Category Archives for birth control

Tell Texas Lawmakers You Support Access to Birth Control for Teen Parents

When Texas lawmakers two years ago passed extreme legislation limiting access to abortion care, they promised to come back this legislative session to address the issue of unintended pregnancy. Now they can take a first step toward keeping that promise. The State Affairs Committee of the Texas House is set on Wednesday to hear testimony […]

Also posted in 2015 Texas Legislature, TFN | 2 Comments

TFN Joins ‘Call to Action’ on Reproductive Health Care in Texas

Today the Texas Freedom Network joined with six coalition partners for a “Call to Action” on reproductive health care at the Texas Capitol. Here’s the joint press release we sent out: TEXANS DEMAND ACCESS TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE Attacks on Reproductive Health Care Must Be Stopped, Advocates, Faith Leaders, and Lawmakers Tell Crowd FOR IMMEDIATE […]

Also posted in 2015 Texas Legislature, abortion, Reproductive health, sex education, TFN | 2 Comments

Trust. Respect. Access.

Last Thursday the Texas Freedom Network joined with six other organizations in launching a multi-year campaign for reproductive health care in Texas: Trust. Respect. Access. Here’s the press release we sent out: Coalition of Seven Organizations Launches Reproductive Health Care Campaign in Texas AUSTIN – At a press conference today, a coalition of seven organizations […]

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Steve Toth: Too Extreme Even for Texas Republicans?

Maybe sometimes a far-right politician can be too extreme even for Texas Republicans. On Tuesday state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, lost big in the Republican runoff race for a Texas Senate seat north of Houston. State Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, won in a landslide, getting about 67 percent of the vote to Toth’s 33 percent to earn the GOP nomination for the […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, sex education, Steve Toth, TFNEF | 6 Comments

Senate Republicans Block Effort to Overturn Supreme Court’s Anti-Birth Control Ruling

All but three Senate Republicans voted today to block legislation preventing employers from imposing their religious views on workers who want access to contraception. The 56-43 vote failed to end a Republican filibuster against the “Not My Boss’s Business Act.” That bill would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling in June that allows for-profit companies to refuse, for religious […]

Also posted in Hobby Lobby, Ted Cruz, TFNEF | 5 Comments

Justice Ginsburg Is Right: The Hobby Lobby Decision Sends the Courts into a Minefield

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby are free, because of religious objections, from the general requirement that employer insurance plans include coverage for birth control amounts to a radical redefinition of religious freedom. The court is essentially saying that women’s decisions about whether and when to have children are subject to the religious dictates of their employers. The religious or […]

Also posted in Hobby Lobby | 5 Comments

Supreme Court’s Birth Control Decision Redefines ‘Religious Freedom’

Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a 5-4 decision, that for-profit companies like Hobby Lobby can opt out of the requirement that employers include coverage for birth control in their employee health insurance plans. We just sent out the following press release criticizing this reckless decision. SUPREME COURT’S BIRTH CONTROL DECISION REDEFINES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM […]

Also posted in Hobby Lobby, TFNEF | 9 Comments

Hobby Lobby Hypocrisy and the War on Birth Control

When Hobby Lobby sued the Obama administration over the requirement that it provide coverage for birth control in its employees’ health insurance plans, the company and religious-right groups billed the lawsuit as a defense of religious freedom. But there are some big problems with that claim — not the least of which is the attempt […]

Also posted in TFNEF | 7 Comments

TFN Statement: Supreme Court’s Birth Control Decision Could Redefine Religious Freedom

We just sent out the following media statement as the U.S. Supreme Court considers today two cases that could redefine religious freedom in America: Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller had this to say about today’s Supreme Court hearing in the Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius cases, […]

Also posted in TFNEF | 2 Comments

Will Antonin Scalia Dismiss What He Used to Say about the Law and Religious Freedom?

As the U.S. Supreme Court today considers whether requiring employer-provided health insurance to include coverage for birth control violates employers’ religious freedom, Talking Points Memo looks at what right-wing Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in an earlier case: In 1990, Scalia wrote the majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith, concluding that the First Amendment “does not require” […]

Also posted in TFNEF | 1 Comment