More Law Suits Over Coverage of Birth Control

A Flood of Suits Fights Coverage of Birth Control
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/health/religious-groups-and-employers-battle-contraception-mandate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=us

    While reading The New York Times today I saw an article that caught my attention, the title read “A Flood of Suits Fights Coverage of Birth Control” and I decided to investigate a bit further. This particular article was about the debate on whether or not religiously affiliated organizations should be responsible for women’s contraceptives. In the article there was more insight into why these religiously affiliated organizations were refusing to pay for the women's health insurance cost rather then how this decision would affect women in the long run. Many of these businesses say that their First Amendment right (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof” )is being broken by being forced to supply women with birth control such as the morning after pill. The groups who oppose President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act include Roman Catholics, Evangelics, and Mennonites, they believe that the morning after pill is equivalent to an abortion which they see as morally wrong. On the other side of the argument is women who believe that it’s their right to choose whether or not they would like to use this form of contraception and some who need it cannot afford it. Some might  say this issue is oppressive towards women because it takes control and options away from them and their bodies. It puts the control into the hands of Congress and the Supreme Court, which is made up of mainly men. The article states that the decision most likely will come down to which side the Judge falls on either they are “sympathetic to women’s sexual autonomy” or “more concerned with religious liberty”. According to Judy Waxmen who is the vice president of the National Women’s Law Center “Ninety-nine percent of women use contraceptives at some point in their lives”. She is a supporter of the bill and believes that it “affects the health of women and babies”. To me it seems that since almost all women already use a form of contraceptives and it is beneficial to their health it is important that this bill supporting a women’s right to choose what she wants to do with her body is of high importance.