[Dear friends, Have you been confused by the media recently making it sound as if Republicans and specifically conservatives in Congress and elsewhere are somehow fighting a woman's right to contraception?!! iAre you wondering, "Where did this come from?" Well, as the article below (and the 2 others that follow - one of which includes a petiton you can sign to add your voice on this issue - as well as dozens besides I could also post)indicate, this has been nothing more than a biased media creating a smokescreen for what is really going on - as you know, nothing new these days. All of this is just a reminder that we really have to be questioning just how the media we view is framing the news and why they report what stories they do.]
The Leading Edge of Tyranny: A Shameful DebateBy: Chuck Colson, Breakpoint: March 5, 2012
We are witnessing a crime being committed before our very eyes. The Senate has desecrated the Bill of Rights.
Last Thursday, the Senate rejected by a 51-48 vote a bill that would have permitted religious employers to refuse to cover medical services that violated their moral and religious convictions. Have they even read the Bill of Rights?
Now strange things happen when issues are politicized, I know that. That’s not shocking. What is shocking — and downright shameful — is the deceitful way supporters of the Administration’s mandate have framed the issue.
They say this is all about protecting women’s access to contraception. This is, folks, the biggest red herring I’ve seen in politics. It’s garbage, and they know it. Shame on them. Nobody is saying they shouldn’t have access to contraceptives. Any woman can go to virtually any drug store and purchase them. Even drugs that induce abortion. As I told you last week, these things are even available in vending machines now!
How dare Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington say that this is about “curtailing rights to access that women already have"! That’s a bold-faced misrepresentation of what’s going on here, and she and her colleagues know it.
The media is no better. The New York Times opined that the measure would have “crippled the expansion of preventive health care in America.” What hogwash! And the Times is even furthering the lie that pregnancy is akin to tuberculosis: a disease that needs to be prevented. Then the Times went on to accuse the Republicans of a relentless effort to “deny women access to essential health services.” Give me a break!
Even worse, this intentional and vicious misinformation campaign is working. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 63% of Americans support requiring insurers to cover contraception, while 33% oppose.
How sad is it the American public is so easily duped.
Folks, women’s access to contraception is not the issue here. They have it. In spades. What’s really going on is that the Obama Administration wants women to have access to FREE contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. It’s an ideological imperative for them. And such niceties as the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom just don’t matter in comparison.
Where does this end? I’m an 80-year-old man who has to take aspirin for his heart. Should the government pay for the aspirin I need? If they don’t pay for it, would they be denying my access to aspirin? Come on.
If the Obama Administration has the votes to mandate free contraception, well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. But the Administration and its allies do not have the right to violate the First Amendment — to force religious organizations to pay for procedures or drugs that violate the tenets of their faith.That’s why we have the Bill of Rights: to protect our fundamental freedoms. As Senator Orrin Hatch said, “When we start going down this road, beware. . . That's when tyranny really begins. Those of you who vote against this amendment are playing with fire." He’s right.
Folks, tell your friends, your neighbors, and your legislators that women already have complete access to contraception — and to say otherwise nothing is a deliberate misrepresentation of what’s going on.
Make no mistake: What we are witnessing is indeed the leading edge of tyranny.
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[The following synopsis of the issue below includes a chance for you to sign a petition to voice your opposition to what is going on. You will note a link to it near the end of this article. I hope you'll add your name to it as I have.]
Grass Rooots Nation: alert@grassrootsnation.com March 5, 2012
This spin is nothing more than a left-wing media lie. The real issue at stake is much more fundamental than the specific procedures that have dominated the debate. The real question is, can government require citizens and companies to provide and pay for government mandates that violate their conscience and deeply-held beliefs?
Obama says, "YES!" the statist government can override the deeply-held beliefs of ctizens and their organizations. Harry Reid says, "YES!" The leftist media says, "YES!" And now we face a fundamental and direct assault on the liberties of every American.
Consider what will happen if Obama's violation of our constitutional rights of conscience is allowed to stand:
+ + Faith-Based Hospitals, Universities And Social Service Agencies Will Shut Their Doors.
This may sound extreme, but leaders in the Catholic church are already warning that Obama's mandate will cause Catholic hospitals and unversities to shut down rather than pay for the violation of their rights of conscience. Cardinal Francis George, who resides in Chicago, said the mandate means:
This year, the Catholic Church in the United States is being told she must “give up” her health care institutions, her universities and many of her social service organizations.... Why does a governmental administrative decision now mean the end of institutions that have been built up over several generations from small donations, often from immigrants, and through the services of religious women and men and others who wanted to be part of the church’s mission in healing and education?
Since religious organizations provide a significant percentage of all health care services (Catholic hospitals alone account for 20% of hospital beds) this could impact millions of jobs and the health care services for tens of millions of Americans.
+ + Business Owners Will Be Forced To Fund Any Health Procedure Obama's Team Decides Must Be Covered
The ObamaCare law leaves the ultimate decision making on what health services must be carried and covered to government bureaucrats. Millions of Christian business owners will be forced by Obama to offer and pay for services which violate their First Amendment religious liberties.
+ + Employees Will See Their Rights Trampled
Employees who do not support certain health services because of moral or religious reasons will be forced through co-pays and insurance cost sharing to fund these services.
+ + Pandora's Box Is Opened
Beyond ObamaCare and these HHS Mandates, this gross violation of our rights opens up "Pandora's Box" for statist government leaders to, at their discretion, overrun the constitutional rights of citizens.
The fact is, these HHS Mandates are the inevitable result of the unconstitutional ObamaCare law and a statist regime that does not respect our fundamental liberties. And it's just the beginning.
That's why Grassfire Nation is launching this citizen "Petition In Defense Of Rights Of Conscience." This petition supports efforts to reverse the ObamaCare HHS mandates. More fundamentally, this petition opposes any effort by statist government leaders to violate our rights of conscience. Please go here to read the petition and sign:
http://www.grassfire.com/214/petition.asp
Even though Harry Reid's Senate struck down the "Rights Of Conscience" provision, this battle is far from over. The next major action is expected in the House, where similar language to the Blunt amendment will likely come up for a vote later this month... Steve Elliott, Grassfire Nation
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Religious Liberty Under AttackMike Brownfield, The Heritage Foundation; February 22, 2012
ttp://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/22/morning-bell-religious-liberty-under-attack/
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