UPDATE: I mentioned that Missouri was fixin to go to court after the
General Assembly passed Senator Lamping’s rancid birth control refusal bill.
Well, I was right.
This Missourian thanks the Greater Kansas City Coalition of
Labor Union Women and Michele Newby, president of the coalition and a
firefighter in Kansas City,
for filing suit Wednesday to challenge the birth control refusal bill!
Someone ought to keep track of how much money Missouri is going to
spend defending Senator Lamping’s legislative pander to the Missouri Conference
of Catholic Bishops.
Pause…consider…continue.
Lamping’s birth control refusal law empowers government to take
rights from workers and step all up in folk’s bedrooms. Lamping’s Law basically has government deciding
that anyone who takes birth control forfeits their rights to their employer.
AND the damn thing is going to cost the state some serious
cash.
If it walks like it and talks like it, we should call it
what it is…an expensive, ill advised, intellectually lazy, big government, theocratic
shake-down.
_______________________________________________
Let’s jump right on in, shall we?
I went to bed mad as hell…
….and woke up wishing that Missourians could feel the full
weight of what the Missouri Assembly just did.
The Missouri Assembly had their veto session Wednesday,
September 12. They took up Senator
Lamping’s Birth Control Refusal bill SB749.
The Senate took less time to override Governor Nixon’s veto
than they spent unveiling a portrait earlier in the day.
The House cut off debate lest they hear just how trifling
this rancid bill is and then the peer pressure began.
But wait…let me back up.
Before debate was cut off, (and that was so cowardly weak I
can’t even tell you) several Representatives stood up to speak out against
overriding the veto. I listened
live and recognized the voices of a few.
Then a woman started speaking and I couldn’t tell who it was. I took to Twitter because some people
were live tweeting the debate and…well, suffice it say I was SHOCKED that
Representative Linda Black (D-107) was speaking out in favor of sustaining the
veto.
Rep. Black, who is solidly opposed to abortion rights, spoke in favor of
sustaining the veto because she is solidly opposed to abortion. Black, unlike the majority under the
dome, acknowledged the fact that restricting access to birth control results in
more unplanned pregnancies and thus more abortions.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – folks who are
opposed to abortion who then turn around and try to deny access to birth
control can not, do not, and will not make a lick of sense… not that most folk
working under the dome in Jefferson City fret about making sense or doing the
right thing.
I disagree with Rep. Black on abortion…but she sure as hell
has the courage of her convictions and shamed the cowards when she stood up
yesterday.
109 of her colleagues voted yes and the veto was overturned.
SB749 will now be law, so supporters can cease bullshitting
to the masses about what they just did.
Any employer…any employer…any damned employer in the state
of Missouri will now be able to provide an insurance package devoid of
contraception or sterilization coverage because that employer has some sort of
moral objection.
The law is certain to be challenged in court by insurance
companies who opposed the hell out of it.
That’s what I woke up pondering and regretting.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the way to address the rot
in Jefferson City is for the masses to feel the ache.
In this case, the thousands of Missourians who use birth
control and take insurance coverage for granted need to have that coverage
revoked. They need to hear their
employer explain his or her religious objection during their annual plan
meeting…and then they need to get royally fucked over each month for 12
consecutive months until the next plan meeting.
But they won’t…because Missouri is fixin’ to go to
court. We just haven’t been served
papers yet.
26 Senators.
109 Representatives.
Hit the lights.
Take a fucking bow.
Blink.
3 comments:
KC makes other news:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/american-cities-fight-imaginary-8216beast-heavy-traffic/5241
Yep, Misery has issues with reality. Remember Rush "Slut-gate" Limbaugh - he's pretty representative of opinion outside of the urban or college-town counties.
I've always wondered why a talking point on this isn't whether an employer who is a Jehovah's Witness should be able to disallow blood transfusions in their employees coverage because it contravenes their religious beliefs. I guess it wouldn't make much difference to some, but I think it casts the issue of giving an employer's moral beliefs precedence over their employees in much clearer light.
Post a Comment