April 26, 2012 06:06 AM UTC

Senate Memorial 003...Ugh.

• 6 Comments
• by: jeantinley

I felt utter disgust when I heard that this piece of tripe had reared its ugly head.”Rights of Conscience”? You’re kidding, right? The Blunt Amendment failed–and now Colorado attempts to pass its own version? What rot.

I have several objections to this nonsensical bill. The first thing that came to mind is this quote from Jamie Raskin: “Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn’t place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.”

Exactly.

Raskin is correct, yet Colorado’s Republican Senators seem determined to ignore that. Rather than listening to their constituents, even Republicans such as myself, woe is me, they are bending to the heavy pressure from religious organizations that nag their parishioners to pester the Senators. A firm-minded Senator would inform the nag that there is separation of Church and State, and that is what our Founding Fathers intended. Instead, they apparently crumble like stale cookies.

Another strong objection that I have is that, quite simply, I don’t care what “moral conscience” an employer has. My view of “conscience” is that I live my life so that when I die, I face my Maker and He will judge whether I am worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What I do on Earth is MY business, because God gave us free will.

An employer should not, under any circumstances, obstruct a woman’s access to health care and particularly to birth control. HER family, her finances, her choice. I have two planned and much-loved children, thanks to birth control. Not ten. And the pills were covered by my employer, first, and later, my husband’s. That is the way it should be, and always remain. Family planning should be left to women. We know what is best.

And I won’t even get into the obscene invasion of privacy that this bill would involve, other than to say it is a potential nightmare. A woman would need to EXPLAIN why she needs a prescription? To her EMPLOYER? NO. None of their business. That is between a woman and her doctor. Tough noogies about the employer’s “moral conscience.” You do NOT get to impose your conscience on someone who works for you. At the end of the day, employees go home. Basically, this is another sickening example of an attempt to control and humiliate women, and punish them for having sex that is not purely for procreation. End of story.