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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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” […]
