Category Archives for birth control
High Court to Decide Whether an Employer’s Religious Beliefs May Limit Women’s Access to Birth Control
On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court will take up two key cases about whether employers’ religious beliefs give them the right to deny coverage for birth control in their workers’ health insurance plans. The two cases are Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Sebelius v. Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. The two for-profit companies in the cases are challenging […]
Also posted in TFNEF
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Shocker: Religious Right Rejects New Study Showing Key Anti-Birth Control Argument Is Wrong
Religious-right groups have insisted that requiring health insurance to cover birth control at no cost to women will lead to higher incidences of sexual risk-taking and sexually transmitted infections. Now an extensive new study shows those arguments are a load of bunkum. USA Today reports about the study: Women and teen girls participating in a […]
Also posted in TFNEF
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Why Has the National Abortion Rate Declined?
A new study from the Guttmacher Institute shows that the nation’s abortion rate in 2008-11 fell to its lowest level since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing the procedure across the country. What’s behind the decline? From Guttmacher’s press release: “With abortion rates falling in almost all states, our study did not […]
Also posted in abortion, TFNEF
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Into the Lion’s Den: Minister Stands Against the Right’s War on Women (w/video)
TFN Insider is pleased to present this guest post from Rev. Beth Ellen Cooper of Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church in The Woodlands north of Houston. Rev. Cooper participated in TFN’s clergy gathering in March in support of women’s access to birth control and state funding for family planning. She blogs regularly for the Houston Chronicle at Keep the Faith. Rev. Cooper also […]
Also posted in Beth Ellen Cooper, church and state, sex education, Steve Toth, TFN, war on women, Women's health
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Texas Lawmaker: Sex Ed Gets Teens ‘Hot and Bothered,’ Leads to Pregnancy
A reporter from the Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News Capitol bureau caught a Texas legislator arguing Tuesday night that sex education gets previously chaste teens so “hot and bothered” that they can’t even use contraception correctly after rushing out the door to do some unauthorized field testing. Check out the audio clip of the conversation among […]
Also posted in Bill Zedler, Donna Howard, sex education, Steve Toth, TFN
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Rape and Pregnancy: Right-Wing Politicians Just. Don’t. Get. It.
After last year’s embarrassments, how is it possible that right-wing politicians still say such profoundly ignorant things about rape? We sure don’t know. But Congressman Trent Franks, R-Ariz., did it again today. He was explaining why his proposed legislation banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy shouldn’t have exceptions for rape and incest. From the […]
Also posted in abortion, TFNEF
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Republican Lawmaker in Oklahoma Wants Politicians Out of Private Lives; What About GOP Lawmakers in Texas?
Oklahoma state Rep. Doug Cox, a physician who has delivered more than 800 babies, is frustrated with his Republican colleagues who want legislation limiting women’s access to both abortion and contraception. In a column in The Oklahoman newspaper, Cox asks with dismay: “What happened to the Republican Party that I joined? The party where conservative […]
Also posted in abortion, Cupid or stupid?, TFNEF, Women's health
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Texas Observer Report: State Failed to Spend Available Family Planning Money as Clinics Closed
It was bad enough that Texas lawmakers in 2011 cut funding for family planning services for low-income women by two-thirds. Scores of family planning clinics closed around the state, and tens of thousands of women lost access to those critical services. But now the Texas Observer reports that the state even failed to spend federal […]
Also posted in family planning, TFN
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Politicians Should Stop Meddling in Texans’ Private Lives
Limiting access to birth control. Telling gays and lesbians who they should love and who they can’t. Opposing effective sex education for teens. Politicians are way too interested in the private sex lives of ordinary Texans. Just who elected them to play Cupid, anyway? Go to cupidorstupid.org to join a new Texas Freedom Network Education […]
Also posted in LGBT issues, marriage, sex education, TFNEF
2 Comments
Proposed Texas House Resolution on Birth Control Sends a Message on Women’s Health Care
On Wednesday the Texas House Select Committee on Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility will consider a resolution condemning the federal requirement that most employers include coverage for contraception in health insurance for their employees. HCR 32, by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, lacks the force of law, but its passage would send an alarming message that says […]
Also posted in 2013 Texas Legislature, TFN
3 Comments