Defend women's right to birth control

English: The Supreme Court of the United States. Washington, D.C. Français : La Cour suprême des États-Unis. Washington D.C., États-Unis. ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬: Høyesterett i USA. Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Don’t let the Supreme Court block women’s access to birth control

Tell the Supreme Court: "Owners of corporations shouldn't be able to impose their religious beliefs on employees. It will set a dangerous precedent if you allow Hobby Lobby and other corporations to abuse religious exemptions in order to 'opt out' of complying with federal laws they don’t agree with. If you rule for corporations at the expense of our citizens and our Constitution, the very legitimacy of the Supreme Court will be called into question." Automatically add your name:

Dear Jim, Owners of corporations shouldn't be able to impose their religious beliefs on employees. But that's what might happen if the Supreme Court rules in favor of a retailer called Hobby Lobby, which is suing the federal government for the right to deny its women employees health care coverage that includes contraception. Tell the Supreme Court: Corporations aren't people. They can't have religious beliefs, and they shouldn't be allowed to discriminate. Don't let employers opt-out of complying with our federal laws. Click here to sign the petition automatically. This isn't just about birth control. It's about a whole lot more. The right-wing wants to radically change how our laws are interpreted. If any corporation – not a church or a business primarily engaged in a religious purpose, a corporation – can simply exempt itself from complying with federal laws by claiming they offend its management’s moral sensibilities, there will be no way to protect the rights of women, gays and other minorities in the workplace. The Obama administration made every reasonable effort to compromise with religiously-affiliated employers when implementing rules to expand women's access to birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). His administration added a broad exemption for religiously-affiliated employers (like churches) and the rule doesn't even apply to employers with less than 50 employees. Tell the Supreme Court: Corporations shouldn't be allowed to impose religious beliefs on their employees. It’s women and their doctors, not their bosses, who should get to make decisions about women's health. Even though the justices of the Supreme Court hold lifetime appointments, the court is not immune from influence by public opinion. There is a real concern at the Supreme Court around maintaining institutional legitimacy. This was likely a key factor in Chief Justice John Roberts’ vote to prevent overturning the Affordable Care Act earlier this year. The Department of Health and Human Services and the medical community agree that providing no-cost birth control is an essential part of preventive health care for women. And Kathleen Sebelius, the director of HHS, said that providing birth control at no cost to women should be like "covering flu shots." Even 82% of Catholics believe that birth control is morally acceptable. We need to send the message that there will be massive push-back against the Court and Congress if the Supreme Court overturns this widely popular provision of health care reform. We had to wage a fierce battle to make sure the right-wing wasn't successful in rolling back access to birth control as preventative medicine. Their vehicle of choice – let employers "opt out" with a so-called conscience clause. But this “conscience clause” was just an excuse for refusing to follow federal law. If we were to allow employers to opt out of paying health care costs for women employees would we also have to allow them to refuse to pay for coverage for HIV medication? Or oppose the coverage of certain vaccines? CREDO members submitted over 200,000 comments to the White House and the Department of Human Services in defense of preventative care for women, and made over 5,000 phone calls to defend equal access to health care without employer interference. We can't let the Supreme Court roll back our hard won gains. Make sure that the Supreme Court hears that the vast majority of Americans believe that owners of corporations shouldn't be allowed to impose religious beliefs on their employees. It’s women and their doctors, not their bosses, who should get to make decisions about women's health. Click the link below to sign automatically: http://act.credoaction.com/go/2827?t=6&akid=9537.3371131.9ChxD4 Thank you for standing up for women's access to birth control. Becky Bond, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets Automatically add your name: Learn more about this campaign

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