Trump’s election was wildly celebrated by evangelical fanatics across the nation, and that cheering was certainly related to their potent new weapon in the Republican war on women. Having an anti-women’s rights misogynist in the Oval Office is a serious threat to women at the federal level, but more so at the state level. With an anti-women’s rights administration appointing an anti-women’s rights religious attorney general, it is certain the DOJ will always support Republicans’ anti-women legislation. Women who live in solidly red states are in the deepest trouble, but only if they object to religious Republicans aiding evangelical efforts to control their reproductive health choices.
Women in California are a governor’s signature away from receiving a lifeline in the form of legislation that forbids religious employers from forcing women to sign religious “statements of faith” or “codes of conduct” in order to keep their employment. The legislation also prohibits employers from retaliating against a [female] worker for making reproductive health decisions religious employers object to. The truth is that the religious fanatics generally object to women making any reproductive health decisions that prevent them from becoming perpetual birth machines, and it is why the California legislation was necessary.
The legislation, AB 569 (Discrimination: Reproductive Health), was introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) who said religious employers have been regularly discriminating against female workers' based on their reproductive health-care decisions in California. The legislation was sponsored by NARAL, Pro-Choice California, and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and 50 different organizations. It is such a dangerous situation for women that sixteen faith-based groups signed a letter supporting the anti-discrimination legislation.
The legislation simply protects workers from discrimination or retaliation for “using any medications, medical service, or device related to reproductive health.” The legislation is particularly necessary now because a few months ago Trump signed an executive order greatly “expanding evangelicals’ religious imposition” authority while surrounded by that misogynistic group of Catholic nuns still furious that the Affordable Care Act contained contraception coverage; coverage they assert is a gross unconstitutional violation of their religious freedom to control women’s reproductive health.
The bill’s sponsor said the legislation was necessary to stop religious employers from “infringing on a woman’s right to make personal decisions about birth control and pregnancy.” Religious employers, and not just “church-affiliated” organizations, are not shy about their intent to control women’s reproductive choices.
It is important to remember that the private company Hobby Lobby is not a “religious organization” or “church-affiliated.” And yet the private company’s owners convinced the conservative wing of the Supreme Court that contraceptives, including birth control pills, are “abortifacients” and tantamount to having an abortion. The Court’s “religious imposition” ruling was founded on Hobby Lobby’s owners’ “religious belief” that contraceptives are abortions, and because that was “their heartfelt religious belief,” the conservative Court granted “religious employers” everywhere the legal right to deny women’s access to contraceptives.
Ms. Gonzalez Fletcher wasn’t stretching the truth when she said religious employers discriminate against women based on their reproductive healthcare decisions. For example, a San Diego Christian College required a financial aid specialist to sign a document pledging to not to have premarital sex, and then fired her for “becoming pregnant” and then used her “pledge” as proof she violated the employer’s religious code.
In liberal San Francisco, the Archbishop attempted to force teachers to sign a “code of conduct” pledging they would refrain from using birth control or attempting to conceive by artificial insemination; fortunately for female teachers in San Francisco the attempt failed, but the attempt should have incited a massive outrage. Instead, California Democrats had to pass legislation banning those religious imposition efforts.
The bill’s sponsor said in a statement:
“Women in this country have been fired for getting pregnant while unmarried, for using in-vitro fertilization and for other personal reasons related to their own reproductive health. No woman should ever lose a job for exercising her right to decide when, how, or whether to have a family.”
Sadly, the minority religious fanatics running the United States vehemently disagree with the legislation and one of the bill’s primary opponents is a revolting religious outfit, the California Family Council. It is the policy arm of the Family Research Council and its president was livid that pro-life employers mihgt be prohibited from literally forcing their religious beliefs down their employees throats. Seriously, the California Family Council president, Jonathan Keller said:
“Every organization that promotes a pro-life message must be able to require its employees to practice what they [the employers] preach. It is unconscionable for any politician to attempt to abridge this sacrosanct religious liberty by inserting themselves into the employee-employer relationship.”
Keller, like his dirty theocratic ilk, firmly believes that evangelicals’ “sacrosanct religious liberty” includes controlling women’s lives by way of controlling their reproductive decisions. That bizarro-world version of “religious liberty” is fervently embraced by Catholic organizations and they present a monumental threat to women’s ‘personal liberty” to decide when, how, and if they decided to give birth.
Over the last few years Catholic organizations have been buying up hospitals, clinics, medical networks, and physicians groups and demanding fealty to the Catholic Hospitals Association religious regulations regarding women’s reproductive health choices. After coming under Catholic ownership, those physicians, hospitals, clinics etc. are required to abide by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs). The Vatican-inspired ERDs strictly forbid abortions, even in the case of rape or incest, and forbid access to contraceptives, sterilization procedures, in vitro fertilization or the use of sperm or egg donors.
If California Governor Jerry Brown signs AB-569, women will have a measure of protection from religious employers who believe infringing on a woman's right to make personal reproductive decisions is just part of their “sacrosanct religious liberty.”
This dirty religious imposition situation is not going to get any better for women and California women may want to put any wild celebrations on hold. No doubt if Governor Brown signs AB-569 there will be a flurry of church-funded lawsuits to protect employers’ right to impose their religion on their employees to control their reproductive lives. What should give every American pause is that in 21st Century America a state legislature has to pass legislation banning employers from attempting to control a woman’s reproductive life. It should also leave Americans asking exactly what kind of nation’s leaders advocate allowing a fanatical religious sect to control women under the aegis of the federal government that is not the Taliban.
h/t Rewire