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 reasons, to include birth control in health insurance coverage for the women who work for them.
Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader, switched his vote to “no,” a parliamentary move that would allow him to bring the measure back for a vote later this year.
Before the vote, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sent out a press release attacking the bill. Under the inflammatory headline “Democrats Declare War on the Catholic Church,” Cruz accused the bill’s supporters of trampling on the rights of Catholics who oppose birth control:
“(I)t saddens me that there are not 100 senators here unified, regardless or our faith, standing together protecting the religious liberty rights of everyone.”
Well, it saddens us that Cruz and his supporters are turning the concept of religious freedom on its head. Allowing employers to impose their religious beliefs on the deeply personal decisions their workers make fundamentally redefines religious freedom. In effect, it holds a woman’s personal decisions about whether and when to have children hostage to the religious dictates of her employer. That’s not religious freedom.
In addition, earlier this year a poll showed that 78 percent of Roman Catholics worldwide said they supported the use of birth control. A 2013 poll from Pew Research Religion and Public Life Project found similar support — 76 percent — among U.S. Catholics.
5 Comments
Uh-uh-uh-uh. Well, I suppose it was a nice political stunt by Harry, but the legislative branch of government does not have any authority to overturn a U.S. Supreme Court ruling unless they vote by a nearly impossible number that allows an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I just thought someone ought to point that out. Some of us really did get a good civics education in high school, something Texas students will probably never see if Donna Cargill and her friends have their way.
Charles: The Supreme Court ruled that the birth control mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, not the Constitution. So Congress can overturn this particular ruling without the passage of a Constitutional amendment.
Oops. Thanks for the correction Dan.
And I’m not sure that I understand, either: is “the Catholic Church” the 78 million people that at least occasionally go to services at their buildings, or is it a handful of celibate old men that run the place? Since 98% of the women in the former group have used some sort of birth control, I suspect that Cruz must be talking about the latter group. Well, that, and pandering to his misogynist base….
Ted Cruz obviously doesn’t understand that we don’t give enough of a crap about the Catholic Church that we’d waste our time declaring war on it. Our focus is on the rights of women.