents them as much more than mere pregnancy prevention. Yaz, in particular, the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, owes much of its popularity to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that have promoted the drug as a quality-of-life treatment to combat acne and severe premenstrual depression. Yaz, a newer sister drug to Yasmin, contains less estrogen. The franchise had worldwide sales of about $1.8 billion last year, based on Bayer’s successful positioning of Yasmin and Yaz as the go-to...

A new study is suggesting a “strong” link between the religiosity of a state’s residents and the teen birth rate there. Though only half of the states listed among the ten most conservatively religious also appear in the list of ten states with the highest teen birth rates, researchers behind the latest study say increased religiosity in residents of states in the U.S. strongly predicted a higher teen birth rate. “With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by...

Wed Jul 22, 5:39 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Oral contraceptives behave differently in the bodies of obese women than in normal-weight women, new research shows, suggesting that they may not work as well in preventing pregnancy. But more research is needed before any recommendations can be made on contraceptive use based on a woman's body mass index (BMI), a standard measure of the ratio between height and weight, Dr. Alison B. Edelman of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and her colleagues say. There's been some evidence to suggest that the birth control pill may be...

Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province say they have tried their best to follow Church teaching on the use of artificial birth control methods in the face of the government's two-child policy. Huong Toan villagers, just like Vietnamese elsewhere in the country, are required to have no more than two children per family since 1994, when village authorities launched a nationwide family planning program. Families with more than two children have to pay rice to the government as a fine. Many local Catholics say they have done their best to remain true to Church teaching but some have had to...

A cancer awareness group says as schools pass out birth control to young girls, they are failing to notify them about an increased health risk. According to Karen Malec, president of The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, young girls who are prescribed estrogen+progestin-based birth control by their school nurses are at an increased risk for breast, cervix, and liver cancer. World Health Organization conducted a study in 2005 and found that type of birth control carcinogenic. "In other words, they cause cancer in human beings," she notes. "And they assign these drugs the highest level of carcinogenicity -- the highest level...

Bristol Palin's new abstinence campaign shines a light on the Republican Party's unhealthy attitude about sex and desire. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN The first time I ever heard about oral sex was during the Lewinsky scandal. Mostly, I remember being confused by President Clinton’s response—“it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”. When it comes to sex, politicians face all sorts of double standards: who is allowed to have sex with whom, what constitutes sex, and whether it’s appropriate, to name a few. Candie’s Foundation’s announcement that they were partnering with Bristol Palin to promote an abstinence-only campaign has caused...

The Gift of Children by Mary Anne Hackett * I frequently give consideration to the problem in today’s anti-child society and how we might combat the terrible devaluation of children that is so prevalent in our country and worldwide. I believe that the attitudes we are witnessing are the result of the acceptance of contraception. With contraception, you remove God from your marriage and from your decision. People no longer consider what might please God, but rather what will please you. You begin to think you can decide when you will have a child, when a child fits into your...

The estimated 39 percent of American college women who use birth control pills could enjoy relief from big price increases over the last two years thanks to a provision in the budget bill signed by President Barack Obama. Students had seen prices for oral contraceptives at college health clinics shoot up two- and threefold — the apparently unintended consequence of a deficit-reduction provision that went into effect in January, 2007. The bill Obama signed Wednesday restores an incentive for drug-makers to offer discounts for the pills, although it doesn't guarantee they will do so. Still, college health officials were celebrating...

Cardinal James Stafford reflects on how dissenters to Humane Vitae tore the Church apart -- and how that rift left scars that remain to this day. "Lead us not into temptation" is the sixth petition of the Our Father. Peirasmòs, the Greek word used in this passage for 'temptation,' means a trial or test. Disciples petition God to be protected against the supreme test of ungodly powers. The trial is related to Jesus's cup in Gethsemane, the same cup which his disciples would also taste (Mk 10: 35-45). The dark side of the interior of the cup is an abyss....

Friday February 27, 2009 Swiss Women Abandoning the Pill Due to Adverse Health Effects Matthew Cullinan Hoffman PARIS, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The use of the contraceptive pill is plummeting among younger women, in response to growing awareness of its destructive health effects, reports a French bioethics site. According to the site "Genetique," the use of "the pill" among women aged 15 to 24 years old dropped from 43% in 2003 to 26% in 2007.   The rate of childbirth among the same group increased at the same time. "The principal reason for this decrease is the attention paid...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A chemist who led to the invention of the birth control pill says he regrets the demographic catastrophe that has resulted from people using the contraceptive device to separate reproduction from sexuality. Carl Djerassi, the 85-year-old Austrian chemist who was one of three whose formulation of synthetic hormones paved the way for the pill, wrote an opinion piece in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard lamenting the way the pill has been used. Austria's population now includes more people over age 65 than under 15, and Djerassi said the country soon will face an "impossible situation" as the working...

"The contraceptive funding is an effort to expand federal efforts to prevent unwanted births. Currently, Medicaid provides family planning services after women become pregnant." "The report found that post-pregnancy family planning did nothing to reduce the cost of Medicaid-funded births."